A warning for those interested in CARE classrooms

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:teachers are very concerned that the cares classrooms will open and no one will get sick and then even more people will ask why teachers arent back in the classroom.

No teacher I know thinks that. They are concerned about the safety of the kids in the room. At my school less than 25% of the people accepted the inperson spots. This is upper NW. so I’m not sure what you are talking about.

My school is in NE and only 40 kids have accepted in person spots out of about 170 spots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:teachers are very concerned that the cares classrooms will open and no one will get sick and then even more people will ask why teachers arent back in the classroom.

No teacher I know thinks that. They are concerned about the safety of the kids in the room. At my school less than 25% of the people accepted the inperson spots. This is upper NW. so I’m not sure what you are talking about.

My school is in NE and only 40 kids have accepted in person spots out of about 170 spots.

Either you are mistaken or this is a lie. No school will have that many open spots considering it’s only one classroom per grades PK3-5, each capped at 10-12 depending on the grade. Do the math...

[Anonymous]

A WARNING from the WTU! Spooooooky!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:teachers are very concerned that the cares classrooms will open and no one will get sick and then even more people will ask why teachers arent back in the classroom.

No teacher I know thinks that. They are concerned about the safety of the kids in the room. At my school less than 25% of the people accepted the inperson spots. This is upper NW. so I’m not sure what you are talking about.

My school is in NE and only 40 kids have accepted in person spots out of about 170 spots.

Either you are mistaken or this is a lie. No school will have that many open spots considering it’s only one classroom per grades PK3-5, each capped at 10-12 depending on the grade. Do the math...

Maybe the poster is thinking of in-person with teacher plus a CARES classroom? That could get up to 170.

E.g., say 10 kids for the classroom with teachers, 8 grades, that gets to 80 spots. Then an additional CARES classroom per grade for another 80 spots.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:teachers are very concerned that the cares classrooms will open and no one will get sick and then even more people will ask why teachers arent back in the classroom.

No teacher I know thinks that. They are concerned about the safety of the kids in the room. At my school less than 25% of the people accepted the inperson spots. This is upper NW. so I’m not sure what you are talking about.

My school is in NE and only 40 kids have accepted in person spots out of about 170 spots.

Either you are mistaken or this is a lie. No school will have that many open spots considering it’s only one classroom per grades PK3-5, each capped at 10-12 depending on the grade. Do the math...

Maybe the poster is thinking of in-person with teacher plus a CARES classroom? That could get up to 170.

E.g., say 10 kids for the classroom with teachers, 8 grades, that gets to 80 spots. Then an additional CARES classroom per grade for another 80 spots.

But... the CARES spots haven't even been offered yet, yes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:teachers are very concerned that the cares classrooms will open and no one will get sick and then even more people will ask why teachers arent back in the classroom.

No teacher I know thinks that. They are concerned about the safety of the kids in the room. At my school less than 25% of the people accepted the inperson spots. This is upper NW. so I’m not sure what you are talking about.

I will happily accept an in-person slot at an upper NW school, FWIW. It would mean driving across town twice a day but it would be worth it if my kid was in a classroom with a teacher. And preferable to our current plan of forking over all of our savings to a private school so that our struggling kid can get her basic educational needs met.

I hear you but the people who are actually enrolled in the school are not interested in the spots.

We're at an upper NW school, and we'd take an in-person spot (but not a CARES classroom spot). My understanding was that if the families on the first list turned down the spots, they'd move down the list and offer spots until they were full.

Correct. My school went through the entire list. There is no one left to call

The entire grade turned in person down? Or just those families with kids with IEPs, ELL, at risk?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just advice. DCPS’ CARES classrooms will be 11 children learning on a tablet, while 1-2 adults who are not teachers will watch them. DCPS has 5, really 4, days to find and hire and train these people and also do background checks..let’s talk about DCPS history with background checks...


Last summer some of you may remember when an after school staff meme we assaulted and had an inappropriate relationship with a student. Not only was a background check never done on the accused adult, but no background checks were completed by the Springboard program that year in most schools. This was a time when DCPS had more than enough time to follow proper procedure and didn’t. I can also tell you that a week or so before the news got out to the public DCPS tried to have the remaining after school teachers submit a background check. They scheduled a date for all the employees to get fingerprinted and then cancelled it. A day later the mess was in the news. These people do not care about the children they just needed to cover their ass. And when they couldn’t stop themselves from looking bad they just somehow made it disappear from the media..

