I think the problem is that kids will actually come into contact with more people if they are only in school part-time, since they'll be in child care or with relatives.

In a perfect world, we would hire a massive number of teachers (or at least distance-learning facilitators, who can manage a blended classroom, with a good team making the materials). Rec centers and libraries and other public sites would be used for classrooms. Each classroom would be open every day from 8am-6pm but parents could drop off later and pick up earlier if needed, and instruction would only be from 9-3 with the rest of the time for playing or watching movies or other typical before/aftercare activities. Each classroom would have no more than 10 kids in it, ideally grouped to be on a similar level. Lunch would be delivered to the classrooms; recess would be staggered. Probably it would only be 4 days a week to allow for the longer days. Parents would be able to work better with 4 days of full-time school and kids wouldn't be bouncing as much between grandma and day care and school.

But this would be hard and expensive to pull off. I don't know what you do about teachers whose kids are in other districts or if you shut down a whole room if one person gets sick. There really isn't a good answer here. we're all just picking from a crappy set of choices.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get no one likes these plans, but what is your solution? They are trying to get kids back in school the best way they can. They can’t just open up schools with 500 kids and act like nothing happened. I don’t know what the right answer is but most people here won’t be happy with any solution

It's really not that hard to come up with ideas. If you're trying to minimize the number of kids present in school, we should be investing heavily in some full year virtual education options--like guided home schooling. In the other thread, I suggested reallocating principals and teachers with health concerns to a new 'virtual school'. Maybe stand up and Elementary, Middle, and High. If 10-20% of families opt into this, it opens up more possibilities for bringing kids back closer to full time at in-person schools.

Additionally, I'd like to see the city planning in lockdown periods to coincide for both school and elsewhere. We know the virus is likely to come back strong in the fall. Why not plan for a citywide cycle of something like 6 weeks on and 3 weeks off to contain the spread before it gets out of control. Right now, we're assuming there will be some unspecified trigger condition. But that's still going to come up on us more quickly than we would like. If we're proactive and go ahead and have occasional strict social distancing periods, we can keep everything from getting bad and hopefully better deal with the lockdown periods.

I like this. The problem is it can't just be the schools - everything woudl have to shut down for 3 weeks. What gets me is that it is JUST our children that are paying the price. THEY will be DL or in a school 2 days a week but the bars and coffee shops and resturants and spas and dog groomers and acupuncturists and churches will be oopen 7 days a week.

When’s the last time you went to a restaurant/bar/coffee shop/salon/groomer/church and a sick person sneezed on you, coughed all over your table, picked their nose and wiped it on your table, sucked their thumb and then handed you something, chewed a marker and then gave it to you...kids are gross. That’s the difference between a business and a school.

Love it! I was just saying this to a co-worker. Also, most kids want touch.. the lean and climbing on each other and adults they trust. They share everything, hygiene is a joke. Also, idk about you 3, 6, or 13 year old but in my experience they will act up when they know you are on the phone and can't come get them, play "I am not touching you" while holding a finger inches from a peer, just take off at time walk, run or skip away.. if they don't want to do something... So in a world with 6 feet spacing how is a teach if a kid takes off or realizes, actions are not corrected bacause on one wants to get close...??

Are we providing a supplies box for each kid?? Are we other wise emptying class rooms of anything that can not be bleached??
Are we opening windows or providing out side class spaces ? (Are we allowing sunblock and coats to be provided at school?
Are teacher being issues hazmat suits?

In my mind, school is important enough that we should send kids back full time w/ whatever adjustments are necessary (kids stay in one classroom all the time, desks are spaced as far apart as they can be, handwashing breaks, temp checks on entrance) and see what happens. Right now we're assuming that school = massive spread of COVID, but there's actually no evidence of that. When it comes to things like salons, sure, take the conservative approach. But schools? No. Schools need to open unless/until there is evidence that they need to shut down.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get no one likes these plans, but what is your solution? They are trying to get kids back in school the best way they can. They can’t just open up schools with 500 kids and act like nothing happened. I don’t know what the right answer is but most people here won’t be happy with any solution

It's really not that hard to come up with ideas. If you're trying to minimize the number of kids present in school, we should be investing heavily in some full year virtual education options--like guided home schooling. In the other thread, I suggested reallocating principals and teachers with health concerns to a new 'virtual school'. Maybe stand up and Elementary, Middle, and High. If 10-20% of families opt into this, it opens up more possibilities for bringing kids back closer to full time at in-person schools.

