Return to School: Online or In Person?

[mm1970]

It's really time to stop making sweeping generalizations about how all parents should act if we want to make helpful recommendations.

I have two children of very different levels of skill, one who read at a high school level in 4th grade and one who barely reads at last year's grade level.  So I don't have much sympathy for parents who are worried about their gifted kids getting bored. It sucks to deal with as working parents, totally, but they will be fine. 

It's a completely different ball game to be worried about a struggling young student who also has no patience for online learning.  I'm lucky because I could hire a tutor, etc.  Now imagine all of the other parents dealing with the same issue who are struggling to make ends meet and scramble for child care.  Let's not quibble over what's gifted or not and recognize that there are large populations of special needs students and students in poverty who will be significantly harmed by what's happening right now.  And by public education in general.

I read these two posts from you and thought that there was a bit of a contradiction there or at best a mean spirited response to a parent who has a concern for their kid.   Who are you to qualify someone's viewpoint for their particular kid and decide that it has a lower value?  They are different issues but valid nonetheless.  And that parent's worries don't invalidate other kids with different challenges.  Everyone has fears and worries about going back to school.  No one is less deserving of their feelings than anyone else.

I think my comments were fairly measured. Not invalidated anyone's feelings.  I said it really sucks, but having dealt with both situations simultaneously, it's harder to deal with a bored child who was already struggling academically than a bored child who is well ahead of grade level. So I personally have less sympathy for the latter situation. You cut out the post I was responding to above so to that's a bit disingenuous.

You didn't quote anyone in your original post, BTW.

[charis]

It's really time to stop making sweeping generalizations about how all parents should act if we want to make helpful recommendations.

I have two children of very different levels of skill, one who read at a high school level in 4th grade and one who barely reads at last year's grade level.  So I don't have much sympathy for parents who are worried about their gifted kids getting bored. It sucks to deal with as working parents, totally, but they will be fine. 

It's a completely different ball game to be worried about a struggling young student who also has no patience for online learning.  I'm lucky because I could hire a tutor, etc.  Now imagine all of the other parents dealing with the same issue who are struggling to make ends meet and scramble for child care.  Let's not quibble over what's gifted or not and recognize that there are large populations of special needs students and students in poverty who will be significantly harmed by what's happening right now.  And by public education in general.

I read these two posts from you and thought that there was a bit of a contradiction there or at best a mean spirited response to a parent who has a concern for their kid.   Who are you to qualify someone's viewpoint for their particular kid and decide that it has a lower value?  They are different issues but valid nonetheless.  And that parent's worries don't invalidate other kids with different challenges.  Everyone has fears and worries about going back to school.  No one is less deserving of their feelings than anyone else.

I think my comments were fairly measured. Not invalidated anyone's feelings.  I said it really sucks, but having dealt with both situations simultaneously, it's harder to deal with a bored child who was already struggling academically than a bored child who is well ahead of grade level. So I personally have less sympathy for the latter situation. You cut out the post I was responding to above so to that's a bit disingenuous.

You didn't quote anyone in your original post, BTW.

My apologies. I recall now that I was responding to a post above with quoting. But it was nonetheless taken out of context.

[ForeignServiceWife]

I’m a little late to this whole conversation, but here’s my thoughts and experience with the whole question of school:

My family consists of myself, husband, 5 year old girl, 2.5 year old boy, 2 week old newborn boy. We are all low risk, except for the newborn - but that’s just because he’s so ridiculously young. Husband leaves for Iraq in four weeks and will be there for 12 months so it’s just me and the kids.

We live in Oregon, in a county with a low population and low case counts, with infection rates falling. Our R0 rate is 0.9 statewide and even lower in our county, although I don’t have the specifics. Masks are mandated and use is widespread, people seem to be reasonably cautious for the most part.

Our 5 year old is eligible for kindergarten this year, but we are not putting her in public school. Long before the pandemic began, we decided against public school for her. We were doing a hybrid homeschool/in-person blend of school before coronavirus made it cool - she has some mild developmental delays and significant emotional/anxiety issues, so we started doing part time non-academic preschool for her two years ago, for the social development and also to give me a little bit of a break for a few hours a week because she requires SO much intense hands on parenting. We have done all “academic” work with her through homeschooling, which at this age is mostly reading aloud and lots of life skills.

