Reply to How Does Fall Look If All Students Go Back?

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Reply to "How Does Fall Look If All Students Go Back?"

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[quote=Anonymous]I know people are convinced that it's only NOVA that is not fully back to school, but there are multiple school divisions around the state that are still doing some version of virtual/hybrid.

Look, it makes life easier for all of the school divisions if the Northam signs the bill requiring 5 days a week in person, because right now the divisions are between a rock and a hard place.

According to the most recent CDC guidelines, the schools should be on hybrid/virtual at this time, and while there are loud "open school" voices, there are also loud voice of people freaking out about ventilation and other things. Like I said, rock and a hard place.

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2021/03/02/us/...ontext=storyline_keepup_recirc

Excerpt from article linked above, written March 2
"But even after drastic drops in the number of new coronavirus cases, few counties in the United States meet the C.D.C.’s thresholds to avoid major restrictions, which are based on both the number of cases and test-positivity rates.
As of Thursday, those thresholds put most counties in categories where the agency recommended elementary schools reduce the number of students in classrooms with a mix of in-person and at-home learning. For middle and high schools, the thresholds and data suggest fully remote learning in large portions of the country."

[The map accompanying the article shows only two counties in VA currently meeting the threshold for full in-person, those fortunately numbers are trending in a good direction.
That leaves ALL of the other jurisdictions in the hybrid category.]

Again from the article
"Hybrid learning , with some students in school and others learning online at home, is the recommendation when a community has 50 to 100 new weekly cases per 100,000 people or a seven-day positivity rate of 8 to 10 percent. In those areas, the goal is to reduce in-person attendance to maintain separation between students, according to the recommendations, which say the six-foot separation is “required.” In practice, some schools have reduced class sizes by allowing only high-needs students to attend in person, while other students learn virtually. Others have had students attend part time."

One of the big challenges this year has been planning for multiple variations of learning. Simultaneously having to work out all of the logistics for virtual, in-person, or some combination of the two, where the numbers of students in those categories can fluctuate.

If Northam signs the bill, then every school division knows they can only make one plan. 5 days a week in person. That plan may be in direct violation of the CDC guidelines, but if people yell at the school divisions, the school divisions can say "the legislature and the governor have ordered us to disregard CDC guidelines, and to open schools."
Now, it the best-case scenario, they will be able to open 5 days a week in-person AND will be able to do so without going against CDC guidelines. This would happen if:
A. CDC changes the guidelines
B. CDC guidelines remain the same, but the rollout of the vaccine reduces community spread to the point that all jurisdictions are at that lower risk level, and are therefore in the range that recommends full in-person learning.[/quote]

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