Additionally, I'd like to see the city planning in lockdown periods to coincide for both school and elsewhere. We know the virus is likely to come back strong in the fall. Why not plan for a citywide cycle of something like 6 weeks on and 3 weeks off to contain the spread before it gets out of control. Right now, we're assuming there will be some unspecified trigger condition. But that's still going to come up on us more quickly than we would like. If we're proactive and go ahead and have occasional strict social distancing periods, we can keep everything from getting bad and hopefully better deal with the lockdown periods.

You can’t compare the U.S. to Taiwan. Taiwan has been a leader in how to handle this pandemic, and they actually follow proper social distancing protocols. We can’t even get people to wear masks in public here.
I like this. The problem is it can't just be the schools - everything woudl have to shut down for 3 weeks. What gets me is that it is JUST our children that are paying the price. THEY will be DL or in a school 2 days a week but the bars and coffee shops and restaurants and spas and dog groomers and acupuncturists and churches will be oopen 7 days a week.

When’s the last time you went to a restaurant/bar/coffee shop/salon/groomer/church and a sick person sneezed on you, coughed all over your table, picked their nose and wiped it on your table, sucked their thumb and then handed you something, chewed a marker and then gave it to you...kids are gross. That’s the difference between a business and a school.

Yes, there is. The biggest difference is that worldwide there is far more evidence of transmission in business settings than school settings. Taiwan went back to school planning to shut schools down again if necessary and there have only been ~9 cases at schools... unlike the rest of Taiwan, which they had to shut down again.

Formatting issue above...


You can’t compare the U.S. to Taiwan. Taiwan has been a leader in how to handle this pandemic, and they actually follow proper social distancing protocols. We can’t even get people to wear masks in public here.

But that's the point... Even in Taiwan, the transmission has not been in schools despite schools being the place social distancing/mask protocols are the hardest to enforce. I strongly suggest people read Emily Oster's blog. There is actually very good evidence and getting better that kids not only get less sick from the virus, but actually both get it less often AND transmit it less. Worldwide there is virtually *no* evidence of school being a substantial vector for COVID despite how crazy that sounds. (Taiwan does have all kids stay in the same classrooms all the time and has any rotation that needs to happen at the MS/HS level occur by teachers coming to classrooms rather than vice versa; we'd need to implement that too.)

They have actually started the two-days a week program in some schools (not in DCPS obviously, but my sister teaches in another country that has reopened its schools with this program). She had to scramble to sort out childcare for her kids, but made it work. I know other countries are experimenting with other approaches too. We hopefully will get to see from them how this works--the one good thing about a pandemic is we don't have to figure out everything on our own I suppose.

For me (with a rising PK4 student), I think 2 days a weeks is about a good an idea as any, given the difficult choices. Learning at home with two full time working parents is...not great. I just hope the cleaning protocols are carefully implemented, because I don't see how social distancing works once the kids are in the classroom.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:kids need to go half a day, every day. The afternoon is spent cleaning the school. Social distancing is impossible for elem kids. Thats just dumb. There is no vaccine until 2022. We need to jump back and just start school and see what happens.

Ok, school is 9:00-1:00. 23 kids in a classroom and no one leaves the classroom (teachers come to them) unless it's an iep pull out. Temp checks, masks every day. If a student in a classroom tests positive, the entire classroom is home for two weeks but not the school. Lunch is sent home with kids. Building is cleaned and ventilated with uv lights every afternoon.

Nobody leaves to use the bathroom? Otherwise it sounds good.

Anonymous wrote:kids need to go half a day, every day. The afternoon is spent cleaning the school. Social distancing is impossible for elem kids. Thats just dumb. There is no vaccine until 2022. We need to jump back and just start school and see what happens.

Ok, school is 9:00-1:00. 23 kids in a classroom and no one leaves the classroom (teachers come to them) unless it's an iep pull out. Temp checks, masks every day. If a student in a classroom tests positive, the entire classroom is home for two weeks but not the school. Lunch is sent home with kids. Building is cleaned and ventilated with uv lights every afternoon.

Anonymous wrote:The two day per week plan is exactly what they are considering in Ohio acc to a friend who teaches there. It is not considered unreasonable. That’s what you should be preparing for.

Lol. DC parents are loading their minds. So, many other school systems have done little or nothing at all. There is no debating this is how it is deal with it.

Anonymous wrote:Either it's safe for them to return fully or it's not and DL should continue for all. These half-measures won't solve any of the problems facing these kids, their teachers or their parents.

I agree with this.

