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[quote=Anonymous]Looking at this through a secondary lens -- before you blame teachers or anyone else, take a look at the stringent department of health requirements that schools in DC would have to follow to be able to open to any students. They have to screen students at the door. A school already doing it says it takes 30 seconds per kid. Think about a MS or HS that wants to  allow 400 kids/day into the building. It could be hours just to get the kids' butts in their seats. There are requirements about the numbers of total people allowed in each room PLUS social distancing requirements in classrooms that would not even allow some schools to divide their student body in half to do a hybrid model because of classroom size/shape. Kids are not allowed to transition from class to class through the hallways, and the DOH is discouraging even teachers from moving from class to class. This would mean reworking the entire school schedule and revamping all student schedules to get them into some kind of cohort-like thing, which would definitely be incredibly challenging and in a lot of places would be impossible.  Plus, of course, the HVAC upgrades, the intensive cleaning schedule, the endless supplies needed, the questions about what you do if your staff gets sick, unknowns about getting kids to and from school, etc. Other states ARE doing hybrid models, but they do not have requirements like this. I've seen schools in other state that have opened in a hybrid fashion, and they keep it very simple: half of the kids in school every day. No long screening process. No "this is the absolute max number of students who could be in one room." No "kids cannot go in the hallways and there is to be no transitioning of classes."  It's probably good that DC is being so much more thoughtful (this is the kind of thing that makes our numbers so good, right?) But at the same time, these requirements are so prohibitive that it should really not be surprising that not a lot of schools are moving forward with a plan. It's nearly impossible to make one and follow all of the rules. Then, add on whatever teacher pushback exists, etc. and it becomes a non-starter. [/quote]

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