This year, we chose to continue this model. She will go to an in person preschool M/W/F for 3 hours. We came to this decision for a few reasons:
-Daughter has always had significant issues with peer interaction and social development. Preschool has been the best therapy for her by FAR. We have noticed significant regression in her social skills since the lockdown began, in addition to marked boredom, loneliness, and anxiety.
-I will be a single stay at home parent for 12 months to three very young children. Having her at preschool for 9 hours per week will be essential to all of us surviving the year.
-As I said, case counts in our area are falling, public schools are not opening for at least another 7 weeks, and the university in our town is almost entirely virtual. The preschool itself is taking all reasonable precautions, but she will be in a classroom of 10-15 other 4/5 year olds so there’s only so much you can do. Masks are not required for the children, but are for adults.
-I discussed the issue with my very competent pediatrician today at the baby’s well visit. He and I agree that the risk of any of us contracting Covid is fairly low, the risk of severe illness or long term effects is extremely low. The bigger concern is the baby contracting one of the many routine childhood illnesses that fester in preschools, particularly flu or RSV. But given the amount of disinfecting and other precautions being taken this year, the risk of that happening is probably lower this year than in the pre-Covid world.
-Daycares and summer camps have been operating in person for many weeks now, while cases continue to fall. This gives me even more confidence in my decision.

What it really comes down to for me is that the benefits of her going to school far, far outweigh the negatives. The risks of her staying in isolation at home for another year are significantly higher than sending her to school.

As a few others have said, coronavirus is here to stay. Herd immunity will not save us. A vaccine will not save us. At least not for another couple years. It’s one more risk that we face in our lives. Like anything else in life, we cannot eliminate the risk. We, as a society and as a world, have to learn how to live with that risk and carry on with our lives as best we can. Living holed up in our houses for the next couple years is not the answer. We have to decide what matters most and prioritize those things. I believe education, particularly early childhood education, should be one of the highest priorities. We are privileged to have choices for our daughter (especially given her unique needs) and we can pay for private preschool and supplement with homeschooling. We desperately need to figure our stuff out in this country and prioritize equitable access to education and healthcare for all populations, especially those most at risk of being left behind by this pandemic.

[Buffaloski Boris]

I’m a little late to this whole conversation, but here’s my thoughts and experience with the whole question of school:

My family consists of myself, husband, 5 year old girl, 2.5 year old boy, 2 week old newborn boy. We are all low risk, except for the newborn - but that’s just because he’s so ridiculously young. Husband leaves for Iraq in four weeks and will be there for 12 months so it’s just me and the kids.

We live in Oregon, in a county with a low population and low case counts, with infection rates falling. Our R0 rate is 0.9 statewide and even lower in our county, although I don’t have the specifics. Masks are mandated and use is widespread, people seem to be reasonably cautious for the most part.

Our 5 year old is eligible for kindergarten this year, but we are not putting her in public school. Long before the pandemic began, we decided against public school for her. We were doing a hybrid homeschool/in-person blend of school before coronavirus made it cool - she has some mild developmental delays and significant emotional/anxiety issues, so we started doing part time non-academic preschool for her two years ago, for the social development and also to give me a little bit of a break for a few hours a week because she requires SO much intense hands on parenting. We have done all “academic” work with her through homeschooling, which at this age is mostly reading aloud and lots of life skills.

This year, we chose to continue this model. She will go to an in person preschool M/W/F for 3 hours. We came to this decision for a few reasons:
-Daughter has always had significant issues with peer interaction and social development. Preschool has been the best therapy for her by FAR. We have noticed significant regression in her social skills since the lockdown began, in addition to marked boredom, loneliness, and anxiety.
-I will be a single stay at home parent for 12 months to three very young children. Having her at preschool for 9 hours per week will be essential to all of us surviving the year.
-As I said, case counts in our area are falling, public schools are not opening for at least another 7 weeks, and the university in our town is almost entirely virtual. The preschool itself is taking all reasonable precautions, but she will be in a classroom of 10-15 other 4/5 year olds so there’s only so much you can do. Masks are not required for the children, but are for adults.
-I discussed the issue with my very competent pediatrician today at the baby’s well visit. He and I agree that the risk of any of us contracting Covid is fairly low, the risk of severe illness or long term effects is extremely low. The bigger concern is the baby contracting one of the many routine childhood illnesses that fester in preschools, particularly flu or RSV. But given the amount of disinfecting and other precautions being taken this year, the risk of that happening is probably lower this year than in the pre-Covid world.
-Daycares and summer camps have been operating in person for many weeks now, while cases continue to fall. This gives me even more confidence in my decision.

