Schools with positive cases thread - post here

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Knowing that schools are quarantining broadly - at least when they first identify a positive - I am not at all concerned about the "numbers in quarantine" from news articles or otherwise. And I think it's disingenuous to report on it because schools and school systems are using WILDLY different thresholds to identify a need to quarantine.

The schools are in an impossible position, with some families clamoring for the narrowest possible definition of close contact so that all kids can stay in person as much as possible and there are no/few quarantines.

And then middle ground families are ok with broad-ish quarantines because, at some cost to in-person school, they may help stop spread and school-based outbreaks.

And then the most risk averse families hanging on every positive case as if it spells doom for their children, and wanting to limit school attendance in general so that not 1 person gets COVID.

It's impossible.

exactly. I’m really reallt tired of the sh*t reporting on schools and covid in this region, which seems to be limited to elevating the voices of people with anxiety disorders and reporting data completely out of context.

Yes and unfortunately these seem to be some of the louder voices on twitter. Lots of reporting on one case and then saying things like "NONE OF THIS IS OK." My IB Ward 4 school has completely full classes of in person students, including PK, which is not mandatory. Parents wear masks at drop-off and obviously people worry about thier kids but they are sending them without these histrionics that you see from the loudest complainers.

And FWIW, those kids are getting COVID.

FWIW, there have been several Covid cases at our school over the past two weeks (all acquired outside of school), and none of the quarantined close contacts at school have tested positive. Looks like even delta isn’t just going to rip through masked classrooms.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Knowing that schools are quarantining broadly - at least when they first identify a positive - I am not at all concerned about the "numbers in quarantine" from news articles or otherwise. And I think it's disingenuous to report on it because schools and school systems are using WILDLY different thresholds to identify a need to quarantine.

The schools are in an impossible position, with some families clamoring for the narrowest possible definition of close contact so that all kids can stay in person as much as possible and there are no/few quarantines.

And then middle ground families are ok with broad-ish quarantines because, at some cost to in-person school, they may help stop spread and school-based outbreaks.

And then the most risk averse families hanging on every positive case as if it spells doom for their children, and wanting to limit school attendance in general so that not 1 person gets COVID.

It's impossible.

exactly. I’m really reallt tired of the sh*t reporting on schools and covid in this region, which seems to be limited to elevating the voices of people with anxiety disorders and reporting data completely out of context.

Yes and unfortunately these seem to be some of the louder voices on twitter. Lots of reporting on one case and then saying things like "NONE OF THIS IS OK." My IB Ward 4 school has completely full classes of in person students, including PK, which is not mandatory. Parents wear masks at drop-off and obviously people worry about thier kids but they are sending them without these histrionics that you see from the loudest complainers.

And FWIW, those kids are getting COVID.

FWIW, there have been several Covid cases at our school over the past two weeks (all acquired outside of school), and none of the quarantined close contacts at school have tested positive. Looks like even delta isn’t just going to rip through masked classrooms.

Exactly. I'd like to see DC news outlets reports on this instead of just inane tweets about "800 KIDS IN QUARANTINE OMFG!!!" Are they even showing up to the Mayor's press conferences? Why not, you know ... ask? A PP posted some really valuable info explaining why the Johnson quarantine was so big -- would be great if reporters included that, you know, INFORMATION, in their NEWS articles. But that would require actually doing reporting as opposed to republishing tweets and out-of-context data reports.

[Anonymous]

FWIW, there have been several Covid cases at our school over the past two weeks (all acquired outside of school), and none of the quarantined close contacts at school have tested positive. Looks like even delta isn’t just going to rip through masked classrooms.

Exactly. I'd like to see DC news outlets reports on this instead of just inane tweets about "800 KIDS IN QUARANTINE OMFG!!!" Are they even showing up to the Mayor's press conferences? Why not, you know ... ask? A PP posted some really valuable info explaining why the Johnson quarantine was so big -- would be great if reporters included that, you know, INFORMATION, in their NEWS articles. But that would require actually doing reporting as opposed to republishing tweets and out-of-context data reports.

+2

Would be great if the local media were reporting news that local families can actually use, by investigating things like what percentage of positives are due to staff versus students, and what percentage are due to unvaccinated staff, and whether DCPS plans to respond to that situation. Because last year there were lots of stories about how kids had to stay home from school to protect teachers from Covid, and it's weird that there are NO stories this year about adults who have chosen not to get a free, widely-available vaccine (for which they were given priority access!) and thus may be exposing children, including those under 12 who have no access to a vaccine, to Covid. Seems relevant! Everyone weirdly silent on this issue, including the people who protested school opening plans last year by putting body bags on the sidewalk.