Either it's safe for them to return fully or it's not and DL should continue for all. These half-measures won't solve any of the problems facing these kids, their teachers or their parents.

kids need to go half a day, every day. The afternoon is spent cleaning the school. Social distancing is impossible for elem kids. Thats just dumb. There is no vaccine until 2022. We need to jump back and just start school and see what happens.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:The problem is the teacher's union which won't agree to having classes anywhere except regular classrooms. If they could use cafeterias, gyms, etc there would be a lot more flexibility.

NOt true! Whose responsible when kid wanders off in library, gets accosted at rec center, gets covid from interaction at the gym! Liability issues, what happens if parents don't pick up the kids or they get hurt or hungry.

Umm you close them to the public during school hours. Very simple.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get no one likes these plans, but what is your solution? They are trying to get kids back in school the best way they can. They can’t just open up schools with 500 kids and act like nothing happened. I don’t know what the right answer is but most people here won’t be happy with any solution

It's really not that hard to come up with ideas. If you're trying to minimize the number of kids present in school, we should be investing heavily in some full year virtual education options--like guided home schooling. In the other thread, I suggested reallocating principals and teachers with health concerns to a new 'virtual school'. Maybe stand up and Elementary, Middle, and High. If 10-20% of families opt into this, it opens up more possibilities for bringing kids back closer to full time at in-person schools.

Additionally, I'd like to see the city planning in lockdown periods to coincide for both school and elsewhere. We know the virus is likely to come back strong in the fall. Why not plan for a citywide cycle of something like 6 weeks on and 3 weeks off to contain the spread before it gets out of control. Right now, we're assuming there will be some unspecified trigger condition. But that's still going to come up on us more quickly than we would like. If we're proactive and go ahead and have occasional strict social distancing periods, we can keep everything from getting bad and hopefully better deal with the lockdown periods.

I like this. The problem is it can't just be the schools - everything woudl have to shut down for 3 weeks. What gets me is that it is JUST our children that are paying the price. THEY will be DL or in a school 2 days a week but the bars and coffee shops and resturants and spas and dog groomers and acupuncturists and churches will be oopen 7 days a week.

agree 100000000%. if its not safe for kids to be in school as normal, then these things also should logically be closed: in restaurant bar or dining, salons, nail places, massage places, churches, hotels...

But they can limit customers and limit the number or worker.
We can't just say oh, sorry only the 1st 10 kids to show up get a seat in class today.
If we could hire a bunch of extra teachers and make neighborhood school out of rec centers, libraries, add trailers to parking lost and fields to keep classes small and isolated that would be ideal. That is not possible. So, we figure out the next best things..

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I get no one likes these plans, but what is your solution? They are trying to get kids back in school the best way they can. They can’t just open up schools with 500 kids and act like nothing happened. I don’t know what the right answer is but most people here won’t be happy with any solution

It's really not that hard to come up with ideas. If you're trying to minimize the number of kids present in school, we should be investing heavily in some full year virtual education options--like guided home schooling. In the other thread, I suggested reallocating principals and teachers with health concerns to a new 'virtual school'. Maybe stand up and Elementary, Middle, and High. If 10-20% of families opt into this, it opens up more possibilities for bringing kids back closer to full time at in-person schools.

Additionally, I'd like to see the city planning in lockdown periods to coincide for both school and elsewhere. We know the virus is likely to come back strong in the fall. Why not plan for a citywide cycle of something like 6 weeks on and 3 weeks off to contain the spread before it gets out of control. Right now, we're assuming there will be some unspecified trigger condition. But that's still going to come up on us more quickly than we would like. If we're proactive and go ahead and have occasional strict social distancing periods, we can keep everything from getting bad and hopefully better deal with the lockdown periods.

I like this. The problem is it can't just be the schools - everything woudl have to shut down for 3 weeks. What gets me is that it is JUST our children that are paying the price. THEY will be DL or in a school 2 days a week but the bars and coffee shops and resturants and spas and dog groomers and acupuncturists and churches will be oopen 7 days a week.

I don't like long breaks it is really hard for my kid to adjust. That said your plan makes since. I don't know the number of weeks that would be ideal I would listen to the science for that part. But your idea makes since which is probably why they won't do it.

Anonymous wrote:My special needs DS is supposed to start Deal in the fall. This is going to kill us both. I understand why and don't disagree that we need to continue social distancing, but this is going to be hell on me.

I'm sorry. This is such a hard time to start a new school, especially for kid with special needs. The teachers and administrators are all going to do their absolute best to make it work well for students, but I know it is far from perfect.