ACPS COVID cases / possible COVID cases - what is being hidden from parents
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Anonymous
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I have been told that at one central Alexandria elementary school there were five positive covid cases and that at another elementary school, there was at least one child with cold/flu like symptoms who remained in an enclosed class room even after students expressed concern. It seems ACPS is severely limiting the information be shared on COVID positive, and potentially COVID positive, situations. This appears to be a top down policy.
Does anyone have more information? |
Anonymous
| ACPS is a sh*t show. Seriously. It is the worse district in the NoVa area and we ended up going private. |
Anonymous
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School has been in session for one week except for Tucker, and the “dashboard” supposedly updates by Monday afternoon, so unless you attend the school or class in session I don’t think you would have seen updates yet. Is it your student’s school or class you are concerned about?
https://www.acps.k12.va.us/domain/1600 |
Anonymous
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I understand the ACPS COVID dashboard is supposed to update by COB Mondays. Will be interesting to see if these known cases from the first week are reflected in the posted data. Still can’t believe they won’t allow outdoor lunches at most schools. This thing is going to blow up over the next month. Sigh…
https://www.acps.k12.va.us/domain/1600 |
Anonymous
Of the two examples I gave, one is my child’s school. From my personal experience and what I was told about the other school, I am more concerned about ACPS policy/practices. In particular, my sense is ACPS is trying to severely limit the information shared (on privacy grounds even if more can be shared without identifying specific students) and thus parents really cannot sense what risk their children face (especially with the bad policies like no outdoor lunch, etc). |
Anonymous
| Dd is in middle school. She voiced her concerns that kids are not being monitored when arriving at school. Too many kids and not all kids are getting scan for high temperature in the mornings. Dh heard the conversation and today he called the health department to investigate.Dd goes to George Washington middle school. We are on a wait list at a private school. |
Anonymous
I am eager to see the COVID dashboard data. I am unimpressed with how Hutchings is responding to parents' concerns, especially about outdoor lunch. But we have friends and family members in well-regarded FCPS elementary schools and they are equally unimpressed with their schools' COVID precautions. I don't know that anyone is handling this well. |
Anonymous
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It was always going to be a sh1tshow everywhere, OP, in all public schools. It's cultural. We're not in Asia, where people are disciplined and get a positive feedback loop for following rules.
Keep contacting central office, the school board and your local elected officials to encourage more transparency. |
Anonymous
Ha! Are you suggesting doing EXACTLY what Dr Hutchings and the school board complained about, at length, last week? No, in ACPS you should NOT contact the administration or school board as they are far too busy to listen to your concerns about your child. Additionally, if you have the desire to reach out to someone in ACPS, you have then placed yourself in the very small group of parents that complain, which invalidates your concerns, as they are specifically there to serve parents that never reach out. They can do this easily as they know best. Also, don't contact your child's principal, they've they specifically instructed not to respond to parent concerns. What they would prefer you do is wait for an as of yet unbuilt system, so they can properly log and ignore your comments. |
Anonymous
| Well, 45 students are quarantined this week so it seems like the people that need to know most, have been notified by now. |
Anonymous
I am not sure where you got that number. Also, ACPS seemed to be considering quarantining portions of classes. If I am a parent of a student in a class where there is a partial quarantine (although my child may be not part of it) I would still want to know about it. I suspect ACPS will not be disclosing the quarantine to other parents in those circumstances. |
Anonymous
Temperature scanning is not an effective way to identify COVID cases, so I don't particularly care about that. I'm concerned that they are not doing periodic testing, like some other school districts. |
Anonymous
Are these all from the same school? What school? |
Anonymous
GW. Students identified last week. |
Anonymous
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I think Dr. Hutchings said that ACPS has volunteered to participate in VDH's screening testing program but that it will not be rolled out until October - can't believe the Commonwealth did not get the kinks worked out sooner.
Anyhow, I think a stopgap measure like a screening testing program where students can get PCR tests from one of the Curative kiosks should be put into place. I get that the reporting may not be consistent but this mitigation measure is so important especially since 3 feet distancing is not being done. https://www.vdh.virginia.gov/content/uploads/sites/182/2021/04/K-12-COVID-19-Screening-Testing-Pilot-Program-Overview.pdf#:~:text=The%20Virginia%20Department%20of%20Health%20%28VDH%29%20and%20the,during%20the%20remainder%20of%20the%202020-2021%20school%20year. |