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

[Anonymous]

I have been a part of numerous discussions this weekend where parents discussed telling their kids not to go to the nurse or report things, across parents in multiple ES, so at least from my limited sample this seems to really be having a perverse effect.

[Anonymous]

This hasn't happened yet at a W school, but if this is the uproar now, I can't even imagine adding them to the outraged choir.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I have been a part of numerous discussions this weekend where parents discussed telling their kids not to go to the nurse or report things, across parents in multiple ES, so at least from my limited sample this seems to really be having a perverse effect.

Well, the good part about ES kids is they tell on their parents constantly. Everyone will know who is lying, sorry to the insane parents hoping this would work.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This hasn't happened yet at a W school, but if this is the uproar now, I can't even imagine adding them to the outraged choir.

How do you know?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Anyone who says this isn't following CDC guidelines can't read, chooses not to read, or doesn't understand what they are reading.
Close contact is with anyone positive for Covid (confirmed test result) OR clinically compatible (aka having a Covid SYMPTOM).
The CDC exemption for the classroom ONLY exempts students if they are 3, 4, 5, 6 feet apart AND wearing a mask. If students are 1 foot or 2 feet apart, that is close contact even if wearing a mask. Lunch and recess is still 6 feet. It's so annoying that the loudest voices are the ones who don't understand the rules.
That said, DHHS needs to implement rapid tests for school nurses and techs to give so right away a school can know if a student with
symptoms is positive. DHHS needs to lead this work as the health experts. MCPS doesn't make health decisions, they make educational ones.

CDC say in K-12 school guidance that close contacts are those in close contact with someone who has a positive COVID test--not someone with a COVID symptom. "This allows identifying which students, teachers, and staff with positive COVID-19 test results should isolate, and which close contacts should quarantine." https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/k-12-guidance.html#contact-tracing (see section 8, Contact Tracing in Combination with Isolation and Quarantine)

Except they also recommend regular testing and MCPS isn't doing that.

As schools go back to in-person learning, many offer free, regular COVID-19 testing for students and staff.
Regular testing, along with COVID-19 vaccination, helps protect students, staff, family members, and others who are not currently vaccinated against COVID-19 or are otherwise at risk for getting seriously sick from COVID-19.
Testing programs help keep students in the classroom and allow them to take part in the other activities they love.

Yes they are -- they have a testing program. But no way am I opting in given this, as MCPS appears focused on quarantining as many kids as possible rather than keeping them in school.

Sorry, if your child tests positive you plan on sending them in? This is why MCPS created this policy. It's kind of genius actually. Shame people into keeping their kids home. Sounds like it's the right move.

If my kids test positive, I will not send them in, but I am not having them tested at school.

That's fine but stop complaining when they quarantine based off symptoms.

If they had stuck to their original quarantine policy, I would opt in. But it's clear that they will use any excuse to quarantine entire classes (and even entire grades in one case). I'm not going to contribute to that in any way.

Oh please, if you were going to opt in, you would have done it already, before this came out. You’re just using this as an excuse. And I’m sorry but this shouldn’t change your decision if you were truly going to opt in...that was for an actual test that would have told you if your kid actually had covid or not, which it seems like you are saying you support. Give me a break.

No I had been planning to opt in. But I’m not now.

Well the it says a lot about you that you'd opt out and potentially expose kids to covid just to spite MCPS. Good job.

I’m not opting out. I’m failing to opt in. Look, MCPS is quarantining entire classes because a kid coughs. I believe in-person school is crucial, and I have no faith that they would just quarantine close contacts. So no, I’m not going to get my kids tested. I don’t send them in if they are sick and they wear well-fitting KF-94s. Normally I would opt into testing. But I’m convinced that opting in would do more harm than good given the MCPS approach to quarantining everyone.

You honestly think they will send a while class home because a kid coughs once or twice? There is so much exaggeration on this thread. Maybe you guys have your kids at schools run by complete nutters, but at our school, the nurse, principal, assistant principal and teachers are pretty darn reasonable. You act like this will be a witch hunt. Schools won't want to deal with this either for kids who don't actually seem sick. I'm guessing they'll apply good ole fashion common sense, just like most of us do in our jobs every day. A kid coughs because their milk goes down wrong? No problem. A kid coughs constantly and seems like they are actually sick, yeah, might be a problem. A kid has a minor sore throat? No one will know! A kid is in such pain they tell their teacher and go to the nurse, then yes, that may trigger the quarantine (and I'm guessing this doesn't actually happen much by the way). Your kid has a minor squirt in his underwear? No one will know! Major diarrhea, then yeah, people will know and that will trigger the policy. History of migraines that require trips to the nurse? Get a doctor note and work with the school (also probably rare, especially in elementary). Fever, no brainer. Vomiting, no brainer.

