MCPS will now send kids home for ten days based on symptoms only

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree we are peaking or past peaking. And we are special because our vaccination rates are so high. We are the opposite end of the spectrum from Texas and Florida's vaccination rates

The only way we're going to actually know if we peaked is when the cases start going down consistently. It should be noted that we're about the same level as we were in the fall of 2020 before we saw the huge peak during November-January. I don't anticipate the caseload getting as high as it did last year due to the overall level of vaccinated individuals in the county but I I don't think it's going to get better anytime soon.

I cannot f****** wait for the pediatric vaccine to get approved

Between delta and school starting, there's an all-new peak which will be evident in a couple of weeks since mcps' testing is insufficient but community spread umber should make it obvious within 3-4 weeks

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The VA parents are hoping in person fails to justify their choice. Don’t fall for their click bait. It will be fine. A little messy for another month but they everyone will hit their stride and even if the stupid policy stands individual teachers will learn to give Larla a few mins to see if her tummy ache goes away before sending to nurse.

You have never been a teacher in public school. Ask Larla to wait 10 min to go to the nurse and her mom will email the principal that you are guilty of child abuse.

Well then all MCPs’ policy does then is force parents to tell their kids not to mention anything unless it’s really really bad. Not good.

Just come up with a code symptom to use. If they need to come home, they'll always say it's an ear ache.

That would mean the kid comes home. The parents want the kid to stay at school. Maybe they can’t miss work. Or this is the hill they want us all to die on.

What did you do when your kid was in daycare? There are strict protocols for fevers and other symptoms that require kids to be picked up and kept home. It always confused me how kids were no longer required to be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school once they hit kindergarten. Instead of requesting policy changes that put kids (and the greater community) at risk why not rally to change family leave policies for the working class?

You are missing the point (and fwiw, I believe the 24 hours fever free policy has always applied). It’s not about your own kid being sick and being tested. It’s about the entire class missing school until that happens.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree we are peaking or past peaking. And we are special because our vaccination rates are so high. We are the opposite end of the spectrum from Texas and Florida's vaccination rates

The only way we're going to actually know if we peaked is when the cases start going down consistently. It should be noted that we're about the same level as we were in the fall of 2020 before we saw the huge peak during November-January. I don't anticipate the caseload getting as high as it did last year due to the overall level of vaccinated individuals in the county but I I don't think it's going to get better anytime soon.

I cannot f****** wait for the pediatric vaccine to get approved

Between delta and school starting, there's an all-new peak which will be evident in a couple of weeks since mcps' testing is insufficient but community spread umber should make it obvious within 3-4 weeks

To date studies have shown that transmission in schools is no higher than out of schools.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree we are peaking or past peaking. And we are special because our vaccination rates are so high. We are the opposite end of the spectrum from Texas and Florida's vaccination rates

The only way we're going to actually know if we peaked is when the cases start going down consistently. It should be noted that we're about the same level as we were in the fall of 2020 before we saw the huge peak during November-January. I don't anticipate the caseload getting as high as it did last year due to the overall level of vaccinated individuals in the county but I I don't think it's going to get better anytime soon.

I cannot f****** wait for the pediatric vaccine to get approved

Between delta and school starting, there's an all-new peak which will be evident in a couple of weeks since mcps' testing is insufficient but community spread umber should make it obvious within 3-4 weeks

Nah, cases will begin coming down soon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree we are peaking or past peaking. And we are special because our vaccination rates are so high. We are the opposite end of the spectrum from Texas and Florida's vaccination rates

The only way we're going to actually know if we peaked is when the cases start going down consistently. It should be noted that we're about the same level as we were in the fall of 2020 before we saw the huge peak during November-January. I don't anticipate the caseload getting as high as it did last year due to the overall level of vaccinated individuals in the county but I I don't think it's going to get better anytime soon.

I cannot f****** wait for the pediatric vaccine to get approved

Given the zero-risk mentality that is so pervasive in MCPS, I have little confidence that will be enough. It won't matter if very few kids are actually getting sick. Raw case counts combined with the occasional national news story about a kid with a breakthrough infection will be us stuck in this loop for a long time.

This. Parents are gullible if they believe once their children are vaccinated the needle will move appreciably. The drumbeat of “but you can still COVID even when vaccinated” will start for kids just like it had for adults. We are going to have to fight to keep kids in school for years to come sadly.

