Last spring, I had a 7 year-old 1st grader and a 10 year-old 4th grader, doing virtual schooling, but mostly just skating by as my husband and I were trying yo work from home at the same time. I was supposed to be working part-time, but between the added challenges of virtual work, and simply more work expected of me that didn't match my part-time status, I was putting in full-time hours. And, while everyone needed the internet, the connection sucked donkey balls.
My 10 year old boy is very extroverted, and I think may be a bit ADHD. He hated not seeing his friends, and kept picking on his little brother. He's always done really well in school. He doesn't try too hard, and he's not very studious, but he's as A student, and likes to be the first one done with assignments. So, his AR requirements were done ASAP, while I kept reading reminder emails from the teacher that AR requirements needed to be done by, x date. So, needless to say, I didn't need to worry about him too much academically, even though he didn't do much work during the virtual schooling in the spring.
My then 7 year old missed the cutoff for kindergarten by one month and 5 days. I mention that because I often read of kids his age being a grade higher than he is. He should be a grade higher. He was advanced when he started school, but is very defiant and tends to have attitude problems. Again, needless to say, I didn't worry about his academics last spring, even though I could barely get him to do any work.
So, coming back to this fall, our public school had a 100% virtual option or a 100% in-school option (with slightly shorter school days, skipping specials). My now 5th grader absolutely wanted to go back in person. My now 2nd grader wanted to virtual school. Since he refused to listen to me in the spring, or even the summer when I tried to get him to do a few exercises just to review, that was not a choice I was willing to make. Both my kids will try to get away with the absolute minimum, and I can't supervise them enough for how their personalities are while I need to get work done for my job. My 5th grader wants to be an engineer when he grows up. The 2nd grader changes his mind all the time--often he will choose the thing that sounds easiest at the time. Right now, that is being a YouTuber.
As far as advanced students are concerned, I mentioned previously that my son should have started a year earlier. In most other states, he would be in a grade higher than he is. My older son does great in school, but he is right at the level he should be at, since his birthday falls later in the age cohort of his class. My now 8 year old is bored in school, and starts complaining about it every year--each year this happens earlier and earlier in the year. This is a problem, because I want him to learn to use his brains, and learn how to learn. That's not going to happen when he starts checking out and getting in trouble for becoming disruptive. This is just as much of a tragedy coming from the advanced side of things as the other side. Not having his education be at his proper level means that he is not getting an appropriate education, except he doesn't get any extra resources because those are all reserved for the kids that are behind. Anyway, although he is still 2.5 years above grade level in reading, he is only .7 years ahead now in math. Who knows, maybe his skating by at the end of last year will help him be more engaged in school by being closer to the grade level that is being taught. I just think it's really unfair to dismiss my concerns about him because he's ahead and not behind. He's also growing to hate school more and more as this continues every year. I feel like he's in danger of disengaging from it completely if this continues for too much longer. One additional silver lining is that there are only 16 students in his class this year. Hopefully, that will help to get him more attention.
Our school district is about 3900 students, consisting of 4 elementaries, one middle and one high school. The high school is hybrid, and I think the middle school is also somewhat hybrid, but not as much as the high school. School started immediately after Labor Day, like it always does, so I guess this is about 6 weeks in? So, according to the district dashboard, there are currently only 2 active Covid cases, one student in the middle school, and 1 staffer at the HS. There were several cases that recently dropped off this list. Since school opened, there have been 10 student and 1 staff case at the HS, 2 student cases and the middle school, and 1 student case at 2 of the elementary schools. There are currently 18 students quarantining, distributed across those 4 schools with cases, and 6 staffers quarantining, at 3 of those schools. My kids school has had no cases or quarantines happen yet.