Classrooms for kids <12 will close for 10 days w/ any positives; will there be virtual instruction?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janney's action in sending an entire cohort home is inconsistent with CDC guidelines for what type of "close contact" requires quarantine:

Exception: In the K–12 indoor classroom setting, the close contact definition excludes students who were within 3 to 6 feet of an infected student (laboratory-confirmed or a clinically compatible illness) where
- both students were engaged in consistent and correct use of well-fitting masks; and
- other K–12 school prevention strategies (such as universal and correct mask use, physical distancing, increased ventilation) were in place in the K–12 school setting.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/contact-tracing/contact-tracing-plan/appendix.html#contact

yes, it's inconsistent with CDC guidelines but it's consistent with the OSSE guidelines!
That's the whole point of this thread. The OSSE guidelines (as followed by Janney and previously this summer by Banneker) are what led to the quarantine.

The question remains: will the schools provide any instruction when these happens repeatedly during the school year?

The question remains: when is OSSE going to follow the CDC so we quit harming kids unnecessarily?

That is the million dollar question. It's what makes the Janney situation worrisome--it's proof that DCPS is following the policy now. It should be sobering to any of us with kids in DCPS. They're actually following this quarantine policy that is not really compatible with in-person school.

This teacher is equally worried; I get the impression DCPS thought this was all going away before august 30 and now are wildly unprepared for the inevitability of concurrent teaching

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janney's action in sending an entire cohort home is inconsistent with CDC guidelines for what type of "close contact" requires quarantine:

Exception: In the K–12 indoor classroom setting, the close contact definition excludes students who were within 3 to 6 feet of an infected student (laboratory-confirmed or a clinically compatible illness) where
- both students were engaged in consistent and correct use of well-fitting masks; and
- other K–12 school prevention strategies (such as universal and correct mask use, physical distancing, increased ventilation) were in place in the K–12 school setting.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/contact-tracing/contact-tracing-plan/appendix.html#contact

yes, it's inconsistent with CDC guidelines but it's consistent with the OSSE guidelines!
That's the whole point of this thread. The OSSE guidelines (as followed by Janney and previously this summer by Banneker) are what led to the quarantine.

The question remains: will the schools provide any instruction when these happens repeatedly during the school year?

The question remains: when is OSSE going to follow the CDC so we quit harming kids unnecessarily?

That is the million dollar question. It's what makes the Janney situation worrisome--it's proof that DCPS is following the policy now. It should be sobering to any of us with kids in DCPS. They're actually following this quarantine policy that is not really compatible with in-person school.

This teacher is equally worried; I get the impression DCPS thought this was all going away before august 30 and now are wildly unprepared for the inevitability of concurrent teaching

Bingo. I'm sure you are correct.
In early June it really seemed like this would be a complete non-issue for the fall. I know people who gave up private school spots then (deposits were due June 1).
And DCPS always seems to clue into a situation about 2 months after the rest of the world and then takes another month to begin to start thinking about addressing it.
So yeah, right around Oct 1 they'll start to think about needing a virtual option for kids who have been in back-to-back quarantines all fall.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the guidance differ for vaccinated children in a cohort with a positive case? Or are all kids quarantining for two weeks, regardless?

I'm not speaking with authority on the matter, however as a teacher I was allowed to return to the classroom last spring after a known exposure because I am vaccinated, while the ES students in the class where I was exposed stayed home. As a parent of a MS & HS student (both vaccinated) I hope there is some consideration for vaccinated students not having to quarantine. Unvaccinated teachers and quarantine, well I guess that's another reason to argue for vaccination status of teachers.

So let's say you are taking Calculus and a classmate tests positive. The vaccinated teacher and 12 vaccinated kids stay in school but the 15 kids who are unvaccinated go home for 10 days and learn nothing? Does the class continue to learn without them?

It's a good question. The natural solution would be to required everyone in the high school to be vaccinated....oh that's right DCPS is not going to require it. Hopefully Bowser will require vaccination for all DC govt employees which at least addresses the issue for DCPS. But she also wants a 3rd term so probably not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Janney's action in sending an entire cohort home is inconsistent with CDC guidelines for what type of "close contact" requires quarantine:

Exception: In the K–12 indoor classroom setting, the close contact definition excludes students who were within 3 to 6 feet of an infected student (laboratory-confirmed or a clinically compatible illness) where
- both students were engaged in consistent and correct use of well-fitting masks; and
- other K–12 school prevention strategies (such as universal and correct mask use, physical distancing, increased ventilation) were in place in the K–12 school setting.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/contact-tracing/contact-tracing-plan/appendix.html#contact

Your meds are too high if you believe that elementary classrooms ever meet these conditions.
"consistent and correct use of well-fitting masks" would require well-fitting masks, and I'm pretty sure 1 in 12 students tops is wearing that.
And when half the classroom takes a 10 minute mask break mid-morning for snacks, you've lost your universal and consistent mask use for the day. We may have gotten away with that with the original covid, but delta is not that forgiving.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janney's action in sending an entire cohort home is inconsistent with CDC guidelines for what type of "close contact" requires quarantine:

