Anonymous wrote:The risk to kids has changed. Pediatric hospitals were so quiet that they were laying people off last year. Now they are packed. Does this resonate?

Anonymous wrote:So, with
- flimsy surgical masks or matchy matchy breathable cloth masks because there are no N95 designed for 8 year olds, and
- opted-out asymptomatic testing, and parents lying to avoid quarantine, and
- full cohort classrooms, to get everyone their five days a week, and
- kids with sniffles, and
- almost-but-not-quite vaccinated staff, and
- cafeteria lunches (or kids face-to-face unmasked at tables in tents),

basically all in-person kids will get delta by October.
Then how long do they need to wait to get the vaccine? Even if the vaccine is ready in November, DC kids won't be able to take it, because they'll be 1-2 months out of a covid infection.

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I am still not ok with this. This is not ok for my family.

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Anonymous wrote:I am demanding that DCPS both give my child an education and not give my child a grave illness from possibly the most contagious virus that has even been seen.

You are unhinged if you think this describes Covid.

You are uninformed if you think this cannot describe Covid.

I hope you don’t transfer your extreme anxiety about Covid to your kids. I’d feel really bad for them if they had to live in fear like you.

The "I feel sorry for your kids" slur is months old now, and also, disgusting.

No, this is a serious issue and not a slur. Parents who are gravely overestimating the risk of Covid to kids and communicate this fear to them are traumatizing their kids unnecessarily. This year has been hard enough on them without actually fearing for their own health and safety.

Every single one of these risk estimates were based on the effect of the pre-Delta strains on kids. If this were a year ago, I would agree with you. But the situation is changing rapidly. Too rapidly for large public health organizations to digest the data and come out with cogent messaging. Some individual pediatricians are starting to sound the alarm. Even the AAP, which has consistently advocated for in-person learning, has said that mitigation measures need to be layered, since before Delta, which we all KNOW is more transmissable, and was not present in the US when schools were open last year. DCPS has made many of last year's required mitigation measures optional (while retaining the most asinine of them all -- the travel restriction). We can expect significantly more transmission in DCPS this year than we saw last, but significantly less reporting, just when we are learning that the virus can seriously sicken children, and not just adults. This is serious.

I'm raising my kids to be strong and resiliant. I am not worried about the mental health effects of an additional 6 months of virtual learning when they emerged from over a year of it unscathed emotionally and academically on-track. I am worried that they or one of their friends will need to be hospitalized for covid, which would be far more traumatic to them and everyone else in our family, particularly if Children's is short on beds like many pediatric hospitals in the South already are.

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Anonymous wrote:I am demanding that DCPS both give my child an education and not give my child a grave illness from possibly the most contagious virus that has even been seen.

You are unhinged if you think this describes Covid.

You are uninformed if you think this cannot describe Covid.

I hope you don’t transfer your extreme anxiety about Covid to your kids. I’d feel really bad for them if they had to live in fear like you.

The "I feel sorry for your kids" slur is months old now, and also, disgusting.

No, this is a serious issue and not a slur. Parents who are gravely overestimating the risk of Covid to kids and communicate this fear to them are traumatizing their kids unnecessarily. This year has been hard enough on them without actually fearing for their own health and safety.

Every single one of these risk estimates were based on the effect of the pre-Delta strains on kids. If this were a year ago, I would agree with you. But the situation is changing rapidly. Too rapidly for large public health organizations to digest the data and come out with cogent messaging. Some individual pediatricians are starting to sound the alarm. Even the AAP, which has consistently advocated for in-person learning, has said that mitigation measures need to be layered, since before Delta, which we all KNOW is more transmissable, and was not present in the US when schools were open last year. DCPS has made many of last year's required mitigation measures optional (while retaining the most asinine of them all -- the travel restriction). We can expect significantly more transmission in DCPS this year than we saw last, but significantly less reporting, just when we are learning that the virus can seriously sicken children, and not just adults. This is serious.

I'm raising my kids to be strong and resiliant. I am not worried about the mental health effects of an additional 6 months of virtual learning when they emerged from over a year of it unscathed emotionally and academically on-track. I am worried that they or one of their friends will need to be hospitalized for covid, which would be far more traumatic to them and everyone else in our family, particularly if Children's is short on beds like many pediatric hospitals in the South already are.

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Anonymous wrote:So what's the argument against a centralized DCPS virtually school for those of us that would choose it?

The virtual charter school is full and I don't care to rely on them to fulfill a public interest.

There is a centralized DCPS virtual school. You just had to apply and demonstrate a medical need to get accepted. And this is conjecture but I wonder if they are having trouble finding teachers because I keep seeing job postings. It’s probably because they are requiring the virtual academy teachers to report in person every day. DCPS never ceases to amaze me!

It's a very high bar for a doctor to require it, and does nothing for those of us whose kids did well in virtual and aren't interested in the added risk. That virtual school should be opened to anyone who wants it.

There are so district wide realities that make a virtual option for anyone who wants it really tricky. For every parent who has a kid who did well virtually and will continue engaging there are kids whose parents will use virtual as an excuse to not get their kids to school in the morning. And in person school is one of the biggest social structures to detect neglect or abuse (physical, educational, etc.). That is much more difficult virtually.

Which makes permitting short-term virtual learning from the local school that knows its students safer than establishing a centralized mega virtual school with staff that will need to be hired from who-knows-where.

Even if this were true, it still doesn’t make it more feasible.

It isn't just feasible, it's been done by every DCPS DCPCS school for 1 1/2 school year, and by schools around the globe. Now, yes, it does make in-person learning less optimal - for the couple of weeks in-person learning lasts before they shift to virtual as well. [/quote

Which DCPS or DCPCS offered school 5 days a week in person and ran a virtual program daily too in the last 18 months?? I'd love to hear about how they pulled it off!!