I guess Democrats are tired of exploiting the issue. The situation isn’t fundamentally different than one month ago but all of a sudden, it’s officially a year, and they feel like they should do something.

I’m not sure why. People clearly have tolerated and let them get away with an entire year of loss learning, while their children still go to school in person, and voted for more of the same, so why would anyone defect now?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This doesn’t mean a whole lot. Kids are heading back this week in Arl Co. A friend told me her child will be going to school this week but was told to bring and IPad because the teacher will be teaching remote, but the kids can come to the classroom to watch the teacher remotely. This is a mess!!!

The bill says that the instruction has to be provided by a teacher, not a “monitor.” The bill is good and I believe he will sign it. It passed both the house of delegates and the senate with big bipartisan support. The problem will come if a) the districts try to get an instructional hours waiver next school year (so they can do hybrid again), or b) if FCPS - or I guess any other district but this seems like an FCPS thing because they don’t care about being sued, given how many special education suits they have against them at any one time - just disregards the law and does whatever they want.

FCPS has a lot of lawsuits in part because this is a wealthy litigious area. I say this as a parent of a child with SN who has needed advocates before, but will do everything to avoid suing because I'd rather put the money toward tutors and other services and I have REALISTIC expectations.

Back to SB1303. He is foolish to sign it because if schools cannot provide a safe enough environment and they only offer an option like virtual Virginia they will probably have angry parents coming after them. It should be decided county by county, not at the state level.

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 bill gets signed, 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/covid-schools-reopen-cdc.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-coronavirus-schools-reopening®ion=MAIN_CONTENT_3&context=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.

Anonymous wrote:This doesn’t mean a whole lot. Kids are heading back this week in Arl Co. A friend told me her child will be going to school this week but was told to bring and IPad because the teacher will be teaching remote, but the kids can come to the classroom to watch the teacher remotely. This is a mess!!!

The bill says that the instruction has to be provided by a teacher, not a “monitor.” The bill is good and I believe he will sign it. It passed both the house of delegates and the senate with big bipartisan support. The problem will come if a) the districts try to get an instructional hours waiver next school year (so they can do hybrid again), or b) if FCPS - or I guess any other district but this seems like an FCPS thing because they don’t care about being sued, given how many special education suits they have against them at any one time - just disregards the law and does whatever they want.

This doesn’t mean a whole lot. Kids are heading back this week in Arl Co. A friend told me her child will be going to school this week but was told to bring and IPad because the teacher will be teaching remote, but the kids can come to the classroom to watch the teacher remotely. This is a mess!!!

I think so too, because he has been trying to get the northern virginia schools to open for months and months and months and they aren't listening to him.

Anonymous wrote:He’s going to sign it.

Link? How do you know it. Just because he said it doesn't mean it will happen.

He’s going to sign it.

If I understand, it passed House and senate in Virginia and now it's up to Northam? Any updates on that?