This is all to say..DCPS DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR CHILD. You are throwing your child to the wolves with whoever else they can find off the street desperate for employment in a pandemic. They will not have background checks or fingerprints completed in 4 days time. Take your chances but I’ll be keeping me and mine safe from Covid AND predators by rejecting the seat.

DC reopening website says on timing for CARES: "This program begins the week of November 16 for students in PK3 to 1st grade, and the week of November 30 for students in grades 2-5. Students will attend school five days a week with a half-day on Wednesdays."

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

But... the CARES spots haven't even been offered yet, yes?

I thought this was the case but I was just texting with a teacher and she saw a family on Friday and they said they were offered an in person spot for one of their kids (like, with a teacher) and then got seats in CARES via sibling preference. So, I guess they were offered?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:teachers are very concerned that the cares classrooms will open and no one will get sick and then even more people will ask why teachers arent back in the classroom.

No teacher I know thinks that. They are concerned about the safety of the kids in the room. At my school less than 25% of the people accepted the inperson spots. This is upper NW. so I’m not sure what you are talking about.

My school is in NE and only 40 kids have accepted in person spots out of about 170 spots.

Either you are mistaken or this is a lie. No school will have that many open spots considering it’s only one classroom per grades PK3-5, each capped at 10-12 depending on the grade. Do the math...

I counted all in person classrooms

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:teachers are very concerned that the cares classrooms will open and no one will get sick and then even more people will ask why teachers arent back in the classroom.

No teacher I know thinks that. They are concerned about the safety of the kids in the room. At my school less than 25% of the people accepted the inperson spots. This is upper NW. so I’m not sure what you are talking about.

My school is in NE and only 40 kids have accepted in person spots out of about 170 spots.

Either you are mistaken or this is a lie. No school will have that many open spots considering it’s only one classroom per grades PK3-5, each capped at 10-12 depending on the grade. Do the math...

I counted all in person classrooms

To add, I wasn't given details on how many are CARES. I assume most are teacher slots but we have 2 or 3 grade levels not being in person.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just advice. DCPS’ CARES classrooms will be 11 children learning on a tablet, while 1-2 adults who are not teachers will watch them. DCPS has 5, really 4, days to find and hire and train these people and also do background checks..let’s talk about DCPS history with background checks...


Last summer some of you may remember when an after school staff meme we assaulted and had an inappropriate relationship with a student. Not only was a background check never done on the accused adult, but no background checks were completed by the Springboard program that year in most schools. This was a time when DCPS had more than enough time to follow proper procedure and didn’t. I can also tell you that a week or so before the news got out to the public DCPS tried to have the remaining after school teachers submit a background check. They scheduled a date for all the employees to get fingerprinted and then cancelled it. A day later the mess was in the news. These people do not care about the children they just needed to cover their ass. And when they couldn’t stop themselves from looking bad they just somehow made it disappear from the media..

This is all to say..DCPS DOES NOT CARE ABOUT YOUR CHILD. You are throwing your child to the wolves with whoever else they can find off the street desperate for employment in a pandemic. They will not have background checks or fingerprints completed in 4 days time. Take your chances but I’ll be keeping me and mine safe from Covid AND predators by rejecting the seat.

As a DC Govt employee who volunteered to work in the CARES classrooms, I find this highly offensive. We're not teachers, but we are skilled professionals. We're librarians, therapists, counselors, analysts and IT staff ( among other things). We're volunteering to try to help. We also have to pass background checks. We're not just some random people off of the street.

What are your expectations for what your classroom will be like? I can see this working okay if someone with your background were overseeing a classroom of 4th or 5th graders who are acclimated to the school environment and have the skill set to follow their DL lessons with relatively minimal assistance. But what about ECE? What would your expectations be if you are assigned a classroom of PK3 kids? Is that something you are ready to take on?

