Reply to Allegedly there are several options for the fall none of which include being back full time?

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Reply to "Allegedly there are several options for the fall none of which include being back full time?"

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I don’t understand why everyone thinks this is so simple. “Ugh, why is this so hard!” “Duh, they just have to go back to school!”

I am a parent and a teacher and I am here to tell you that this is complicated. It’s not simple. Putting 500-3000 wiggly, non-rule following humans in a tight space every day in the middle of a pandemic is a challenge. Even if they tend to be asymptomatic. Even if you have to go to work. If we are going to have a real conversation about what needs to happen to open, people on both sides need to agree on the basics. [/quote]

But we won't be "in the middle of a pandemic". The numbers are declining everywhere despite things opening up. [/quote]

We just don't know this yet.  Things have only been opening for a couple weeks.  I am hesitantly optimistic since we are now 2 weeks out from Memorial Day and the numbers are still trending steadily down but the lag between actions and changes to the data in this disease seems to be closer to 1 month than to 2 weeks.  We will not know until end of June/early July.  If numbers are still going down then, that's a lot different than if they stagnate or go back up.  We just don't know and that is frustrating and makes it very hard to plan for the fall.  And I do expect a second wave with flu season.  I don't see how it is at all avoidable.  [b]Also, even if we don't get COVID, if I have to keep my ES kid home every time she has a cough or runny nose, she's going to miss half the winter anyway.[/b][/quote]

One would hope that this could be avoided by readily available testing.[/quote]

Even at its best testing currently requires: an appointment with a health care provider/pediatrician to get swabbed (1 day out of school) and at least 3 days for them to send the test out to the lab, receive the result back, and contact you.  That is 4 days out of school for 1 test, and then really, if you have continuing symptoms, how do you know when to get re-tested?  If you have a cough that is NOT COVID, how do you know if you pick up a new cough that IS COVID?  Especially if the symptoms in kids are very mild.  And if you don't immediately quarantine at the slightest appearance of symptoms, how many people do the ones who have COVID infect before it gets "bad enough" to get tested?  It's a mess, and that is why the schools decision is so difficult.  Our elementary schools bring ~700 kids together every day.  Our middle schools more like 1000-1200; high schools up to 3000.  If there's any significant degree of COVID circulating when cold/flu season comes, there's going to be a LOT of missed school even if schools are open for "normal" in person instruction.  Because you don't know for at least 3-4 days if that cough is COVID or not.  And every time you develop a new/different symptom you should probably be re-testing and quarantined until you get the results.  Little kids get sick a lot.  They will miss a lot of school.  [/quote]

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