This all sounds great but my daughter was quarantined Friday based on one kid with a headache. To be fair, I wouldn’t have believed it either. But it’s real. The principals and nurses have to follow the policy or they could be in trouble. And that’s what the policy says.

And you’re now at the mercy of that kid getting tested. The kid probably wasn’t even infected, but they have to prove it first. That will take days to play out. best case. The Health Department and MCPS have failed.

[Anonymous]

I don't understand why everyone keeps saying MCPS is sending kids home. You do know that the DHHS health room nurse is the one who decides, right?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why everyone keeps saying MCPS is sending kids home. You do know that the DHHS health room nurse is the one who decides, right?

They don’t know that. They probably think it’s the principal. Which is why it is only a matter of time before some parent shows up with zip ties.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why everyone keeps saying MCPS is sending kids home. You do know that the DHHS health room nurse is the one who decides, right?

and how would they know who to quarantine? In the health room? Must be some communication?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why everyone keeps saying MCPS is sending kids home. You do know that the DHHS health room nurse is the one who decides, right?

That is an interesting point. So are you saying the nurse works for the health department and not MCPS? Is that true?

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:I don't understand why everyone keeps saying MCPS is sending kids home. You do know that the DHHS health room nurse is the one who decides, right?

That is an interesting point. So are you saying the nurse works for the health department and not MCPS? Is that true?

Yes they (the nurse and health tech) are employees of the health department. I didn't realize that until my 2nd year teaching. I always assumed that they were mcps employees.

[Anonymous]

This happened Friday at our school. Long story short: the kid got a rapid test with a negative result that evening, so nobody will be quarantined next week (the plan was for the kid’s entire class to be quarantined unless the kid tested negative).

The point of the policy is to force parents to quickly test their kids.

If schools could simply test immediately onsite, then we wouldn’t have these false alarms.

[Anonymous]

In the end I just feel so defeated and betrayed by all of this. I so stupidly trusted them all summer when they promised us over and over again it would be five days a week. I am not a regular complainer at school. We have been nothing but happy with MCPS except for this. It has exposed so much about how they operate on all levels. It just kind of takes my breath away to think of them dropping this on us just before a holiday weekend, with happy kids finishing their first full week of school, to try and bury it. I support strong covid protections but this is so beyond CDC or anyone else. Why not rapid testing?

It’s also just another symptom of how everyone in our country has to be extreme something. In the South it’s raging and kids don’t have to wear masks. Here the rates are still extremely low, even with the spike, and our kids are quarantining because of exposure to one person with one symptom while they were wearing masks.

I really, really thought BOE had wised up. Struck a practical and safe balance for school openings. I was just thinking well, this might be enough to not angrily vote against every BOE member I can find in the next election or three. This week all of my mom friends and I are texting each other about how we cannot wait to vote against every single one of them. Whether they made this decision or not, they still can control it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:This happened Friday at our school. Long story short: the kid got a rapid test with a negative result that evening, so nobody will be quarantined next week (the plan was for the kid’s entire class to be quarantined unless the kid tested negative).

The point of the policy is to force parents to quickly test their kids.

If schools could simply test immediately onsite, then we wouldn’t have these false alarms.

That's actually pretty discouraging and a case study in how awful this policy is. So a negative kid would have quarantined the entire class until he/she got around to testing. Maybe the kid doesn't/can't get around to testing until next Friday (or maybe ever) and was negative the whole time.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In the end I just feel so defeated and betrayed by all of this. I so stupidly trusted them all summer when they promised us over and over again it would be five days a week. I am not a regular complainer at school. We have been nothing but happy with MCPS except for this. It has exposed so much about how they operate on all levels. It just kind of takes my breath away to think of them dropping this on us just before a holiday weekend, with happy kids finishing their first full week of school, to try and bury it. I support strong covid protections but this is so beyond CDC or anyone else. Why not rapid testing?

It’s also just another symptom of how everyone in our country has to be extreme something. In the South it’s raging and kids don’t have to wear masks. Here the rates are still extremely low, even with the spike, and our kids are quarantining because of exposure to one person with one symptom while they were wearing masks.

I really, really thought BOE had wised up. Struck a practical and safe balance for school openings. I was just thinking well, this might be enough to not angrily vote against every BOE member I can find in the next election or three. This week all of my mom friends and I are texting each other about how we cannot wait to vote against every single one of them. Whether they made this decision or not, they still can control it.

Betrayal is a good way to put this. This is such extremist policy, it makes them a complete and absolute national outlier. Forget the South, not even the other local districts are this stupid.

