Anonymous wrote:If posters on this thread who actually have school children want to minimize the virtual time in January, then practice maximum Covid precautions over the break. Avoid travel, wear your masks, skip the holiday gatherings, and don’t let your teens go to gatherings. Encourage your friends to do the same. I know it’s hard, but that’s what we have to do. Sometimes it’s hard to be the responsible adult, but it’s our job. Good luck.

I used to agree with this advice and in fact, I followed it scrupulously last year. No longer. The solution you are proposing is for adults and children to isolate themselves as much as possible in an effort to limit COVID spread and keep schools open for in-person learning. Unfortunate, if experience has taught us anything, there are no guarantees. Those families who don't gather, don't have any indoor interactions with others, and isolate will have deprived themselves of human contact only to likely find that isolation continuing if schools don't reopen. To avoid isolation, isolate, and then find yourself isolating more. We have seen that these individual sacrifices aren't enough to make a different.

It's worth repeating that closing schools come at a high cost to the mental health of your kids. It also negatively impacts their education. Nobody should be looking to "go virtual" absent a true emergency.

https://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/587041-officials-warn-crisis-over-childrens-mental-health-worsens-amid-pandemic?rl=1

If posters on this thread who actually have school children want to minimize the virtual time in January, then practice maximum Covid precautions over the break. Avoid travel, wear your masks, skip the holiday gatherings, and don’t let your teens go to gatherings. Encourage your friends to do the same. I know it’s hard, but that’s what we have to do. Sometimes it’s hard to be the responsible adult, but it’s our job. Good luck.

Anonymous wrote:Have any local schools made announcements yet?

Ours is testing kids and back to school for all testing negative on Tuesday. I’m very grateful to our school for this approach. A week of virtual would be pointless.

PP needs to work on reading comp.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some indoor sports practices over break have been canceled

I think that’s a given. Winter sports (indoor) will be paused.

Why? Who thinks that will make one iota of a difference?

I think you’ve missed about two years of news on how COVID spreads.

Let's see, dozens or hundreds of people packed together in an enclosed space, huffing and puffing and shouting so that virus droplets are spread widely, people stay in one place near other people long enough to get a full viral load, then get COVID themselves.

That's pretty much exactly what they have been saying about COVID spread for the last two years, over and over and over. Do you need some links?

Have any local schools made announcements yet?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some indoor sports practices over break have been canceled

I think that’s a given. Winter sports (indoor) will be paused.

Why? Who thinks that will make one iota of a difference?

I think you’ve missed about two years of news on how COVID spreads.

Right. What do people not understand about how this virus spreads? Each point of contact is an additional opportunity for infection and Omicron is spreading exponentially. Plus, if enough people have to quarantine, you can’t play a team anyway (see what’s currently happening in professional sports). Either be proactive and take a pause, or do nothing and end up unable to play anyway, all while spreading infections for the sake of “normalcy.”

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some indoor sports practices over break have been canceled

I think that’s a given. Winter sports (indoor) will be paused.

Why? Who thinks that will make one iota of a difference?

I think you’ve missed about two years of news on how COVID spreads.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some indoor sports practices over break have been canceled

I think that’s a given. Winter sports (indoor) will be paused.

Why? Who thinks that will make one iota of a difference?

Because it will reduce the opportunity of kids and adults spreading it to one another.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Many kids will be out at the start of school anyway, if they are following current cdc isolation requirements. If a child tests positive next week, the isolation period takes you past the start of school in most cases.
Do you let the school nurse know if your child tests positive over break?

All my kids tested positive this week and I’ll let their schools know. Since they’re vaccinated I think they’re allowed back with a negative test (?).

Likely they are home until 10 days past either symptom onset or 10 days past the day the test was done if asymptomatic and then can return. Hope
everyone is feeling okay!

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Some indoor sports practices over break have been canceled

I think that’s a given. Winter sports (indoor) will be paused.

Why? Who thinks that will make one iota of a difference?

Anonymous wrote:Many kids will be out at the start of school anyway, if they are following current cdc isolation requirements. If a child tests positive next week, the isolation period takes you past the start of school in most cases.
Do you let the school nurse know if your child tests positive over break?

All my kids tested positive this week and I’ll let their schools know. Since they’re vaccinated I think they’re allowed back with a negative test (?).

"Although young people have largely been spared from acute COVID-19 illness, experts stress that children are not immune from the virus. According to the CDC, children are as likely to be infected with COVID-19 as adults and the virus now one of the top 10 causes of death for children ages 5 through 11 years.

There continues to be the misconception, among some, that children and teenagers may not be as severely affected by COVID-19 as adults, explained Creech. While that seemed to be the case early on in the pandemic, the delta variant proved otherwise.

"We began to see far more infections in children, some of which were severe. In addition, we continue to see long COVID, myocarditis, and multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children who appear to have very mild symptoms at the outset," said Creech."

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I’d be happy to sacrifice another month of in-person school to avoid the risk of long-lasting Covid complications (not to mention the risk of life-threatening short term problems).

People overlook the fact that young people can make up educational deficits, especially when parents have the means to call on all kinds of outside tutoring and support. Money is better spent there than on chronic medical conditions that change a child's life forever.

BS

We have a mental health epidemic among kids and teens in this country, and a main factor is the senseless school closures over the last 20 months.

Many adults should be fired.

Get your kid mental health help then! (Said earnestly!)

This is a glib response. As someone who has tried to navigate getting mental health services for the past year and a half, it is not as simple as "get your kid mental health help!" Providers are completely overwhelmed. Wait lists are long. Forget trying to find a place that takes insurance (we have been on several wait lists for over a year). You can REALLY forget trying to find a therapist who will meet in person (not great for a kid who will not engage virtually). It has been an absolute nightmare. So save me your simplistic solutions, please. It's not easy at all.