What it really comes down to for me is that the benefits of her going to school far, far outweigh the negatives. The risks of her staying in isolation at home for another year are significantly higher than sending her to school.

As a few others have said, coronavirus is here to stay. Herd immunity will not save us. A vaccine will not save us. At least not for another couple years. It’s one more risk that we face in our lives. Like anything else in life, we cannot eliminate the risk. We, as a society and as a world, have to learn how to live with that risk and carry on with our lives as best we can. Living holed up in our houses for the next couple years is not the answer. We have to decide what matters most and prioritize those things. I believe education, particularly early childhood education, should be one of the highest priorities. We are privileged to have choices for our daughter (especially given her unique needs) and we can pay for private preschool and supplement with homeschooling. We desperately need to figure our stuff out in this country and prioritize equitable access to education and healthcare for all populations, especially those most at risk of being left behind by this pandemic.

Wow.  Well said.  I haven't seen you around before.  Pleased to meetcha! 

[Michael in ABQ]

Our kids have been going to in-person school for the last three weeks. It's a small private school, less than 100 students total. The kids and teachers all wear masks during the morning drop-off and afternoon pick-up but once they're in their class the just have the desks spread apart more. They also don't move around to other classes as much (music, art, latin, etc.) those teachers come to their class. They also eat lunch in their classrooms.

The kids are enjoying it. The virtual stuff they did for the last part of spring semester was ok but basically just treading water. Everyone seems to be on board and they've even had a few kids join the school because the public schools are only virtual and for a lot of parents that's just not a viable option anymore. My wife stays at home so we could do the virtual thing, but I definitely wouldn't want to pay private school tuition to get virtual learning. It was one thing last semester when there was no other option and we didn't know enough about the virus. Now, all the positive factors outweigh the frankly miniscule health risks to our kids and by extension my wife and I as relatively young healthy adults.

[DesertRatNomad]

As an inclusion teacher in a district that has been open in-person for 3 weeks I’ll add a perspective for anyone still wrestling with this.  I’m in multiple teachers’ classrooms every day so I see a fair amount.  Please take the school reopening plan with a grain of salt and realize that many teachers do not take this very seriously.  Mask compliance is actually worse with teachers on my team than it is with the 7th grade students (which have been better than I expected). Social distancing isn’t really happening. Many of the precautions planned for by my district address spread via surfaces (a low risk and as far as I know rarely documented route) while inadequately addressing the higher risk routes (droplets, aerosols).   The district puts its policies on the plan to protect itself but the reality on the ground may or may not really match the plan.  Our principal has had to repeatedly send out memos reminding us that we have to report any positive test or quarantine  in our household (because some staff evidently have not done so). 

That said, we’ve made it 3 weeks with fewer people sick and quarantined than I expected so maybe take that as a somewhat positive sign. 

As for me, my wife and I are both wearing full face respirators with P100 filters all day at work so that might tell you my level of concern.

[waltworks]

Pretty interesting to hear about these different experiences. Teachers can't be bothered to wear masks? Really?

We're at 3 weeks in and so far so good. Kids are masked up, teachers are masked up, classes are kept separate, lunch is eaten in the classroom (or outside), etc. Things seem to be working great. Kids are happy, teachers are generally happy. We need more subs, but that was already the case pre-pandemic.

My wife is finally going to get a break, as the district filled the open 5th grade position! Yay!

If you have teachers that can't even manage to mask themselves, I think I'd rather not be at that school even if there wasn't a pandemic...

-W

[Jon Bon]

We start back in person tomorrow.

We did 2 weeks of virtual. My 2nd grader who is awesome at school is about done with it. She is at the age (last year) when she LOVES everything about it. Now she wants to throw her computer out the window (so do her parents fwiw)

It's honestly the worst of both worlds. The isolation of home school without the freedom to do as you please in the day.

So I am looking forward to tomorrow. They are sucking a whole lot of fun out of school, but it will be much better than virtual. With all the precautions I highly doubt it will spread IN the school but kids will continue of course to get it from family members, playmates, etc.

