Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Test, trace, isolate! Flatten the curve!

Let's hope this will help convince the Open Up Now crowd to vaccinate their kids.

stop getting your news from EFD’s Twitter feed. Open schools now does not equal anti-vax.

There’s a lot of overlap between open schools and anti mask and anti vax.

Probably not as extreme in Arlington as in some other places but it still exists. Many of the more extreme here have roots in other parts of the country like Texas or Florida and are mad we have more stringent rules here. So it’s smart to incentivize.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have a problem with kids continuing to wear masks in school for the rest of this school year, but I hope that in addition to no quarantine there will be no mask requirement for vaccinated kids next year.

No, this a bad idea. Masks need to be required for everyone (all students), or optional for all. It’s too hard keeping track of who is & isn’t vaccinated, and it’s unfair since minors can’t make their own health care decisions.
Also, imagine in 6th grade when half the kids are old enough for the vaccine and half aren’t.

If there is to be no quarantine requirement for vaccinated kids, presumably they’ll be verifying status anyway, right? They can just tack on masks to that resolution. Vaccinated = no quarantine requirement, no mask requirement. Maybe they could give a distinctive rubber bracelet to kids whose families provide proof of vaccination, and kids can opt to wear or show the bracelet in lieu of a mask. Sixth grade keeps all masked to avoid hurt feelings until 11 and under has a chance to vaccinate. Sorry about the kids whose families don’t get them vaccinated, but that’s no reason to keep the entire school population masked when our society is moving on. If the transmission numbers are low enough I think it would be fine to not require masks in school at all.

Anonymous wrote:I don’t have a problem with kids continuing to wear masks in school for the rest of this school year, but I hope that in addition to no quarantine there will be no mask requirement for vaccinated kids next year.

No, this a bad idea. Masks need to be required for everyone (all students), or optional for all. It’s too hard keeping track of who is & isn’t vaccinated, and it’s unfair since minors can’t make their own health care decisions.
Also, imagine in 6th grade when half the kids are old enough for the vaccine and half aren’t.

I don’t have a problem with kids continuing to wear masks in school for the rest of this school year, but I hope that in addition to no quarantine there will be no mask requirement for vaccinated kids next year.

Lots of families may have forgotten that, not known it at all, or didn’t trust APS to apply it in a school setting. This informs the first two groups and incentivizes them and hopefully reassures the last group.

Anonymous wrote:So, regarding the message from Dr. Duran, this is existing CDC guidance (no quarantine for someone with confirmed exposure post-vaccination). The fact that this was announced for fall like some kind of prize for getting vaccinated is odd to me.

Also, Arlington had 3 COVID cases yesterday. I am not going to say that there will be zero COVID this fall but they are going to need to come up with a better plan. They are, from what I understand, keeping kids out of school even after repeated negative tests.

FTR, I am getting my kids vaccinated ASAP. Like, this week if possible. I am extremely pro-vaccine. But not taking it as great news that APS is making a show of following CDC guidelines in 4 months.

I am not sure why you think it is odd that he made this statement. We are in week two of a quarantine due to exposure and it has been so hard on my kids. The first week my 3rd grader appetite drastically reduced and he needed me to lay down with him at night which he hasn't needed since he was a baby. He would just lay there with his arms wrapped around me and cry because he was so upset he had to go back to full virtual.

And we are one of the families who said virtual went fine for them. I really thought it did. My kid did all the work, he didn't fight with me, but apparently my kid was just powering through.

Anyway, all i am saying is that not having to quarantine is a HUGE benefit to vaccination. OF course Dr. Duran didn't make it up, but it is a strong benefit to vaccination. Why shouldn't he mention it?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Test, trace, isolate! Flatten the curve!

Let's hope this will help convince the Open Up Now crowd to vaccinate their kids.

stop getting your news from EFD’s Twitter feed. Open schools now does not equal anti-vax.

Anonymous wrote:Test, trace, isolate! Flatten the curve!

Let's hope this will help convince the Open Up Now crowd to vaccinate their kids.

Test, trace, isolate! Flatten the curve!

Anonymous wrote:So, regarding the message from Dr. Duran, this is existing CDC guidance (no quarantine for someone with confirmed exposure post-vaccination). The fact that this was announced for fall like some kind of prize for getting vaccinated is odd to me.

Also, Arlington had 3 COVID cases yesterday. I am not going to say that there will be zero COVID this fall but they are going to need to come up with a better plan. They are, from what I understand, keeping kids out of school even after repeated negative tests.

FTR, I am getting my kids vaccinated ASAP. Like, this week if possible. I am extremely pro-vaccine. But not taking it as great news that APS is making a show of following CDC guidelines in 4 months.

True, but schools are not always following the CDC guidance, and in some cases they are being more strict. So this was welcome news.

Great news about cases in Arlington. Even in elementary school, kids are not in a bubble and are doing sports and other activities with kids in Fairfax, Loudoun, etc. fingers crossed cases stay low across the region. Things are moving in the right direction.

So, regarding the message from Dr. Duran, this is existing CDC guidance (no quarantine for someone with confirmed exposure post-vaccination). The fact that this was announced for fall like some kind of prize for getting vaccinated is odd to me.

Also, Arlington had 3 COVID cases yesterday. I am not going to say that there will be zero COVID this fall but they are going to need to come up with a better plan. They are, from what I understand, keeping kids out of school even after repeated negative tests.

FTR, I am getting my kids vaccinated ASAP. Like, this week if possible. I am extremely pro-vaccine. But not taking it as great news that APS is making a show of following CDC guidelines in 4 months.

Anonymous wrote:That’s going to be a problem with no virtual fallback option. I am not a propont of one, but if the policy stays the same, kids will miss 2 weeks of school. Will there be any recorded lessons? I would guess if the whole class is out they’ll have to do something for them while they’re home.

For next year, I think APS is just planning for asynchronous work for any students subject to a quarantine period. Hopefully there won't be many outbreaks and/or the quarantine periods won't be for very long. Otherwise, without a virtual fallback option, there could be a lot of disruption in ES classes.

That’s going to be a problem with no virtual fallback option. I am not a propont of one, but if the policy stays the same, kids will miss 2 weeks of school. Will there be any recorded lessons? I would guess if the whole class is out they’ll have to do something for them while they’re home.

Agreed! Now we just need to worry about constant interruption for ES.

From Durans message today... good policy!

We strongly encourage everyone to get vaccinated. Students who have received the COVID-19 vaccine will be exempt from quarantine in the new school year if identified in close contact tracing due to possible exposure.