Exception: In the K–12 indoor classroom setting, the close contact definition excludes students who were within 3 to 6 feet of an infected student (laboratory-confirmed or a clinically compatible illness) where
- both students were engaged in consistent and correct use of well-fitting masks; and
- other K–12 school prevention strategies (such as universal and correct mask use, physical distancing, increased ventilation) were in place in the K–12 school setting.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/contact-tracing/contact-tracing-plan/appendix.html#contact

yes, it's inconsistent with CDC guidelines but it's consistent with the OSSE guidelines!
That's the whole point of this thread. The OSSE guidelines (as followed by Janney and previously this summer by Banneker) are what led to the quarantine.

The question remains: will the schools provide any instruction when these happens repeatedly during the school year?

The question remains: when is OSSE going to follow the CDC so we quit harming kids unnecessarily?

That is the million dollar question. It's what makes the Janney situation worrisome--it's proof that DCPS is following the policy now. It should be sobering to any of us with kids in DCPS. They're actually following this quarantine policy that is not really compatible with in-person school.

This teacher is equally worried; I get the impression DCPS thought this was all going away before august 30 and now are wildly unprepared for the inevitability of concurrent teaching

It’s not inevitable if you adopt a reasonable way to deal with positives, like other countries did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janney's action in sending an entire cohort home is inconsistent with CDC guidelines for what type of "close contact" requires quarantine:

Exception: In the K–12 indoor classroom setting, the close contact definition excludes students who were within 3 to 6 feet of an infected student (laboratory-confirmed or a clinically compatible illness) where
- both students were engaged in consistent and correct use of well-fitting masks; and
- other K–12 school prevention strategies (such as universal and correct mask use, physical distancing, increased ventilation) were in place in the K–12 school setting.

https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/php/contact-tracing/contact-tracing-plan/appendix.html#contact

yes, it's inconsistent with CDC guidelines but it's consistent with the OSSE guidelines!
That's the whole point of this thread. The OSSE guidelines (as followed by Janney and previously this summer by Banneker) are what led to the quarantine.

The question remains: will the schools provide any instruction when these happens repeatedly during the school year?

The question remains: when is OSSE going to follow the CDC so we quit harming kids unnecessarily?

That is the million dollar question. It's what makes the Janney situation worrisome--it's proof that DCPS is following the policy now. It should be sobering to any of us with kids in DCPS. They're actually following this quarantine policy that is not really compatible with in-person school.

This teacher is equally worried; I get the impression DCPS thought this was all going away before august 30 and now are wildly unprepared for the inevitability of concurrent teaching

Well, we still have last year's devices somewhere, don't we? Did we really not expect to use them this year at all?
Even without delta or concurrent, were we not going to have any continuity from last year as far as including independent learning via Clever-linked apps?
After encouraging kids to produce projects using PowerPoint, Zoom recordings, Word documents, were they going to paper and pencil for the whole school year?
That wouldn't have been reasonable anyway.
The kids should get those devices back at the beginning of the year (minus the school license Minecraft, if you care so much about test scores and screen time), and have them be integrated - with moderation - into kids' learning, so that an inevitable necessary transition is not so crazy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Does the guidance differ for vaccinated children in a cohort with a positive case? Or are all kids quarantining for two weeks, regardless?

I'm not speaking with authority on the matter, however as a teacher I was allowed to return to the classroom last spring after a known exposure because I am vaccinated, while the ES students in the class where I was exposed stayed home. As a parent of a MS & HS student (both vaccinated) I hope there is some consideration for vaccinated students not having to quarantine. Unvaccinated teachers and quarantine, well I guess that's another reason to argue for vaccination status of teachers.

So let's say you are taking Calculus and a classmate tests positive. The vaccinated teacher and 12 vaccinated kids stay in school but the 15 kids who are unvaccinated go home for 10 days and learn nothing? Does the class continue to learn without them?

It's a good question. The natural solution would be to required everyone in the high school to be vaccinated....oh that's right DCPS is not going to require it. Hopefully Bowser will require vaccination for all DC govt employees which at least addresses the issue for DCPS. But she also wants a 3rd term so probably not.

For the calculus example I see two potential scenarios, both of which are essentially distance learning:

Scenario 1: vaccinated kids and teacher at school, unvaccinated at home. Teacher teaches into computer in classroom, all students watch lesson on the computer

Scenario 2: due to ‘equity issues’ all students DL from home, teacher is forced to sit in an empty classroom or teacher’s lounge and teach into the computer

[Anonymous]

Janney's email to parents said: "Persons for whom we know were in close contact with the individual were immediately notified and provided guidance based on DC Health and CDC guidelines. Close contact is defined as: (1) being within approximately 6 feet (2 meters) of an individual with COVID-19 for a prolonged period of time (e.g., being in the same office or classroom as a positive and symptomatic individual)..."