[Anonymous]

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Anonymous wrote:Anyone who says this isn't following CDC guidelines can't read, chooses not to read, or doesn't understand what they are reading.
Close contact is with anyone positive for Covid (confirmed test result) OR clinically compatible (aka having a Covid SYMPTOM).
The CDC exemption for the classroom ONLY exempts students if they are 3, 4, 5, 6 feet apart AND wearing a mask. If students are 1 foot or 2 feet apart, that is close contact even if wearing a mask. Lunch and recess is still 6 feet. It's so annoying that the loudest voices are the ones who don't understand the rules.
That said, DHHS needs to implement rapid tests for school nurses and techs to give so right away a school can know if a student with
symptoms is positive. DHHS needs to lead this work as the health experts. MCPS doesn't make health decisions, they make educational ones.

CDC say in K-12 school guidance that close contacts are those in close contact with someone who has a positive COVID test--not someone with a COVID symptom. "This allows identifying which students, teachers, and staff with positive COVID-19 test results should isolate, and which close contacts should quarantine." https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/k-12-guidance.html#contact-tracing (see section 8, Contact Tracing in Combination with Isolation and Quarantine)

Except they also recommend regular testing and MCPS isn't doing that.

As schools go back to in-person learning, many offer free, regular COVID-19 testing for students and staff.
Regular testing, along with COVID-19 vaccination, helps protect students, staff, family members, and others who are not currently vaccinated against COVID-19 or are otherwise at risk for getting seriously sick from COVID-19.
Testing programs help keep students in the classroom and allow them to take part in the other activities they love.

Yes they are -- they have a testing program. But no way am I opting in given this, as MCPS appears focused on quarantining as many kids as possible rather than keeping them in school.

Sorry, if your child tests positive you plan on sending them in? This is why MCPS created this policy. It's kind of genius actually. Shame people into keeping their kids home. Sounds like it's the right move.

If my kids test positive, I will not send them in, but I am not having them tested at school.

That's fine but stop complaining when they quarantine based off symptoms.

If they had stuck to their original quarantine policy, I would opt in. But it's clear that they will use any excuse to quarantine entire classes (and even entire grades in one case). I'm not going to contribute to that in any way.

Oh please, if you were going to opt in, you would have done it already, before this came out. You’re just using this as an excuse. And I’m sorry but this shouldn’t change your decision if you were truly going to opt in...that was for an actual test that would have told you if your kid actually had covid or not, which it seems like you are saying you support. Give me a break.

No I had been planning to opt in. But I’m not now.

Well the it says a lot about you that you'd opt out and potentially expose kids to covid just to spite MCPS. Good job.

I’m not opting out. I’m failing to opt in. Look, MCPS is quarantining entire classes because a kid coughs. I believe in-person school is crucial, and I have no faith that they would just quarantine close contacts. So no, I’m not going to get my kids tested. I don’t send them in if they are sick and they wear well-fitting KF-94s. Normally I would opt into testing. But I’m convinced that opting in would do more harm than good given the MCPS approach to quarantining everyone.

You honestly think they will send a while class home because a kid coughs once or twice? There is so much exaggeration on this thread. Maybe you guys have your kids at schools run by complete nutters, but at our school, the nurse, principal, assistant principal and teachers are pretty darn reasonable. You act like this will be a witch hunt. Schools won't want to deal with this either for kids who don't actually seem sick. I'm guessing they'll apply good ole fashion common sense, just like most of us do in our jobs every day. A kid coughs because their milk goes down wrong? No problem. A kid coughs constantly and seems like they are actually sick, yeah, might be a problem. A kid has a minor sore throat? No one will know! A kid is in such pain they tell their teacher and go to the nurse, then yes, that may trigger the quarantine (and I'm guessing this doesn't actually happen much by the way). Your kid has a minor squirt in his underwear? No one will know! Major diarrhea, then yeah, people will know and that will trigger the policy. History of migraines that require trips to the nurse? Get a doctor note and work with the school (also probably rare, especially in elementary). Fever, no brainer. Vomiting, no brainer.

Um, yes. Numerous classes across MCPS were sent home last last week. Some of you are so naive. School nurses and principals are not equipped to deal with their hundreds/thousands of students chronic headaches, allergies, or diarrhea because food went down wrong. It's not what they do and they aren't being given guidance on top of that. School nurses neither manage, oversee nor diagnose chronic health issues. I've been lectured on so many erroneous things or left work and called into school for things I've already explained to them, pre-COVID let alone during COVID.

- parent of kids in several schools and dealt with many nurses who don't get my kids' health issues. This is W cluster schools. [/quotefo

For positive tests ..