DC Health removes cohort limits and mixing ban!

[Anonymous]

How would this affect lunchtime, where kids are unmasked? A bunch of kids eating indoors in fairly close proximity seems risky, but I'm not seeing any discussion of this in regard to the 3-ft versus 6-ft consideration.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So this new guidance empowers private schools, but what does it do for DCPS? Nothing says they have to take a more aggressive approach. I missed the presser conference but was there any suggestions that DCPS will be pursuing plans that have larger cohorts?

Such a lazy, reactionary, ignorant, retort. But, whatever.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How would this affect lunchtime, where kids are unmasked? A bunch of kids eating indoors in fairly close proximity seems risky, but I'm not seeing any discussion of this in regard to the 3-ft versus 6-ft consideration.

The risk is probably quite low for a short period of time with proper ventilation. Transmission remains rare on planes where people also all unmask at the same time when meals are served. The key is probably to avoid talking much.

[Anonymous]

Sounds like a really bad plan.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:How would this affect lunchtime, where kids are unmasked? A bunch of kids eating indoors in fairly close proximity seems risky, but I'm not seeing any discussion of this in regard to the 3-ft versus 6-ft consideration.

The risk is probably quite low for a short period of time with proper ventilation. Transmission remains rare on planes where people also all unmask at the same time when meals are served. The key is probably to avoid talking much.

Are there any studies that address this, though? Planes have particularly strong air circulation and filtration. I'm not confident that schools (my kids' or others) are going to reliably reproduce that. This seems like an important question to address with data. Ideally kids could just eat outside all the time, but that's unlikely to happen.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I actually don’t think moving it to 3ft distance does much. You may get another 2-3 kids in most classrooms. 3 ft is much bigger than what is the norm in my room. My school has tables and at most the kids are sitting 1 foot from each other. This is for the entire school.

tables will be replaced by desks, obv.

You have to be kidding, right? Who is going to pay to replace all the tables with desks?

I don’t care.

most schools I know that do tables push desks together anyway. your school’s failure to think ahead isn’t going to dictate what the rest of us can do.

So I’m currently teaching in person and I certainly am not trying to dictate what other schools can do. I was just pointing out that people probably need to keep their expectations in check about this change.

my school has desks, so no, I am not going to keep expectations in check in the face of nonsequiturs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually don’t think moving it to 3ft distance does much. You may get another 2-3 kids in most classrooms. 3 ft is much bigger than what is the norm in my room. My school has tables and at most the kids are sitting 1 foot from each other. This is for the entire school.

tables will be replaced by desks, obv.

You have to be kidding, right? Who is going to pay to replace all the tables with desks?

I don’t care.

most schools I know that do tables push desks together anyway. your school’s failure to think ahead isn’t going to dictate what the rest of us can do.

So I’m currently teaching in person and I certainly am not trying to dictate what other schools can do. I was just pointing out that people probably need to keep their expectations in check about this change.

my school has desks, so no, I am not going to keep expectations in check in the face of nonsequiturs.

Why are you so angry? If school has desks...wonderful. Lots of schools don’t. And parents at those schools need to keep their expectations in check. Not everything applies to you and not everything needs a response to say it doesn’t apply to you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So this new guidance empowers private schools, but what does it do for DCPS? Nothing says they have to take a more aggressive approach. I missed the presser conference but was there any suggestions that DCPS will be pursuing plans that have larger cohorts?

I’m not sure what you mean by empowering private schools but it leaves it up to DCPS schools to do what they want. This is actually what many schools have been asking the administration for - to unbind their hands on the guidelines because they want to open.

DCPS has a number of guidelines that are stricter than what OSSE or DOH requires.

+1

15 minute wait time between using the bathroom is a big hindrance.

Wondering about this and the now scheduled bathroom times and "No Passes* for my child with medical issues. Do I need a note from their doctor to say they need free access to the bathroom whenever needed.

I can't imagine the average prk-k-1-2 particularly after being home and "going" whenever that the restrictions will work out well in practice.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually don’t think moving it to 3ft distance does much. You may get another 2-3 kids in most classrooms. 3 ft is much bigger than what is the norm in my room. My school has tables and at most the kids are sitting 1 foot from each other. This is for the entire school.

tables will be replaced by desks, obv.

You have to be kidding, right? Who is going to pay to replace all the tables with desks?

We just got a ton of money from the feds for education

They are using that money for summer school or acceleration academies (as they are calling them).