Except MCPS said their own policy was that you don't have to quarantine if you are vaccinated. So at least my vaccinated kid can still go to school if another classmate has a symptom and if she has to get a negative test we can run her up to a kaiser drive though clinic and get the results within 8-10 hours.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This is a very responsible policy. If you have symptoms of Covid, you need to rule out Covid before coming back to school. Every reputable private school does the same thing. Sorry they don’t trust non-physician parents to properly determine if kids have a cold or Covid. Given how Covid presents in kids, the schools have no choice but to follow this policy. They could certainly make it easier for kids without insurance to get tested at school but there is no alternative to this policy that is in the interest of health and safety of the community.

Does every single private school also quarantine the entire class until the person with the symptom has ruled our COVID?

I didn’t think so.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The VA parents are hoping in person fails to justify their choice. Don’t fall for their click bait. It will be fine. A little messy for another month but they everyone will hit their stride and even if the stupid policy stands individual teachers will learn to give Larla a few mins to see if her tummy ache goes away before sending to nurse.

You have never been a teacher in public school. Ask Larla to wait 10 min to go to the nurse and her mom will email the principal that you are guilty of child abuse.

Well then all MCPs’ policy does then is force parents to tell their kids not to mention anything unless it’s really really bad. Not good.

Just come up with a code symptom to use. If they need to come home, they'll always say it's an ear ache.

That would mean the kid comes home. The parents want the kid to stay at school. Maybe they can’t miss work. Or this is the hill they want us all to die on.

What did you do when your kid was in daycare? There are strict protocols for fevers and other symptoms that require kids to be picked up and kept home. It always confused me how kids were no longer required to be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school once they hit kindergarten. Instead of requesting policy changes that put kids (and the greater community) at risk why not rally to change family leave policies for the working class?

You are missing the point (and fwiw, I believe the 24 hours fever free policy has always applied). It’s not about your own kid being sick and being tested. It’s about the entire class missing school until that happens.

The rule is still in place. It also applies to school staff. Ate up most of my sick and personal leave when my own kids were young and I often ended the year with a negative leave balance. I didn’t start saving any leave until my youngest was in MS and could stay home by herself if mildly ill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The VA parents are hoping in person fails to justify their choice. Don’t fall for their click bait. It will be fine. A little messy for another month but they everyone will hit their stride and even if the stupid policy stands individual teachers will learn to give Larla a few mins to see if her tummy ache goes away before sending to nurse.

You have never been a teacher in public school. Ask Larla to wait 10 min to go to the nurse and her mom will email the principal that you are guilty of child abuse.

Well then all MCPs’ policy does then is force parents to tell their kids not to mention anything unless it’s really really bad. Not good.

Just come up with a code symptom to use. If they need to come home, they'll always say it's an ear ache.

That would mean the kid comes home. The parents want the kid to stay at school. Maybe they can’t miss work. Or this is the hill they want us all to die on.

What did you do when your kid was in daycare? There are strict protocols for fevers and other symptoms that require kids to be picked up and kept home. It always confused me how kids were no longer required to be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school once they hit kindergarten. Instead of requesting policy changes that put kids (and the greater community) at risk why not rally to change family leave policies for the working class?

The debate is not about your kid quarantining when symptomatic. It is about all kids quarantining when one kid has a symptom which will likely mean many fewer in person days. Also I thought we vaccinated adults so the greater community was not at risk. And while more leave for the working class would be great, having kids doing zoom school for extended periods is problematic for many families of all social classes including MC and UMC families with in person jobs or telework jobs that actually require them to get work done. Not everyone’s telework job is just checking email once an hour to make it look like you are doing something or attending zoom meetings on your phone on mute while someone else leads it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The VA parents are hoping in person fails to justify their choice. Don’t fall for their click bait. It will be fine. A little messy for another month but they everyone will hit their stride and even if the stupid policy stands individual teachers will learn to give Larla a few mins to see if her tummy ache goes away before sending to nurse.

You have never been a teacher in public school. Ask Larla to wait 10 min to go to the nurse and her mom will email the principal that you are guilty of child abuse.

Well then all MCPs’ policy does then is force parents to tell their kids not to mention anything unless it’s really really bad. Not good.

Just come up with a code symptom to use. If they need to come home, they'll always say it's an ear ache.