Do they really think we are this dumb? Being in the same classroom as another kid DOES NOT mean you are within 6 feet of them. Are classrooms 6 feet large? Only one or two kids in a classroom, at most, will be within 6 feet of another child in the classroom for a prolonged period of time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm going to wait until I see what the plan is when this happens for actual school before I panic about the fact that there's no plan for remote summer school. Remote summer school, after the last year and a half, would really seem more like a punishment than anything else.

You are missing the point. Summer school is following the OSSE quarantine policy which is also in place for the upcoming school year.

Well that's not good.

Best opt out of testing!

Maybe you are joking, but we absolutely are opting out.

Of COURSE you are.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm going to wait until I see what the plan is when this happens for actual school before I panic about the fact that there's no plan for remote summer school. Remote summer school, after the last year and a half, would really seem more like a punishment than anything else.

You are missing the point. Summer school is following the OSSE quarantine policy which is also in place for the upcoming school year.

Well that's not good.

Best opt out of testing!

Maybe you are joking, but we absolutely are opting out.

Of COURSE you are.

I don’t understand this reaction. Are you supposing people are making an empty promise? Have you been paying attention at all or doing any reading?

[Anonymous]

Well, now I’m completely worried about this year being worse than last, if that was possible. I know other school districts didn’t close down classes frequently so I’m likely being paranoid. But other school districts don’t seem to be as dumb as DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Janney's email to parents said: "Persons for whom we know were in close contact with the individual were immediately notified and provided guidance based on DC Health and CDC guidelines. Close contact is defined as: (1) being within approximately 6 feet (2 meters) of an individual with COVID-19 for a prolonged period of time (e.g., being in the same office or classroom as a positive and symptomatic individual)..."

Do they really think we are this dumb? Being in the same classroom as another kid DOES NOT mean you are within 6 feet of them. Are classrooms 6 feet large? Only one or two kids in a classroom, at most, will be within 6 feet of another child in the classroom for a prolonged period of time.

I don't know about Janney, but the schools and camps I know aren't doing assigned seats with kids staying six feet apart all day.

I see kids going out to play, and not being asked to distance on the playground. I see teachers using structures like circle time, and centers that they didn't use when they first went back.

I would imagine at the end of the day, it's going to be hard for a teacher to remember who that kid sat next to at lunch, lined up behind on the way to recess, and played the math board game with during centers.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Janney's email to parents said: "Persons for whom we know were in close contact with the individual were immediately notified and provided guidance based on DC Health and CDC guidelines. Close contact is defined as: (1) being within approximately 6 feet (2 meters) of an individual with COVID-19 for a prolonged period of time (e.g., being in the same office or classroom as a positive and symptomatic individual)..."

Do they really think we are this dumb? Being in the same classroom as another kid DOES NOT mean you are within 6 feet of them. Are classrooms 6 feet large? Only one or two kids in a classroom, at most, will be within 6 feet of another child in the classroom for a prolonged period of time.

Also, this is not May 2020 school. Social distancing within the classrooms is long out the window. Look at the twitter photos showing off Summer school.
These photos suggest a dynamic of students and teachers changing tables and seat mates and moving about the room frequently throughout the day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Janney's email to parents said: "Persons for whom we know were in close contact with the individual were immediately notified and provided guidance based on DC Health and CDC guidelines. Close contact is defined as: (1) being within approximately 6 feet (2 meters) of an individual with COVID-19 for a prolonged period of time (e.g., being in the same office or classroom as a positive and symptomatic individual)..."

Do they really think we are this dumb? Being in the same classroom as another kid DOES NOT mean you are within 6 feet of them. Are classrooms 6 feet large? Only one or two kids in a classroom, at most, will be within 6 feet of another child in the classroom for a prolonged period of time.

I don't know about Janney, but the schools and camps I know aren't doing assigned seats with kids staying six feet apart all day.

I see kids going out to play, and not being asked to distance on the playground. I see teachers using structures like circle time, and centers that they didn't use when they first went back.

I would imagine at the end of the day, it's going to be hard for a teacher to remember who that kid sat next to at lunch, lined up behind on the way to recess, and played the math board game with during centers.

EXACTLY. We all wanted in person instruction, and this is what good in person instruction looks like. Its going to mean that the whole class is exposed to each other, or, like you said, its at least going to be hard to remember who.

[Anonymous]

As a dcps elementary teacher I think we’re all just going to have to keep our wits about us and be reasonable. Do we all eat lunch together in the cafeteria? No. Do we play outdoors with maybe one other class ( know that it’s not reasonable to expect that students will maintain distance at recess)? Probably. Three other classes? Probably not. If there’s a reported case in a classroom should whole class quarantine for 10 days? No. Let’s test whole class daily and remain in school. We should not be worrying about students carrying the virus home to adults because they should be vaccinated ( barring medical reasons)! Breakthrough infections are rare. We must be sensible here.