DCPS Double Down on Travel Policy

[Anonymous]

Can someone link to updated guidance? Or is it only the pdf from back in may

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS is forcing people to teach their kids to lie. This is something I usually would never do, but this policy is just too stupid to follow. We just traveled to visit vaccinated family - drove, didn’t eat anywhere indoors, didn’t take the kids into any indoor public places (except the occasional bathroom along the road, and then we were masked). The area we visited had similar vaccination rates as DC.

Then they attended summer acceleration under strict orders not to mention the trip. Sorry, DCPS!

I feel for you. Sounds pretty safe.

We've decided NOT to travel so our kids don't have to lie. That too is an option.

Can you vouch for the rest of the travelers going out of the DMV?

No, but I’m pretty sure those who are traveling less safely than we did also won’t have any qualms about teaching their kids to lie. Not to mention there are many opportunities to behave much more riskily in MD or VA.

And, yes, it is always an option to follow even the most nonsensical rule in order to avoid having to lie. I guess my commitment to honesty, which I otherwise consider to be quite solid, doesn’t go as far as yours. In my mind, there is also a difference between honesty and blind adherence to rules. I’m the person who would always tell a cashier if they rung up my purchase at too low a price, who would never sell you a car with hidden defects I know about, and who would never send my sick kid to school on Tylenol. But this policy? I make my own judgment.

I agree 100%. Also pathologically honest, and also have zero concerns about lying about travel.

[Anonymous]

I'm in the same boat as the pathologically honest folks.

As an example, my kid will be at a sleepaway camp in MD the week before school starts. With a couple dozen (or more?) unvaccinated elementary schoolers. And this is ok per the rules, yet my kid's classmates can't go visit their vaccinated grandparents in NC or PA that same week? It's nuts.

[Anonymous]

If they make you quarantine, is this considered an excused absence? For example, we have booked a family trip for the two or so weeks of winter break. If they make us quarantine when we get back, I am assuming the quarantine days are excused days off, if the school chooses not provide remote learning (we are in a charter that doesn't plan to have remote learning).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone link to updated guidance? Or is it only the pdf from back in may

I checked yesterday. It's still the same as May which is basically the same as 2020. It really looks like they've just forgotten that the rules are still there becase they only practically apply to DCPS.

[Anonymous]

Okay, thank you PP for confirming. All I could find was the May guidance.

Anyone know if updates are planned? At least a modification that you could do daily in school or at home testing instead of quarantine like suggested in UK. They need to give people real options that are not simply zero travel during an entire school year without 7 days of quarantine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can someone link to updated guidance? Or is it only the pdf from back in may

Please link. I’d like to print it out so I can wipe my ass with it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I planned all my travel to return 10 days before school starts. I don't understand why this is so hard to do?

It's great you have that flexibility. I have two weeks per year outside of holidays I can take for vacation and they are in August. My husand has to work one of them. My kids and I haven't seen my mom in 2 years. We are driving non stop and only seeing vaccinated adults. It sucks that my kids have I miss some school but they missed a whole year of it, so here we are.

We really were hoping to spend Rosh Hashanah with family this year. Guess not.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:DCPS is forcing people to teach their kids to lie. This is something I usually would never do, but this policy is just too stupid to follow. We just traveled to visit vaccinated family - drove, didn’t eat anywhere indoors, didn’t take the kids into any indoor public places (except the occasional bathroom along the road, and then we were masked). The area we visited had similar vaccination rates as DC.

Then they attended summer acceleration under strict orders not to mention the trip. Sorry, DCPS!

I feel for you. Sounds pretty safe.

We've decided NOT to travel so our kids don't have to lie. That too is an option.

Can you vouch for the rest of the travelers going out of the DMV?

No, but I’m pretty sure those who are traveling less safely than we did also won’t have any qualms about teaching their kids to lie. Not to mention there are many opportunities to behave much more riskily in MD or VA.

And, yes, it is always an option to follow even the most nonsensical rule in order to avoid having to lie. I guess my commitment to honesty, which I otherwise consider to be quite solid, doesn’t go as far as yours. In my mind, there is also a difference between honesty and blind adherence to rules. I’m the person who would always tell a cashier if they rung up my purchase at too low a price, who would never sell you a car with hidden defects I know about, and who would never send my sick kid to school on Tylenol. But this policy? I make my own judgment.

+1.

The rules are arbitrary. The things that actually affect safety are legal, such as eligible people refusing to get vaccinated, taking your kid to restaurants in DC, and having people outside your immediate family in your home or you in theirs.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I planned all my travel to return 10 days before school starts. I don't understand why this is so hard to do?

This is currently affecting working parents with kids in daycare, preventing travel to visit family.

But it isn't NEW guidance. I have little empathy parents of DCPS/Charter kids with houses Maine they rented for the whole month of August.

It’s actually a villa in Tuscany. See you on Day 1!

LOL, I love you!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I planned all my travel to return 10 days before school starts. I don't understand why this is so hard to do?

It's great you have that flexibility. I have two weeks per year outside of holidays I can take for vacation and they are in August. My husand has to work one of them. My kids and I haven't seen my mom in 2 years. We are driving non stop and only seeing vaccinated adults. It sucks that my kids have I miss some school but they missed a whole year of it, so here we are.

We really were hoping to spend Rosh Hashanah with family this year. Guess not.

I think your family should go. It is more important to spend quality time with family than worry about arbitrary rules. Notice there is no quarantine requirement if you have family from outside the DMV travel here. Which is the same risk as you traveling and staying with that family elsewhere. Go enjoy your holiday and just tell your kids your family lives in the farthest corners of VA, even if you are going to South Carolina!

[Anonymous]

This is completely arbitrary, performative policy in line with “deep cleaning” that kept schools closed on Wednesdays. It will do nothing to prevent the spread of Covid.

[Anonymous]

Do ANY other states still have outdated guidance like this?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:So, I planned all my travel to return 10 days before school starts. I don't understand why this is so hard to do?

It's great you have that flexibility. I have two weeks per year outside of holidays I can take for vacation and they are in August. My husand has to work one of them. My kids and I haven't seen my mom in 2 years. We are driving non stop and only seeing vaccinated adults. It sucks that my kids have I miss some school but they missed a whole year of it, so here we are.

We really were hoping to spend Rosh Hashanah with family this year. Guess not.

I think your family should go. It is more important to spend quality time with family than worry about arbitrary rules. Notice there is no quarantine requirement if you have family from outside the DMV travel here. Which is the same risk as you traveling and staying with that family elsewhere. Go enjoy your holiday and just tell your kids your family lives in the farthest corners of VA, even if you are going to South Carolina!

+1. Oh my goodness, just do it! You do your part when you get vaccinated, and if more people would do that, this would be over. This rule makes no sense and you don't need to wait for them to realize that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:this is TOO MUCH for kids and families. Two years of restrictions and deprivations - any continuation needs a STRONG foundation in evidence and actual public health research. Not just the “precautionary principal.” I’m morally/ethically 100% fine with breaking this rule - and I am a rule follower. See you in court DCPS if you try to exclude my kid for visiting grandma.

Same here.

We need to fight these people. Actively.