[mm1970]

We are still all virtual for the foreseeable future and it still kind of sucks.  I ran into one of the teachers at our elementary school yesterday at the grocery store and we chatted (both masked, natch).

It's ok for him.  He's teaching 6th.  Kids know the technology and their responsibilities.  If they don't do the work, it's because they don't want to.  His wife teaches also, but at a different school and I think kindergarten. 

He mentioned "I don't know how you can really expect younger kids to work without someone sitting with them."  I told him that's basically what I do with my 3rd grader.  His daughter is in the same class, and they have no idea how she's doing.  I said "she's doing pretty well, engaged, better than my kid!"  We are both hoping, maybe January?

[GuitarStv]

latin

There exist schools in this day and age that teach latin?  Bizarre.  I thought that largely died out with cursive and abacus work.

[DesertRatNomad]

If you have teachers that can't even manage to mask themselves, I think I'd rather not be at that school even if there wasn't a pandemic...

-W

It’s not an outright refusal to wear masks.  It is lots of pulling them down at every available opportunity (while teaching)  and not wearing them in close proximity to one another (not during class) and encouraging kids to pull their masks down when they are talking (so they can be heard).   

[Michael in ABQ]

latin

There exist schools in this day and age that teach latin?  Bizarre.  I thought that largely died out with cursive and abacus work.

It's a classical school so all the kids learn Latin and the do write in cursive. Latin is the root of many English words as well as much of Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. They do learn some Greek words as well. No abacus that I'm aware of. They use Singapore math in the lower grades and I can't recall for the upper grades.

[GuitarStv]

latin

There exist schools in this day and age that teach latin?  Bizarre.  I thought that largely died out with cursive and abacus work.

It's a classical school so all the kids learn Latin and the do write in cursive. Latin is the root of many English words as well as much of Spanish, French, Italian, and Portuguese. They do learn some Greek words as well. No abacus that I'm aware of. They use Singapore math in the lower grades and I can't recall for the upper grades.

I guess it doesn't make much difference in the end . . . we wasted lots of time in school learning stuff with pretty minimal or tangential value at best (sentence structure analysis/identification and fawnix - I'm lookin' at both of you).

[I'm a red panda]

latin

There exist schools in this day and age that teach latin?  Bizarre.  I thought that largely died out with cursive and abacus work.

Our public schools teach latin, you select the foreign language you want to study.

It does wonders for being able to figure out cognates in other languages.  I can't speak any other language but English, but my 8 years of Latin mean whenever I travel Europe, I can get the gist of signage in nearly any romance language.   It also helped immensely with my English vocabulary.

[Kmp2]

So, schools went back here and we completed our first (fullish-we had a stat holiday on monday) week, and one staggered entry week last week.

So far schools 30ish schools reported a case, where the child was at school while infectious. That's a rate of about 1 out of every 100 schools. Each class that the infectious student was in has been asked to stay home for 14 days, and self isolate (stay in their own room and use their own designated bathroom if possible).  In one highschool 100 students were sent home because they were in a shared gym with 3 separate classes.  We are in for one long disruptive year at this rate!

This is going to be a long disruptive year.

[Buffaloski Boris]

It’s been 3 weeks back for my kids and no drama so far. They’re working the plan and the plan seems to be working.

[waltworks]

1% having a problem in the first 1.5 weeks seems pretty good.

Where do you live where your district has 3000 schools?

-W

[Longwaytogo]

It’s been 3 weeks back for my kids and no drama so far. They’re working the plan and the plan seems to be working.

Nice! Glad it's going well so far :)

[Abe]

My kid has stayed in daycare since they reopened in May (wife and I both are health workers, so had an exemption). Despite the surge in cases in June/July we had no issues and no reports of COVID at the facility (staff or children). The kids are semi-compliant with masks. The staff are fully compliant. Most of the parents work in the surrounding hospitals or clinics, so we're high risk, yet things seem fine. We will see in the fall after moving to Houston, which was also hard hit.

[Kmp2]

1% having a problem in the first 1.5 weeks seems pretty good.

Where do you live where your district has 3000 schools?