That would mean the kid comes home. The parents want the kid to stay at school. Maybe they can’t miss work. Or this is the hill they want us all to die on.

What did you do when your kid was in daycare? There are strict protocols for fevers and other symptoms that require kids to be picked up and kept home. It always confused me how kids were no longer required to be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school once they hit kindergarten. Instead of requesting policy changes that put kids (and the greater community) at risk why not rally to change family leave policies for the working class?

The debate is not about your kid quarantining when symptomatic. It is about all kids quarantining when one kid has a symptom which will likely mean many fewer in person days. Also I thought we vaccinated adults so the greater community was not at risk. And while more leave for the working class would be great, having kids doing zoom school for extended periods is problematic for many families of all social classes including MC and UMC families with in person jobs or telework jobs that actually require them to get work done. Not everyone’s telework job is just checking email once an hour to make it look like you are doing something or attending zoom meetings on your phone on mute while someone else leads it.

That’s the problem. One kid presents a single symptom, and the whole class goes home. Nobody in the country is doing this. It’s like Gayles wanted to one up one of his Gayles Fails out of spite.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The VA parents are hoping in person fails to justify their choice. Don’t fall for their click bait. It will be fine. A little messy for another month but they everyone will hit their stride and even if the stupid policy stands individual teachers will learn to give Larla a few mins to see if her tummy ache goes away before sending to nurse.

You have never been a teacher in public school. Ask Larla to wait 10 min to go to the nurse and her mom will email the principal that you are guilty of child abuse.

Well then all MCPs’ policy does then is force parents to tell their kids not to mention anything unless it’s really really bad. Not good.

Just come up with a code symptom to use. If they need to come home, they'll always say it's an ear ache.

That would mean the kid comes home. The parents want the kid to stay at school. Maybe they can’t miss work. Or this is the hill they want us all to die on.

What did you do when your kid was in daycare? There are strict protocols for fevers and other symptoms that require kids to be picked up and kept home. It always confused me how kids were no longer required to be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school once they hit kindergarten. Instead of requesting policy changes that put kids (and the greater community) at risk why not rally to change family leave policies for the working class?

The debate is not about your kid quarantining when symptomatic. It is about all kids quarantining when one kid has a symptom which will likely mean many fewer in person days. Also I thought we vaccinated adults so the greater community was not at risk. And while more leave for the working class would be great, having kids doing zoom school for extended periods is problematic for many families of all social classes including MC and UMC families with in person jobs or telework jobs that actually require them to get work done. Not everyone’s telework job is just checking email once an hour to make it look like you are doing something or attending zoom meetings on your phone on mute while someone else leads it.

That’s the problem. One kid presents a single symptom, and the whole class goes home. Nobody in the country is doing this. It’s like Gayles wanted to one up one of his Gayles Fails out of spite.

And the class is held hostage by them taking a test. Not a single district in the country, liberal or conservative, could concoct a more asinine policy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree we are peaking or past peaking. And we are special because our vaccination rates are so high. We are the opposite end of the spectrum from Texas and Florida's vaccination rates

The only way we're going to actually know if we peaked is when the cases start going down consistently. It should be noted that we're about the same level as we were in the fall of 2020 before we saw the huge peak during November-January. I don't anticipate the caseload getting as high as it did last year due to the overall level of vaccinated individuals in the county but I I don't think it's going to get better anytime soon.

I cannot f****** wait for the pediatric vaccine to get approved

Between delta and school starting, there's an all-new peak which will be evident in a couple of weeks since mcps' testing is insufficient but community spread umber should make it obvious within 3-4 weeks

To date studies have shown that transmission in schools is no higher than out of schools.

The studies I saw showed it was roughly 2X-3X higher than the community.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is a very responsible policy. If you have symptoms of Covid, you need to rule out Covid before coming back to school. Every reputable private school does the same thing. Sorry they don’t trust non-physician parents to properly determine if kids have a cold or Covid. Given how Covid presents in kids, the schools have no choice but to follow this policy. They could certainly make it easier for kids without insurance to get tested at school but there is no alternative to this policy that is in the interest of health and safety of the community.

Does every single private school also quarantine the entire class until the person with the symptom has ruled our COVID?

I didn’t think so.

