Testing, testing, and more testing: Israel’s plan to reopen schools.

[Anonymous]

https://www.timesofisrael.com/testing-testing-and-more-testing-israel-lays-out-plan-for-reopening-schools/amp/

Where is our testing? Other countries are able to open schools because of testing.

I’m serious. DCPS as usual has no plan.

Our Chancellor is terrible and Central Office is a chaotic mess that AGAIN this year in August has no real plan.

My god.

[Anonymous]

If we don't test we can pretend everything is fine.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If we don't test we can pretend everything is fine.

I think it's worse than even that.

I think Ferebee has no plan except marketing and PR - just deceiving parents while telling principals to figure it out.

Did you see his email that was all about how DC was offering a virtual option only later to reveal that only 19 students got the virtual option out of 50,000 DCPS students? Last year Ferebee had no plan and reacted to every COVID up and down. This year, same: no plan. It's a big big big problem.

[Anonymous]

Sela is testing all students/staff twice a week, with temperature checks daily. They were able to open in November 2020 and stay open - with only two positive cases the whole year.

[Anonymous]

Random surveillance testing is the best approach. Like NYC.

[Anonymous]

Frequent testing would be a disaster.
1)Under the DCPS current plan, any positive test will send home an entire class (and in the case of middle and high school 5-8 classes) for 2 weeks.
2)DCPS has no plan for virtual instruction once kids are sent home for 2 weeks. They will sit at home doing nothing. Then they will return to school, another kid will be postive and the entire group will be sent right back home.
3)the virus is overwhelmingly benign in kids.

[Anonymous]

Random testing picks up way too many false positives. Kids would be forced to miss school for no reason.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Frequent testing would be a disaster.
1)Under the DCPS current plan, any positive test will send home an entire class (and in the case of middle and high school 5-8 classes) for 2 weeks.
2)DCPS has no plan for virtual instruction once kids are sent home for 2 weeks. They will sit at home doing nothing. Then they will return to school, another kid will be postive and the entire group will be sent right back home.
3)the virus is overwhelmingly benign in kids.

Yep this. If they come up with a more sensible plan I'd be all for it. But not if this is the response.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Frequent testing would be a disaster.
1)Under the DCPS current plan, any positive test will send home an entire class (and in the case of middle and high school 5-8 classes) for 2 weeks.
2)DCPS has no plan for virtual instruction once kids are sent home for 2 weeks. They will sit at home doing nothing. Then they will return to school, another kid will be postive and the entire group will be sent right back home.
3)the virus is overwhelmingly benign in kids.

But the Israeli plan isn't like this.

If a student tests positive for COVID-19, that student will enter quarantine, and their entire class will be required to get tested. Those who test positive will also enter quarantine, and those who test negative can stay in class as long as they get tested every single day for seven days. Those who refuse to be tested daily will have to enter quarantine as is currently required.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frequent testing would be a disaster.
1)Under the DCPS current plan, any positive test will send home an entire class (and in the case of middle and high school 5-8 classes) for 2 weeks.
2)DCPS has no plan for virtual instruction once kids are sent home for 2 weeks. They will sit at home doing nothing. Then they will return to school, another kid will be postive and the entire group will be sent right back home.
3)the virus is overwhelmingly benign in kids.

Yep this. If they come up with a more sensible plan I'd be all for it. But not if this is the response.

THERE IS GOING TO BE VIRTUAL INSTRUCTION FOR QUARANTINES. They didn’t do it for summer school because there is no mandated instruction time. Do I need to scream this again for the people in the back?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frequent testing would be a disaster.
1)Under the DCPS current plan, any positive test will send home an entire class (and in the case of middle and high school 5-8 classes) for 2 weeks.
2)DCPS has no plan for virtual instruction once kids are sent home for 2 weeks. They will sit at home doing nothing. Then they will return to school, another kid will be postive and the entire group will be sent right back home.
3)the virus is overwhelmingly benign in kids.

Yep this. If they come up with a more sensible plan I'd be all for it. But not if this is the response.

THERE IS GOING TO BE VIRTUAL INSTRUCTION FOR QUARANTINES. They didn’t do it for summer school because there is no mandated instruction time. Do I need to scream this again for the people in the back?

I'm not that worried about #2. I am very worries about 1 and 3.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Frequent testing would be a disaster.
1)Under the DCPS current plan, any positive test will send home an entire class (and in the case of middle and high school 5-8 classes) for 2 weeks.
2)DCPS has no plan for virtual instruction once kids are sent home for 2 weeks. They will sit at home doing nothing. Then they will return to school, another kid will be postive and the entire group will be sent right back home.
3)the virus is overwhelmingly benign in kids.

Yep this. If they come up with a more sensible plan I'd be all for it. But not if this is the response.

THERE IS GOING TO BE VIRTUAL INSTRUCTION FOR QUARANTINES. They didn’t do it for summer school because there is no mandated instruction time. Do I need to scream this again for the people in the back?

I'm not that worried about #2. I am very worries about 1 and 3.

+1

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Random testing picks up way too many false positives. Kids would be forced to miss school for no reason.

So, when Trump said stop testing so we have fewer cases on the record, we said cult of personality, anti-science, nutter (correctly, in my view), but now parents are saying stop testing so we have fewer cases on record, and we're supposed to say right-o? Crazy.

[Anonymous]

While I do think there will be virtual instruction it is important to note the quality of that instruction and the logistics of it. I teach HS so I am thinking of it from that perspective but if a kid tests positive and every student they are in class with has to quarantine (which I know DCPS might change but for right now that’s the policy) then I will have many a few kids out on quarantine from each class I teach. So I’ll be in person teaching and those kids will need to either be able to watch class from home or I need to upload videos or materials for them. It is just logistically a nightmare and most teachers I know said they aren’t going to be able to focus much on those quarantined kids unfortunately.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Random testing picks up way too many false positives. Kids would be forced to miss school for no reason.

So, when Trump said stop testing so we have fewer cases on the record, we said cult of personality, anti-science, nutter (correctly, in my view), but now parents are saying stop testing so we have fewer cases on record, and we're supposed to say right-o? Crazy.

If DC accounted for false positives in their protocols, then no problem. But, in a school where you test, say, 1000 kids over the course of a week, TWENTY of those tests may come back with false positives. That means classes for those 20 kids (or more) will be sent home for 2 weeks without recourse. That could be more than half the school.

If the school would accept a second negative PCR test as proof that the kids are negative, we could avoid this. But if they can't manage this much nuance, then testing is more harmful than helpful.