Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate the constructive comments, both supportive and challenging to this notion. I fully understand that this is an unorthodox approach, but given the road my family, as well as others, have been on to get here, it's almost literally the only safe path forward.

Yes, it is difficulty for the school to figure this problem out.
Yes, there is a lot of leg work for us to do in order to build support within the community and with MCPS administration.

But it is demonstrable that schools are currently ill-equipped to mitigate the spread of COVID (and other airborne diseases). It is also the case that kids are affected by this disease and it's complications, including disability and death. Furthermore, there are an estimated 30% of households dealing with the complications of long-COVID which directly correlates with the rise in chronic absenteeism in MCPS.

My point is, it is actually imperative that the school begins to address this issue lest we as a county/society choose to accept the medical burden we are placing on our kids for literally their entire lives.

But more specifically to my daughter, she is guaranteed, by law, free and safe access to a full education in the least-restrictive manner possible. In-person schooling is currently NOT safe; at home IIS services currently are not a full education; virtual schooling is currently not an option (nor will it be next year). It is upon the school to ensure that access, that is what this cohort is trying to achieve.

I’m sorry for what your child is going through but I think you are placing a highly irrational degree of faith in ventilation and masks. Respiratory illnesses and immune compromised kids existed before covid. Creating some kind of bubble classroom for them was not feasible before and is not feasible now. A child so fragile that they cannot get a respiratory virus probably needs to be homeschooled or put on the medical homecare program.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate the constructive comments, both supportive and challenging to this notion. I fully understand that this is an unorthodox approach, but given the road my family, as well as others, have been on to get here, it's almost literally the only safe path forward.

Yes, it is difficulty for the school to figure this problem out.
Yes, there is a lot of leg work for us to do in order to build support within the community and with MCPS administration.

But it is demonstrable that schools are currently ill-equipped to mitigate the spread of COVID (and other airborne diseases). It is also the case that kids are affected by this disease and it's complications, including disability and death. Furthermore, there are an estimated 30% of households dealing with the complications of long-COVID which directly correlates with the rise in chronic absenteeism in MCPS.

My point is, it is actually imperative that the school begins to address this issue lest we as a county/society choose to accept the medical burden we are placing on our kids for literally their entire lives.

But more specifically to my daughter, she is guaranteed, by law, free and safe access to a full education in the least-restrictive manner possible. In-person schooling is currently NOT safe; at home IIS services currently are not a full education; virtual schooling is currently not an option (nor will it be next year). It is upon the school to ensure that access, that is what this cohort is trying to achieve.

I’m sorry for what your child is going through but I think you are placing a highly irrational degree of faith in ventilation and masks. Respiratory illnesses and immune compromised kids existed before covid. Creating some kind of bubble classroom for them was not feasible before and is not feasible now. A child so fragile that they cannot get a respiratory virus probably needs to be homeschooled or put on the medical homecare program.

Yes, this. Ventilation and masks will not do it. OP should not presume to be doing this on behalf of broader society, either. We are in the second school year of mask optional and society has continued to function. I highly doubt there will be a popular resurgence of interest in requiring masks in schools.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What did such medically fragile students do before COVID?

As the parent of a very medically fragile child before COVID, I can tell you that we dealt with an Interim Instructional Service program that didn't work at all. We had new teachers all the time. The teachers came a few hours a week with no access to the gen ed curriculum, and they changed all the time. Each new teacher had to then be reintroduced to my kid and his specific needs.

The program also had a great deal of difficulty understanding the fact that my medically fragile kid was in fact medically fragile, and that things like visits with specialists who scheduled months in advance took precedence over IIS sessions. I had someone complain when I said we couldn't do sessions on Tuesdays because he had a weekly infusion of an experimental drug that had to be done over many hours in the hospital, that we weren't being flexible enough.

For us, homeschooling was the answer. I think that one solution here would be for MCPS to provide support for homeschooling for kids who have established medical issues that prevent school attendance. Other states have homeschooling scholarships that pay for curriculum, and online classes from providers who have worked out the kinks, and kids who receive those scholarships and qualify via an IEP are able to receive a full array of related services from itinerant providers. A similar model would make sense in MCPS.

sounds like you needed different things than masks and ventilation.

PP asked what medically fragile kids did before the pandemic. If I had to guess, their goal was to say that we should just go back to that. But the answer to that question is that MCPS failed medically fragile kids before the pandemic.

My kid died during (not from) the pandemic, so I can't provide any information about what would have happened after. I like to think that Virtual Academy would have been a better option than what we offerred. It's sad to think it's going away altogether. Even if it was combined with other states, and enrollment at MCPS was limited to kids with medical reasons for attending, it seems like a virtual option should be offered.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate the constructive comments, both supportive and challenging to this notion. I fully understand that this is an unorthodox approach, but given the road my family, as well as others, have been on to get here, it's almost literally the only safe path forward.

Yes, it is difficulty for the school to figure this problem out.
Yes, there is a lot of leg work for us to do in order to build support within the community and with MCPS administration.

But it is demonstrable that schools are currently ill-equipped to mitigate the spread of COVID (and other airborne diseases). It is also the case that kids are affected by this disease and it's complications, including disability and death. Furthermore, there are an estimated 30% of households dealing with the complications of long-COVID which directly correlates with the rise in chronic absenteeism in MCPS.