You can not make up for 1- 1 1/2 years of learning loss in a 3-5-7 week summer program. They better be planning on offering tutoring, break programs and additional supports for many years to come.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:But still require 6 ft and mayor said "no comment" in response to question about changing distancing mandate in light of the research.

Hehe this will be in the FALL. The MOA that they signed requires 6ft. The WTU won't let them get away with that.

It requires 6’ between the students’ desks and the teacher’s work station. It does not require six feet between each of the student desks.

You're reading it incorrectly, it's indeed student desks.

Nope, at best it’s ambiguous so can go to arbitration which would strike it and default to the strict adherence to OSSE and DCHealth guidelines. - contract lawyer

That is good news, but is DCPS going to take this on for Term 4? I doubt it. I agree though that the way it is written it sounds like it applies to the distance between the teacher's desk and the students, which makes complete sense, and is how it is handled in other countries. Why should the teachers care how far the students are apart from each other? So maybe principals can just take it to mean what it appears to mean and work from there.

Maybe teachers care about students? And students’ families?

LOL

+1

You're both idiots. Teachers refusing to be forced to be your babysitters during a pandemic doesn't mean they don't care about students (though the way a-hole parents speak to/about them over the past year, if they give a damn about the families, they're better people than I would be).

Grow up.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually don’t think moving it to 3ft distance does much. You may get another 2-3 kids in most classrooms. 3 ft is much bigger than what is the norm in my room. My school has tables and at most the kids are sitting 1 foot from each other. This is for the entire school.

tables will be replaced by desks, obv.

You have to be kidding, right? Who is going to pay to replace all the tables with desks?

I don’t care.

most schools I know that do tables push desks together anyway. your school’s failure to think ahead isn’t going to dictate what the rest of us can do.

LOL. No one cares if you care. And yes, it will dictate, because they will not be expanding the percentage of kids in your privileged school and not poorer schools. All or nothing. Equity.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually don’t think moving it to 3ft distance does much. You may get another 2-3 kids in most classrooms. 3 ft is much bigger than what is the norm in my room. My school has tables and at most the kids are sitting 1 foot from each other. This is for the entire school.

tables will be replaced by desks, obv.

You have to be kidding, right? Who is going to pay to replace all the tables with desks?

We just got a ton of money from the feds for education

They are using that money for summer school or acceleration academies (as they are calling them).

You can not make up for 1- 1 1/2 years of learning loss in a 3-5-7 week summer program. They better be planning on offering tutoring, break programs and additional supports for many years to come.

"They'd better?" None of this is happening. Feel free to.pay for private.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually don’t think moving it to 3ft distance does much. You may get another 2-3 kids in most classrooms. 3 ft is much bigger than what is the norm in my room. My school has tables and at most the kids are sitting 1 foot from each other. This is for the entire school.

tables will be replaced by desks, obv.

You have to be kidding, right? Who is going to pay to replace all the tables with desks?

We just got a ton of money from the feds for education

They are using that money for summer school or acceleration academies (as they are calling them).

You can not make up for 1- 1 1/2 years of learning loss in a 3-5-7 week summer program. They better be planning on offering tutoring, break programs and additional supports for many years to come.

You can always get a few workbooks and supplement yourself.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:How would this affect lunchtime, where kids are unmasked? A bunch of kids eating indoors in fairly close proximity seems risky, but I'm not seeing any discussion of this in regard to the 3-ft versus 6-ft consideration.

Some schools have a cafeteria tent outside which totally makes sense. To me this would go much further to minimize risk than distancing and cohorting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I actually don’t think moving it to 3ft distance does much. You may get another 2-3 kids in most classrooms. 3 ft is much bigger than what is the norm in my room. My school has tables and at most the kids are sitting 1 foot from each other. This is for the entire school.

tables will be replaced by desks, obv.

You have to be kidding, right? Who is going to pay to replace all the tables with desks?

We just got a ton of money from the feds for education

They are using that money for summer school or acceleration academies (as they are calling them).

You can not make up for 1- 1 1/2 years of learning loss in a 3-5-7 week summer program. They better be planning on offering tutoring, break programs and additional supports for many years to come.

Yes that’s what the education research recommends. Individualized tutoring and resources to address individual circumstances. I’m not opposed to summer school or acceleration academies, but the learning losses are indeed going to take more than those to overcome.