-W

Canada - our stats are tabulated provincially.  And over the course of the year (if cases stay steady, and don't rise over the winter - which we know they will)... we'd expect 1/4-1/3 of students to have had to quarantined solely based on having a covid case in their class. That doesn't even start to consider the normal colds and flu isolation roughly 20-50x more prevalent than covid here. For that isolation is 10days, or until symptoms resolve (and that's with a -ve covid test). It's going to be a long year, with lots of absenteeism.  Note we have far far lower community spread than lots of states.

[waltworks]

If 1/4 of the student body has to at some point quarantine during the school year, that's a giant victory, because it means that basically, everyone got to go to school and learn.

I'd definitely take that.

-W

[Kmp2]

Sorry - 1/3-1/4 of schools would have a class requiring isolation. Only about 10% of kids would have to quarantine - but these are some pretty big assumptions (no in school spread, and cases in school age kids remain constant - not increase).  And yes, it's a testament to public health in Canada. And we are the worst performing province... some provinces will see many fewer cases.

The main question is if the quarantine and isolation rules can be followed - by lower income, at risk groups who NEED kids in school to meet rent/food.  The success will determine on how possible it is to follow the rules

[Kmp2]

And we are up to 46 schools with at least a single case, and 6 with confirmed outbreaks (2+cases).
This is probably close to what a full week will look like (as the first week was staggered, and last week had a holiday).

In on school a single case resulted in almost 100 grade 10's quarantining, but most look to affect about 25.

[Margie]

In our province of Ontario we have the options of:

- don't put your kid in school

Or

- in person in classrooms with no reduction of class size, no mandatory mask wearing, no possibility of social distancing

Both of which suck.  We're still undecided.  Our son needs more social interaction and we both work full time . . . but the current plan in place seems like a really, really bad idea.

If I had younger children I would be very conflicted...but my daughter is in HS and she wanted to go back.  She loves school and is a very motivated student.  Anyhow, our region is organizing HS in a five day cycle..but not M-F but rather W-W...so MTW mornings in school (15 kids in class); MTW afternoons at home online with other subject.  Then TF and the following MTW all lessons at home on line for both subjects.  The following week TF then MTW in class in morning and online in afternoon.  Makes sense?  It is so bizarre it literally makes no sense.  The teachers teach 15 kids in class followed by 15 kids online...they are considered one class.  I think it will be hard for a teacher to be sure they taught each group the exact same lesson so I think exams might be a bit off this year.   She is taking mainly AP classes so these kids are fairly bright but I do worry a bit for the ones at the other end, the ones who need a bit more attention.  Although, maybe 2.5 hours with 15 kids will help those kids better than normal class.  Who knows really? 

I have a compromised immune system but I have assured my family that if I get it and die please do not feel guilty about it.  My husband has worked throughout this whole thing (works outside) and my son started his apprenticeship (works inside).  I have for the most part stayed away from everyone.  Not looking forward to another potential lock down. 

Anyhow, just do the best you can and really at some point life goes on.  I am glad my daughter is not really interested in dating yet because I think with all this extra time off the teenagers who are will be closer than recommended. 

[GuitarStv]

In our province of Ontario we have the options of:

- don't put your kid in school

Or

- in person in classrooms with no reduction of class size, no mandatory mask wearing, no possibility of social distancing

Both of which suck.  We're still undecided.  Our son needs more social interaction and we both work full time . . . but the current plan in place seems like a really, really bad idea.

If I had younger children I would be very conflicted...but my daughter is in HS and she wanted to go back.  She loves school and is a very motivated student.  Anyhow, our region is organizing HS in a five day cycle..but not M-F but rather W-W...so MTW mornings in school (15 kids in class); MTW afternoons at home online with other subject.  Then TF and the following MTW all lessons at home on line for both subjects.  The following week TF then MTW in class in morning and online in afternoon.  Makes sense?  It is so bizarre it literally makes no sense.  The teachers teach 15 kids in class followed by 15 kids online...they are considered one class.  I think it will be hard for a teacher to be sure they taught each group the exact same lesson so I think exams might be a bit off this year.   She is taking mainly AP classes so these kids are fairly bright but I do worry a bit for the ones at the other end, the ones who need a bit more attention.  Although, maybe 2.5 hours with 15 kids will help those kids better than normal class.  Who knows really? 

I have a compromised immune system but I have assured my family that if I get it and die please do not feel guilty about it.  My husband has worked throughout this whole thing (works outside) and my son started his apprenticeship (works inside).  I have for the most part stayed away from everyone.  Not looking forward to another potential lock down. 