[Anonymous]

What I would like to see (and DCPS does not seem to be doing), is testing of all of the kids in the positive person's classroom. This way we could get some real hard data on how well the school's mitigation measures work. And schools could make decisions about things like future quarantines and whether additional mitigation measures should be added, based on those data. I realize that it is hard for DCPS to have that data now, since school just started 100% in person less than 2 weeks ago, but if we start collecting it now, DCPS will be much better informed a month or two from now. And as a parent I would feel much more comfortable with all of this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I would like to see (and DCPS does not seem to be doing), is testing of all of the kids in the positive person's classroom. This way we could get some real hard data on how well the school's mitigation measures work. And schools could make decisions about things like future quarantines and whether additional mitigation measures should be added, based on those data. I realize that it is hard for DCPS to have that data now, since school just started 100% in person less than 2 weeks ago, but if we start collecting it now, DCPS will be much better informed a month or two from now. And as a parent I would feel much more comfortable with all of this.

While I like this idea, I think logistically it's really challenging because DCPS's testing capacity is still ramping up. Plus, any child placed in quarantine, DCPS has to rely on families to get them tested. Families have different means to do so. I like the goal and would LOVE to see this data, but I just think it's not a reasonable expectation.

One thing that I think is feasible and I would like to see is for schools to send DC's Test Yourself kits home with students in their backpacks and encourage families to administer the test at home and drop off. They could do this periodically (weekly, twice a month) or in response to a positive case or multiple positives in the school as a way to gather info about spread. Obviously not all families would return the test, but if they provided a drop box at school drop-off, I think a significant portion would and it could be really useful information. And also make things really easy for families with limited resources in terms of getting their kid tested -- the test takes about 3-5 minutes to administer to your child and can be done on the way out the door for school.

This is how UK schools are accomplishing widespread testing in primary schools, and one benefit is that it enables them to allow younger children to go to school without masks. I don't think we are ready to lose masks yet (it would just freak people out too much), but I think anything we can do to boost testing across the district with help us make informed decisions about everything from quarantines to cohorting to masks and social distancing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What I would like to see (and DCPS does not seem to be doing), is testing of all of the kids in the positive person's classroom. This way we could get some real hard data on how well the school's mitigation measures work. And schools could make decisions about things like future quarantines and whether additional mitigation measures should be added, based on those data. I realize that it is hard for DCPS to have that data now, since school just started 100% in person less than 2 weeks ago, but if we start collecting it now, DCPS will be much better informed a month or two from now. And as a parent I would feel much more comfortable with all of this.

Yes! But they don't even seem to test or require a negative test from the symptomatic student who spends multiple afternoons in the covid isolation room. Of course we'd all like more testing, asymptomatic and symptomatic. But the "yes and" stream of covid denialists upthread will fight knowledge with everything they have.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

FWIW, there have been several Covid cases at our school over the past two weeks (all acquired outside of school), and none of the quarantined close contacts at school have tested positive. Looks like even delta isn’t just going to rip through masked classrooms.

Exactly. I'd like to see DC news outlets reports on this instead of just inane tweets about "800 KIDS IN QUARANTINE OMFG!!!" Are they even showing up to the Mayor's press conferences? Why not, you know ... ask? A PP posted some really valuable info explaining why the Johnson quarantine was so big -- would be great if reporters included that, you know, INFORMATION, in their NEWS articles. But that would require actually doing reporting as opposed to republishing tweets and out-of-context data reports.

+2

Would be great if the local media were reporting news that local families can actually use, by investigating things like what percentage of positives are due to staff versus students, and what percentage are due to unvaccinated staff, and whether DCPS plans to respond to that situation. Because last year there were lots of stories about how kids had to stay home from school to protect teachers from Covid, and it's weird that there are NO stories this year about adults who have chosen not to get a free, widely-available vaccine (for which they were given priority access!) and thus may be exposing children, including those under 12 who have no access to a vaccine, to Covid. Seems relevant! Everyone weirdly silent on this issue, including the people who protested school opening plans last year by putting body bags on the sidewalk.

Yes. Very good point.

IMHO DC does not actually have a valid local media, so, there's that. What - DCist? Come one. WaPo is a joke when it comes to local it covers three states and poorly at that.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What I would like to see (and DCPS does not seem to be doing), is testing of all of the kids in the positive person's classroom. This way we could get some real hard data on how well the school's mitigation measures work. And schools could make decisions about things like future quarantines and whether additional mitigation measures should be added, based on those data. I realize that it is hard for DCPS to have that data now, since school just started 100% in person less than 2 weeks ago, but if we start collecting it now, DCPS will be much better informed a month or two from now. And as a parent I would feel much more comfortable with all of this.

While I like this idea, I think logistically it's really challenging because DCPS's testing capacity is still ramping up. Plus, any child placed in quarantine, DCPS has to rely on families to get them tested. Families have different means to do so. I like the goal and would LOVE to see this data, but I just think it's not a reasonable expectation.