My point is, it is actually imperative that the school begins to address this issue lest we as a county/society choose to accept the medical burden we are placing on our kids for literally their entire lives.

But more specifically to my daughter, she is guaranteed, by law, free and safe access to a full education in the least-restrictive manner possible. In-person schooling is currently NOT safe; at home IIS services currently are not a full education; virtual schooling is currently not an option (nor will it be next year). It is upon the school to ensure that access, that is what this cohort is trying to achieve.

I’m sorry for what your child is going through but I think you are placing a highly irrational degree of faith in ventilation and masks. Respiratory illnesses and immune compromised kids existed before covid. Creating some kind of bubble classroom for them was not feasible before and is not feasible now. A child so fragile that they cannot get a respiratory virus probably needs to be homeschooled or put on the medical homecare program.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What did such medically fragile students do before COVID?

As the parent of a very medically fragile child before COVID, I can tell you that we dealt with an Interim Instructional Service program that didn't work at all. We had new teachers all the time. The teachers came a few hours a week with no access to the gen ed curriculum, and they changed all the time. Each new teacher had to then be reintroduced to my kid and his specific needs.

The program also had a great deal of difficulty understanding the fact that my medically fragile kid was in fact medically fragile, and that things like visits with specialists who scheduled months in advance took precedence over IIS sessions. I had someone complain when I said we couldn't do sessions on Tuesdays because he had a weekly infusion of an experimental drug that had to be done over many hours in the hospital, that we weren't being flexible enough.

For us, homeschooling was the answer. I think that one solution here would be for MCPS to provide support for homeschooling for kids who have established medical issues that prevent school attendance. Other states have homeschooling scholarships that pay for curriculum, and online classes from providers who have worked out the kinks, and kids who receive those scholarships and qualify via an IEP are able to receive a full array of related services from itinerant providers. A similar model would make sense in MCPS.

sounds like you needed different things than masks and ventilation.

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate the constructive comments, both supportive and challenging to this notion. I fully understand that this is an unorthodox approach, but given the road my family, as well as others, have been on to get here, it's almost literally the only safe path forward.

Yes, it is difficulty for the school to figure this problem out.
Yes, there is a lot of leg work for us to do in order to build support within the community and with MCPS administration.

But it is demonstrable that schools are currently ill-equipped to mitigate the spread of COVID (and other airborne diseases). It is also the case that kids are affected by this disease and it's complications, including disability and death. Furthermore, there are an estimated 30% of households dealing with the complications of long-COVID which directly correlates with the rise in chronic absenteeism in MCPS.

My point is, it is actually imperative that the school begins to address this issue lest we as a county/society choose to accept the medical burden we are placing on our kids for literally their entire lives.

But more specifically to my daughter, she is guaranteed, by law, free and safe access to a full education in the least-restrictive manner possible. In-person schooling is currently NOT safe; at home IIS services currently are not a full education; virtual schooling is currently not an option (nor will it be next year). It is upon the school to ensure that access, that is what this cohort is trying to achieve.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What did such medically fragile students do before COVID?

As the parent of a very medically fragile child before COVID, I can tell you that we dealt with an Interim Instructional Service program that didn't work at all. We had new teachers all the time. The teachers came a few hours a week with no access to the gen ed curriculum, and they changed all the time. Each new teacher had to then be reintroduced to my kid and his specific needs.

The program also had a great deal of difficulty understanding the fact that my medically fragile kid was in fact medically fragile, and that things like visits with specialists who scheduled months in advance took precedence over IIS sessions. I had someone complain when I said we couldn't do sessions on Tuesdays because he had a weekly infusion of an experimental drug that had to be done over many hours in the hospital, that we weren't being flexible enough.

For us, homeschooling was the answer. I think that one solution here would be for MCPS to provide support for homeschooling for kids who have established medical issues that prevent school attendance. Other states have homeschooling scholarships that pay for curriculum, and online classes from providers who have worked out the kinks, and kids who receive those scholarships and qualify via an IEP are able to receive a full array of related services from itinerant providers. A similar model would make sense in MCPS.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I appreciate the constructive comments, both supportive and challenging to this notion. I fully understand that this is an unorthodox approach, but given the road my family, as well as others, have been on to get here, it's almost literally the only safe path forward.

Yes, it is difficulty for the school to figure this problem out.
Yes, there is a lot of leg work for us to do in order to build support within the community and with MCPS administration.

But it is demonstrable that schools are currently ill-equipped to mitigate the spread of COVID (and other airborne diseases). It is also the case that kids are affected by this disease and it's complications, including disability and death. Furthermore, there are an estimated 30% of households dealing with the complications of long-COVID which directly correlates with the rise in chronic absenteeism in MCPS.

My point is, it is actually imperative that the school begins to address this issue lest we as a county/society choose to accept the medical burden we are placing on our kids for literally their entire lives.

But more specifically to my daughter, she is guaranteed, by law, free and safe access to a full education in the least-restrictive manner possible. In-person schooling is currently NOT safe; at home IIS services currently are not a full education; virtual schooling is currently not an option (nor will it be next year). It is upon the school to ensure that access, that is what this cohort is trying to achieve.

I call BS on the bolded.

Anonymous wrote:What did such medically fragile students do before COVID?

Anonymous wrote:What did such medically fragile students do before COVID?