It feels like Christmas - DCPS adopts CDC rules!!!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Lordy DCPS’ about face on what’s safe is staggering. I’m trying to be guided by facts not emotion, but I’m much more nervous sending my kid in this fall than I was last January.

+ a million I sent my kid happily in February but I’m more concerned about now.

Why's that?

I’m the PP. Am I the only one watching the news? And the news that there are not pediatric hospital beds because of Covid?

I have been exceedingly cautious since the beginning of COVID (including not being in favor of reopening schools in-person last spring and indoor masking continuously), but context is critical here. The places experiencing shortages of pediatric beds are in places where vax rates are low and masking mandates are non-existent (and often prohibited by law). That’s not the case in DC. Universal indoor masking + higher vax rates create a different context.

Marginally different.
Under-12s are equally unvacc'ed.
12-17 are undervacc'ed
We have stripped schools of so much of each layer of the multi-layered mitigation that DCPS is starting to sound like low-key DeSantis with a thin chippable top-coat of not-DeSantis safety.
We have enough unvaccinated people overall, and enough virus circulating right now, to basically get in 3 weeks' time where TX is now.

Universal masking makes a big difference. That's the most important mitigation layer: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/08/10/opinion/covid-schools-masks.html?action=click&module=Opinion&pgtype=Homepage

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think some of you will be surprised when large chunks of students are out with Covid during September. That won’t be normal school exactly.

I think at this point it us inevitable that most kids will get Covid, and for most it will be mild. But if it happens in a big wave, I think it willbe more dramatic than some people are prepared for.

Many children were in school last year in places other than DC, and that didn’t happen, so I remain hopeful.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some of you will be surprised when large chunks of students are out with Covid during September. That won’t be normal school exactly.

I think at this point it us inevitable that most kids will get Covid, and for most it will be mild. But if it happens in a big wave, I think it willbe more dramatic than some people are prepared for.

Many children were in school last year in places other than DC, and that didn’t happen, so I remain hopeful.

The difference is Delta is more contagious.

[Anonymous]

I dislike how the news reports don’t distinguish between children so ill FROM covid that they need to be hospitalized, and kids who need to be hospitalized for other reasons who are then tested and found to be covid positive.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think some of you will be surprised when large chunks of students are out with Covid during September. That won’t be normal school exactly.

I think at this point it us inevitable that most kids will get Covid, and for most it will be mild. But if it happens in a big wave, I think it willbe more dramatic than some people are prepared for.

Many children were in school last year in places other than DC, and that didn’t happen, so I remain hopeful.

The difference is Delta is more contagious.

Yes, this! It’s going to be a roller coaster this year, I bet.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They did it! They did it! https://coronavirus.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/coronavirus/page_content/attachments/COVID-19_DC_Health_Guidance_For_Schools_Reopening_080621.pdf

Updated guidance to align with CDC guidelines. The whole class does NOT need to quarantine for a positive in the class!!!!! Also loving the explicit statements that inability to cohort, distance, vaccinate, etc are not reasons to close schools. And really really loving the updated guidance on symptoms that trigger Covid rules - a runny nose alone is no longer sufficient, and neither is a fever, chills, nausea, or headache when alone - requires two or more of those. And neither does a lingering cough! Only a NEW or WORSENING cough or loss of smell/taste trigger Covid protocols on their own. We might actually have a normal year! I am bouncing of walls with relief.

I feel like a Boulder just got lifted from my shoulders for the first time in 1.5yrs. Omg

Eh I’m ok with that since fever is subjective, if I get a student with anything above 99 and a cough they are going home.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Perhaps because the changes seem politically motivated, rather than scientific. Look, I’m sending my kid, but I think it’s likely he/she will get Covid this year. It’s just a bit unsettling to see the “science” change so rapidly. Considering the risk seems greater for them now, it’s painfully obvious that schools weren’t closed last year to protect them from getting Covid.

This is actually a correction of politically motivated BS and errors. Schools should have never been virtual and rolled back as they were to begin with. This is what the rules should have been even pre-vaccine

+1000

[Anonymous]

Who is deciding whether good masking protocols were followed well enough that no quarantine is warranted for unvaxxed kids? I doubt any school/teacher is going to say they’ve been lax about masking, but some will be. And then there’s lunchtime…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who is deciding whether good masking protocols were followed well enough that no quarantine is warranted for unvaxxed kids? I doubt any school/teacher is going to say they’ve been lax about masking, but some will be. And then there’s lunchtime…

I assume you’re not going to go in there with a ruler, so what do you want to happen?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Look this pandemic is going to ebb and flow for years. We will have a variant that the vaccine won’t work against. We will be going through cycles of masking and interrupted school/work for years. Just accept it. Are all of you going to be able to sustain this level of anger and exasperation for years? This is going to be years.

If we regain our sanity, school should never be disrupted again, unless a variant appears that is significantly more dangerous to kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Look this pandemic is going to ebb and flow for years. We will have a variant that the vaccine won’t work against. We will be going through cycles of masking and interrupted school/work for years. Just accept it. Are all of you going to be able to sustain this level of anger and exasperation for years? This is going to be years.

If we regain our sanity, school should never be disrupted again, unless a variant appears that is significantly more dangerous to kids.

Yes if people could shut up snd wear a mask. We will never get ahead of this pandemic without greater vaccination numbers and masks. Delta will mutate.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is deciding whether good masking protocols were followed well enough that no quarantine is warranted for unvaxxed kids? I doubt any school/teacher is going to say they’ve been lax about masking, but some will be. And then there’s lunchtime…

I assume you’re not going to go in there with a ruler, so what do you want to happen?

Well, for starters, if multiple kids in a classroom have it, that means there is spread and they should quarantine. That should be spelled out.

[Anonymous]

I think it’s a good plan, but it does lack detail about when there are multiple cases in a cohort or travel guidance. They should not keep kids out of the classroom simply for having traveled, but then ask kids to get tested multiple times or something.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Who is deciding whether good masking protocols were followed well enough that no quarantine is warranted for unvaxxed kids? I doubt any school/teacher is going to say they’ve been lax about masking, but some will be. And then there’s lunchtime…

I'm a teacher with a baby at home and I'm pretty worried about this. My school is masks required but not enforced. In the spring there were multiple kids who would flat out just not wear a mask and would roam the room and halls (which is totally normal for my school). If there's a class of 20 kids and 3 of them don't wear masks, if there's a positive case, will they tell us which kid it is to confirm whether he/she wore a mask? Probably not. I bet they will just assume all kids wore masks all the time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Who is deciding whether good masking protocols were followed well enough that no quarantine is warranted for unvaxxed kids? I doubt any school/teacher is going to say they’ve been lax about masking, but some will be. And then there’s lunchtime…

I'm a teacher with a baby at home and I'm pretty worried about this. My school is masks required but not enforced. In the spring there were multiple kids who would flat out just not wear a mask and would roam the room and halls (which is totally normal for my school). If there's a class of 20 kids and 3 of them don't wear masks, if there's a positive case, will they tell us which kid it is to confirm whether he/she wore a mask? Probably not. I bet they will just assume all kids wore masks all the time.

Technically, whether it's one of the under-masked kids who tested positive or not won't matter. In your classroom, over two weeks, the 3 kids who don't wear their masks will serve as the amplification system for the infected person's exhaled virus. One or more of them will catch it and then the next week they will broadcast it to the other kids, in the classroom and those who walk the halls in the hour following the unmasked infected kids. This thing is contagious. It isn't last year's virus.