Anyhow, just do the best you can and really at some point life goes on.  I am glad my daughter is not really interested in dating yet because I think with all this extra time off the teenagers who are will be closer than recommended.

Things have changed since that post.  Mask wearing is now mandatory, distance learning is allowed, class sizes have been lowered, social distancing is being observed pretty well.  We've tentatively got our son going to school now (at least for another month or so until when I suspect that the continually rising case numbers get wildly out of control here in Toronto and it will be too unsafe).

[Margie]

It is a weird time for sure.  I feel the same about just pulling her out if it gets bad.   So far, the kids and teachers are wearing their masks and sitting apart.  They have to sign in to use the bathroom (so they can contact trace) otherwise, it does seem to be business as usual.  She is much happier.  Without sports or her school friends the winter was a bit rough some days.  I was her main 'in person' conversationalist so that was awesome for me but probably not so much for her!  lol  I am glad we get along pretty well.  (my mom and I were like cats and dogs when I was a teenager - I would have lost my mind stuck at home with her for six months!)  Anyhow, good luck with everything...we are in Waterloo Region so a bit of a breather compared to TO.

[MayDay]

Our district is hybrid based on local case levels. They've prioritized in person learning for at risk kids which means I have one kid 100% virtual and another in school 3 days a week (autistic).

All kids going in person are just in a single classroom, with no changing classes and only 10 kids. They eat lunch and do as much as possible outside. Masks on all day. They are doing tennis for PE and socialization so nice and spaced out. I can only imagine the hilarity of that tennis class based on my kid lolol.

Two weeks complete and no cases yet. And if there are cases it'll be only 10-12 people needing to quarantine. So fairly low risk.

[clarkfan1979]

Our son is 3 years old and qualifies for state funded pre-school because he has a speech delay. He went back to school face to face last week with masks. All parents in the district have the option to keep their kid at home and teach on-line.

[v8rx7guy]

Our school district is returning to in person for high need students and grades K-12 .  Our county new infections/100K-wk is hovering around 30-40 which puts the health director of the state into aprroaching "recommend in person learning" territory per their flow chart.  The private schools in the county have had zero issues over the first month which is a good sign.  I think we are happy (?) that our kindergartner will receive in person learning, online is not working well for him, but of course have some nervousness to overcome.

[waltworks]

Week 6 update: Our high school quarantined one sports team (and I'm still not clear why sports are even going on, but whatever).

Elementary/middle schools totally good. So far. Kids learning, teachers happy, fingers crossed we can keep it up, even if it means my own life is a lot busier than I'd like (wife is still working 3-4 days a week to make sure any teacher with any kind of minor sniffles or health complaint or family vulnerability stays home).

At the state level, UT is getting just hammered with college kids testing positive, but no real health impacts so far (ie hospitalizations/deaths continue at around the same rate as in the summer).

-W

[chemistk]

I'll toss in an update -

Our son has been in school for just about a month now. Our district has 4 elementary schools and only one middle and one high school.

To date there have only been 5 cases within the district, and although the district has not shared whether they are students are teachers, the wording on 4 of them has made it seem like it's been students. Two of the elementary schools have had one case (not our son's), the middle school has had two, and the high school has had one. 4 of the 5 cases have now 'lapsed' past the quarantine date and no other cases have stemmed from them.

Students wear masks daily and it sounds like compliance rates are high, at least in our son's class. I think it helps that our son's teacher is in her second year teaching and is committed to having the kids wear their masks instead of letting it slide. He has an assigned seat on the bus.

We're very glad he's in school. He gets home every day exhausted, mentally and physically. Many of the activities and classwork he's done are things we would have a hard time supervising here. They get to play outside every day, and the social interaction is invaluable. Many of his earlier anxieties have subsided - not disappeared, but he's been able to handle stressful situations much better since starting school.

My wife has also benefitted greatly. Our younger two are totally different personalities from our oldest and the youngest still naps for a couple hours. While he naps, our middle one solo plays (something our oldest never wanted to do), so she ends up getting a couple hours of quiet a day.