I'm not trying to diminish your training or discourage what you are doing. But I really don't understand how these CARES rooms are supposed to work for ECE and early elementary grades. Teachers at that level usually have specialized training in ECE and at least some experience with children that age (not just student teaching but often also time in daycares, private PK programs, etc.). It is extremely hard for me to imagine someone without that training handling a room full of 3, 4, or 5 year olds, all of whom will need help logging into ever lesson, and many of whom will not be able to pay attention for the duration of the lesson or will refuse altogether. Plus they have a ton of developmental needs that won't be served by DL at all -- can you provide that? Do you know what they are? How will you handled kids having accidents, tantrums, etc. All of that is extremely normal for these ages, but particularly likely when kids experience disruptions to their routines. Well these kids will have experienced numerous major disruptions over the last 6 months and are likely going to be as challenging as ECE kids ever are. Is this something you are ready for?

I could imagine sending a 4th grader or older to CARES, but anything younger and I'd be highly skeptical. It's just not designed for their needs at all.

Did you ever send your PK or K student to summer camp? Just curious if you applied these same standards across the board in all interactions with children. I think that doing something is better than doing nothing. It seems like the care classroom model is threatening to a lot of people but I don’t know why. It takes into account concerns about teacher safety, it brings in volunteers who are willing to do it, and it gives a bigger block of children an option of socializing and having access to services.

Exactly. Kids go to after school programs every day that have the same/lower hiring standards, not to mention MUCH bigger class ratios.

+100. These parent never voiced these concerns about aftercare and camps -- maybe they should have? But the hypocrisy is stunning.

Pretty sure aftercare and camps don’t involve staring at a screen while sometime is trying to teach them. And they were allowed to mingle, play with other kids and do group activities, as well as employing people who have worked with children before. For PK3-PK4 there is ONE HOUR of virtual instruction daily so the people staffing the CARES classrooms are going to have to find some way to figure out what they are doing for the other 5 and a half hours a day (for many of these children this will be their first experience of going to in-person school); and not for nothing, these are the ages where
potty accidents happen a lot, so these strangers who may have little or no experience with kids this age are going to be cleaning and changing these kids while also making sure the other 10 children are ok? This is not a good sotiation!)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:teachers are very concerned that the cares classrooms will open and no one will get sick and then even more people will ask why teachers arent back in the classroom.

No teacher I know thinks that. They are concerned about the safety of the kids in the room. At my school less than 25% of the people accepted the inperson spots. This is upper NW. so I’m not sure what you are talking about.

I will happily accept an in-person slot at an upper NW school, FWIW. It would mean driving across town twice a day but it would be worth it if my kid was in a classroom with a teacher. And preferable to our current plan of forking over all of our savings to a private school so that our struggling kid can get her basic educational needs met.

I hear you but the people who are actually enrolled in the school are not interested in the spots.

We're at an upper NW school, and we'd take an in-person spot (but not a CARES classroom spot). My understanding was that if the families on the first list turned down the spots, they'd move down the list and offer spots until they were full.

Correct. My school went through the entire list. There is no one left to call

The entire grade turned in person down? Or just those families with kids with IEPs, ELL, at risk?

The entire grade

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:teachers are very concerned that the cares classrooms will open and no one will get sick and then even more people will ask why teachers arent back in the classroom.

No teacher I know thinks that. They are concerned about the safety of the kids in the room. At my school less than 25% of the people accepted the inperson spots. This is upper NW. so I’m not sure what you are talking about.

I will happily accept an in-person slot at an upper NW school, FWIW. It would mean driving across town twice a day but it would be worth it if my kid was in a classroom with a teacher. And preferable to our current plan of forking over all of our savings to a private school so that our struggling kid can get her basic educational needs met.

I hear you but the people who are actually enrolled in the school are not interested in the spots.

We're at an upper NW school, and we'd take an in-person spot (but not a CARES classroom spot). My understanding was that if the families on the first list turned down the spots, they'd move down the list and offer spots until they were full.

Correct. My school went through the entire list. There is no one left to call

The entire grade turned in person down? Or just those families with kids with IEPs, ELL, at risk?

The entire grade

Name the school.

My kids are enrolled at an upper NW school, though we are currently doing distance learning from afar as I needed help to manage the youngest one while attempting to do my actual job, neither of my kids fit in any of the categories and I know of no one from our grades offered a spot.

[Anonymous]

Unless people start naming schools I call bs on all these stats.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Unless people start naming schools I call bs on all these stats.

I will come back and name the school Friday. I can’t throw my principal under the bus before they have sent out an email to parents.