One thing that I think is feasible and I would like to see is for schools to send DC's Test Yourself kits home with students in their backpacks and encourage families to administer the test at home and drop off. They could do this periodically (weekly, twice a month) or in response to a positive case or multiple positives in the school as a way to gather info about spread. Obviously not all families would return the test, but if they provided a drop box at school drop-off, I think a significant portion would and it could be really useful information. And also make things really easy for families with limited resources in terms of getting their kid tested -- the test takes about 3-5 minutes to administer to your child and can be done on the way out the door for school.

This is how UK schools are accomplishing widespread testing in primary schools, and one benefit is that it enables them to allow younger children to go to school without masks. I don't think we are ready to lose masks yet (it would just freak people out too much), but I think anything we can do to boost testing across the district with help us make informed decisions about everything from quarantines to cohorting to masks and social distancing.

Also a good idea! And when you drop off that testing kit, someone is making the connection between the child being tested, and which school they attend. It seems like a no-brainer but I have no confidence that if I dropped off a test kit for one of my kids at the drop-box, and they tested positive, that DOH would notify our school.

[Anonymous]

agree on the PP on testing front - but Test Yourself DC is going to have to ramp up for demand that's clearly already picking up from school - tested my child at the end of last school week (Sat am when tests were available) - still no results back - assuming they are flooded with school start....

[Anonymous]

Will be interesting to see how many outbreaks are caused by teachers vs. students

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:agree on the PP on testing front - but Test Yourself DC is going to have to ramp up for demand that's clearly already picking up from school - tested my child at the end of last school week (Sat am when tests were available) - still no results back - assuming they are flooded with school start....

I would love to see info on testing capacity and if it would be possible to ramp it up. However, I do want to note we tested our kid on Thursday of last week and got results back Saturday. I have heard many people complain about "delays" in test results after testing Friday or Saturday. But it was a long weekend. So I highly recommend that anyone using Test Yourself for asymptomatic testing, try to do the test midweek and get it to the drop box by Thursday morning at the latest. If you wait until Friday or Saturday to test, it will push you into the following week, and they will have to clear the backlog.

But yes, they should ramp up testing capacity no matter what. I am guessing lack of capacity is why they aren't formally pushing DCPS families to use the program because this is the obvious solution for testing in schools. It's less disruptive of the school day if parents test kids at home, and if we use Test Yourself we could potential get even more than 10% of DCPS students tested regularly, which is the target for the in-school testing that they've never reached.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Will be interesting to see how many outbreaks are caused by teachers vs. students

Also how many quarantines are caused by teachers versus students. This case of the 6th grade class is really bringing that home for me. If a teacher who works across a grade level or pushes into classrooms tests positive, it can impact a lot of students (over 100 in that case). Whereas a student testing positive will often be more limited in impact if that student is cohorted in any way (easier in younger grades of course).

It really brings home why it is important for teachers to be vaccinated in order to reduce spread in schools and limit disruption of in-person education. Unvaccinated adults in schools are a huge liability right now.

[Anonymous]

Last year there were cohort restrictions so staff members couldn't work with multiple classes (in person). Its the Wild West now with staff members in and out of classes and lunch rooms coming in contact with 100s of kids. Time to go back to cohorts so we don't have an entire grade quarantining!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Last year there were cohort restrictions so staff members couldn't work with multiple classes (in person). Its the Wild West now with staff members in and out of classes and lunch rooms coming in contact with 100s of kids. Time to go back to cohorts so we don't have an entire grade quarantining!

Um ... how about mandatory vaccines? Support staff can't cohort, by definition. How is the security guard going to cohort? The school nurse? The push-in special ed teacher?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:agree on the PP on testing front - but Test Yourself DC is going to have to ramp up for demand that's clearly already picking up from school - tested my child at the end of last school week (Sat am when tests were available) - still no results back - assuming they are flooded with school start....

I would love to see info on testing capacity and if it would be possible to ramp it up. However, I do want to note we tested our kid on Thursday of last week and got results back Saturday. I have heard many people complain about "delays" in test results after testing Friday or Saturday. But it was a long weekend. So I highly recommend that anyone using Test Yourself for asymptomatic testing, try to do the test midweek and get it to the drop box by Thursday morning at the latest. If you wait until Friday or Saturday to test, it will push you into the following week, and they will have to clear the backlog.

But yes, they should ramp up testing capacity no matter what. I am guessing lack of capacity is why they aren't formally pushing DCPS families to use the program because this is the obvious solution for testing in schools. It's less disruptive of the school day if parents test kids at home, and if we use Test Yourself we could potential get even more than 10% of DCPS students tested regularly, which is the target for the in-school testing that they've never reached.

You're missing the point. The 10% testing was never intended to be a screening test -- it's a surveillance test, to monitor the overall rates. What we SHOULD be doing with testing (since resources are limited) is a "test to stay" policy where close contacts test every day.