None of them do.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The VA parents are hoping in person fails to justify their choice. Don’t fall for their click bait. It will be fine. A little messy for another month but they everyone will hit their stride and even if the stupid policy stands individual teachers will learn to give Larla a few mins to see if her tummy ache goes away before sending to nurse.

You have never been a teacher in public school. Ask Larla to wait 10 min to go to the nurse and her mom will email the principal that you are guilty of child abuse.

Well then all MCPs’ policy does then is force parents to tell their kids not to mention anything unless it’s really really bad. Not good.

Just come up with a code symptom to use. If they need to come home, they'll always say it's an ear ache.

That would mean the kid comes home. The parents want the kid to stay at school. Maybe they can’t miss work. Or this is the hill they want us all to die on.

What did you do when your kid was in daycare? There are strict protocols for fevers and other symptoms that require kids to be picked up and kept home. It always confused me how kids were no longer required to be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school once they hit kindergarten. Instead of requesting policy changes that put kids (and the greater community) at risk why not rally to change family leave policies for the working class?

The debate is not about your kid quarantining when symptomatic. It is about all kids quarantining when one kid has a symptom which will likely mean many fewer in person days. Also I thought we vaccinated adults so the greater community was not at risk. And while more leave for the working class would be great, having kids doing zoom school for extended periods is problematic for many families of all social classes including MC and UMC families with in person jobs or telework jobs that actually require them to get work done. Not everyone’s telework job is just checking email once an hour to make it look like you are doing something or attending zoom meetings on your phone on mute while someone else leads it.

That’s the problem. One kid presents a single symptom, and the whole class goes home. Nobody in the country is doing this. It’s like Gayles wanted to one up one of his Gayles Fails out of spite.

Sounds like public health 101 protocol. Glad to see were following best practices.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Agree we are peaking or past peaking. And we are special because our vaccination rates are so high. We are the opposite end of the spectrum from Texas and Florida's vaccination rates

The only way we're going to actually know if we peaked is when the cases start going down consistently. It should be noted that we're about the same level as we were in the fall of 2020 before we saw the huge peak during November-January. I don't anticipate the caseload getting as high as it did last year due to the overall level of vaccinated individuals in the county but I I don't think it's going to get better anytime soon.

I cannot f****** wait for the pediatric vaccine to get approved

Between delta and school starting, there's an all-new peak which will be evident in a couple of weeks since mcps' testing is insufficient but community spread umber should make it obvious within 3-4 weeks

To date studies have shown that transmission in schools is no higher than out of schools.

The studies I saw showed it was roughly 2X-3X higher than the community.

Link? Were they wearing masks?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The VA parents are hoping in person fails to justify their choice. Don’t fall for their click bait. It will be fine. A little messy for another month but they everyone will hit their stride and even if the stupid policy stands individual teachers will learn to give Larla a few mins to see if her tummy ache goes away before sending to nurse.

You have never been a teacher in public school. Ask Larla to wait 10 min to go to the nurse and her mom will email the principal that you are guilty of child abuse.

Well then all MCPs’ policy does then is force parents to tell their kids not to mention anything unless it’s really really bad. Not good.

Just come up with a code symptom to use. If they need to come home, they'll always say it's an ear ache.

That would mean the kid comes home. The parents want the kid to stay at school. Maybe they can’t miss work. Or this is the hill they want us all to die on.

What did you do when your kid was in daycare? There are strict protocols for fevers and other symptoms that require kids to be picked up and kept home. It always confused me how kids were no longer required to be fever free for 24 hours before returning to school once they hit kindergarten. Instead of requesting policy changes that put kids (and the greater community) at risk why not rally to change family leave policies for the working class?

The debate is not about your kid quarantining when symptomatic. It is about all kids quarantining when one kid has a symptom which will likely mean many fewer in person days. Also I thought we vaccinated adults so the greater community was not at risk. And while more leave for the working class would be great, having kids doing zoom school for extended periods is problematic for many families of all social classes including MC and UMC families with in person jobs or telework jobs that actually require them to get work done. Not everyone’s telework job is just checking email once an hour to make it look like you are doing something or attending zoom meetings on your phone on mute while someone else leads it.

That’s the problem. One kid presents a single symptom, and the whole class goes home. Nobody in the country is doing this. It’s like Gayles wanted to one up one of his Gayles Fails out of spite.

Sounds like public health 101 protocol. Glad to see were following best practices.

Do you have any kind of link or other support to suggest this is a best practice?