How will DCPS elementary schools be in person 5 days/week if little kids are not vaccinated?

[Anonymous]

I'm confused about the plan for elementary schools next year. Assuming the vaccine isn't available for little kids, will social distancing requirements still be in place? If so, how will they fit kids into classrooms.

My kid is in person now (YAY), but I'm unclear on the plan for being in person 5 days/week next year if little kids are not vaccinated.

Deciding on whether to pay the next deposit on private K. I'd prefer public over private, but I NEED 5 days/week for work reasons. Help!

[Anonymous]

No one cares about your child's health. It will be back to normal with no distancing and probably no masks.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one cares about your child's health. It will be back to normal with no distancing and probably no masks.

No as long as making is a DC requirement it will be a requirement in schools. We care about your child's health and the health of staff members, especially ones who are unable to get vaccinated due to medical reasons.

They also have not dropped the 3ft. Why are you giving false info??

I mean all those things MIGHT happen but as of today it's still in place. They have stated they plan for full IPL but have not stated if it will be 5 days a week and no regular half days.

[Anonymous]

When there is so little COVID in the community, it is safe to relax standards because even a group of 100 unvaccinated people probably doesn’t have a single case.

[Anonymous]

Yes it will be back to normal. Cases are single digits in moco and nova. Dc can’t be far behind but the black folks really need to get vaccinated. Fair fax county had one case today. Over a million people. Get it through your thick scull. It will be “safe” in the fall. It’s safe now.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:No one cares about your child's health. It will be back to normal with no distancing and probably no masks.

Good. That would in fact be a recognition of respect for the science about children's health: they are extremely low risk for COVID, aren't the cause of significant community transmission, and with vaccination open to anyone age 12 and up, no longer pose a significant threat to adults either. They should have been back in school full time many, many months ago, as they have been in most parts of the country.

What does show a lack of concern for children's education, as well as their emotional, mental, and physical health, are outdated and unscientific policies that would require social distancing or cohort restrictions or half days or COVID-theater "deep cleaning" in the fall -- the very policies the incompetent Bowser, Ferebee, and the teachers unions have embraced for more than a year.

[Anonymous]

Has anyone heard anything about whether masks will be required in the fall?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes it will be back to normal. Cases are single digits in moco and nova. Dc can’t be far behind but the black folks really need to get vaccinated. Fair fax county had one case today. Over a million people. Get it through your thick scull. It will be “safe” in the fall. It’s safe now.

This is why. There is literally next to no Covid in the community anymore and there will be less in the fall. There will be far more flu circling around AND the flu is far deadlier to kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Has anyone heard anything about whether masks will be required in the fall?

There was an earlier thread about HS students (who are eligible for vaccination) and parents overwhelmingly said they won't be sending their vaccinated HS students in masks. Don't know if DCPS can insist on masks for unvaxxed younger kids but the legal issues of imposing mask mandates on vaccinated kids seem pretty clear. I would think there would be little rational, scientific justification for it even for younger kids given low COVID #s by fall.Which doesn't mean the irrational "masks make me FEEL better / you must cater to my emotional experience" types won't insist on them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes it will be back to normal. Cases are single digits in moco and nova. Dc can’t be far behind but the black folks really need to get vaccinated. Fair fax county had one case today. Over a million people. Get it through your thick scull. It will be “safe” in the fall. It’s safe now.

This is why. There is literally next to no Covid in the community anymore and there will be less in the fall. There will be far more flu circling around AND the flu is far deadlier to kids.

This. People are so insane about covid they aren’t paying any attention to science. Covid is not a big deal for kids. Flu is more dangerous and for many years we’ve still been ok with it.

[Anonymous]

nobody is going to prevent a kid from wearing a mask if he or she wants to wear one. Probably it would help reduce lots of non-covid illnesses if kids did! But the hope is that there will be very little covid by the fall. There were always lots of germs in schools, for things less communicable and less deadly than covid, and kids and teachers were able to attend without social distancing or masks, so the goal should be to go back to that...ideally with a bit more cleaning and hand hygiene and ventilation to reduce the risk of covid and other illnesses.

[Anonymous]

I hope it is fully open in the fall and I hope restrictions on cohorts in daycares is lifted as well because right now the teachers with young kids at my school are panicking about how they can get to work when daycares are opening at 8 or 8:30.

[Anonymous]

Young children don't even need to be vaccinated and probably most of them never will be.

[Anonymous]

Vaccines for kids will probably be available relatively early in the school year, and overall case numbers will be low enough that — with an additional summer of putting in air filtration, etc. — it'll be safe. They may keep up mask requirements and random asymptomatic testing at school, which I'd be fine with. (I would also be fine with making the flu vaccine mandatory, which wouldn't help with covid but would help with preventing the spread of a virus that typically sickens more children than covid seems to.)

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:No one cares about your child's health. It will be back to normal with no distancing and probably no masks.

Good. That would in fact be a recognition of respect for the science about children's health: they are extremely low risk for COVID, aren't the cause of significant community transmission, and with vaccination open to anyone age 12 and up, no longer pose a significant threat to adults either. They should have been back in school full time many, many months ago, as they have been in most parts of the country.

What does show a lack of concern for children's education, as well as their emotional, mental, and physical health, are outdated and unscientific policies that would require social distancing or cohort restrictions or half days or COVID-theater "deep cleaning" in the fall -- the very policies the incompetent Bowser, Ferebee, and the teachers unions have embraced for more than a year.

This isn’t science.