[20957]

My first grader is in virtual school and I'm loving it. Pretty much all of my concerns about her school have been fixed by going virtual. She has 2.5 hours of FLA and math in the morning (with breaks) and 40 min of special in the afternoon. I had been unhappy with the sheer amount of time in a seat given the commute and the school's lack of commitment to recess- now she has plenty of time to play inside and out. The start time works much better for us. The disruptive kids can be muted. The teacher pays more attention to participation and understanding than to wiggling and fidgeting so her "behavior" has improved and she's pleased with herself at the end of the day. I have time to read to her and do projects. Basically it feels like semi-homeschooling and I am holding my breath for it to fall apart somehow.

My preschoolers are back in school every morning in a class with 6 other kids, mostly outdoors and masked- compliance seems better than I would have expected for 4 year olds. No positive tests in the school so far and their speech (they have articulation issues) has improved in just a few weeks despite not getting speech therapy (it has been put on hold by the school system). I love this school and am glad I took the risk to send them.

I feel very lucky with our options and choices for the older kids- now if someone could teach my baby to sleep...

[TheFrenchCat]

Our kindergartener has been in virtual school for almost a month and it's going much better than I anticipated.  She has three 40 minute lessons and then a 15 minute story time at the end of the day.  They just added in specials which I estimate will take about 15 minutes a day.  Her teacher has been doing great and I can even get some work done while she does school. 

The school she could go to in person just reported their first case yesterday of someone in the school, though they didn't say if it was staff, student or someone else.  They said the person had minimal contact, so they're not having anyone else quarantine.  If this doesn't spread we'll be more inclined to send her in person for marking period 2 or 3.  I feel lucky that they have a full virtual option and also that we have the choice to switch at each marking period.

I mostly feel reluctant to send her in person because our county's cases are relatively high, at about 10-20 cases per day per 100k people.  But I think most of it is from the colleges that opened in person, since the cases spiked right after they opened and they've reported high numbers of cases and shut down in person classes last week.

[marbles4]

My first grader is in virtual school and I'm loving it. Pretty much all of my concerns about her school have been fixed by going virtual. She has 2.5 hours of FLA and math in the morning (with breaks) and 40 min of special in the afternoon. I had been unhappy with the sheer amount of time in a seat given the commute and the school's lack of commitment to recess- now she has plenty of time to play inside and out. The start time works much better for us. The disruptive kids can be muted. The teacher pays more attention to participation and understanding than to wiggling and fidgeting so her "behavior" has improved and she's pleased with herself at the end of the day. I have time to read to her and do projects. Basically it feels like semi-homeschooling and I am holding my breath for it to fall apart somehow.

My preschoolers are back in school every morning in a class with 6 other kids, mostly outdoors and masked- compliance seems better than I would have expected for 4 year olds. No positive tests in the school so far and their speech (they have articulation issues) has improved in just a few weeks despite not getting speech therapy (it has been put on hold by the school system). I love this school and am glad I took the risk to send them.

I feel very lucky with our options and choices for the older kids- now if someone could teach my baby to sleep...

Our public school district has also been all virtual for the past month and a half now and our experience has been largely positive. Agree that it is like homeschool but better. Lots of outside playtime and 1x1 teaching assistance from mom or dad.

The main contributor to this successful outcome for us is the fact that we are two parents working from home everyday who have the ability and flexibility to be able to help out the kids’ school. A fortunate situation indeed, but not the norm for most.

ETA: our county’s daily cases are in the 60s per 100k residents

[TVRodriguez]

We chose to continue remote online learning for our three kids--4th grade, 6th grade, and 8th grade.  It's going well, but we are fortunate that both parents can work from home.  We're going to keep them virtual for as long as we can.  Our school is small, physically small, and we want to leave the seats open for those parents who are not able to keep working from home.  Plus, our kids are doing fine, so there's nothing pushing us to make them go back in person.

We had a few hiccups, but we've addressed them as they've arisen.  We have good communication with the teachers and administration at our school, which is good.  And our kids are fairly close in age and get along, so they're not completely missing the social aspect of school.  Plus we let them play video games online with their friends sometimes on the weekends, for the social aspect.

I LOVE not having the morning rush and rush to pickup in the afternoon.  That has been awesome.  And I enjoy having lunch with them each day.

And the 13 year old loves rolling out of bed over to his computer to log into school--he gets to sleep later.

[I'm a red panda]

We've gone through a number of 2-week quarantines with our daycare when staff members test positive. Starting today, our 3-year old is now in a mask full time.  She loves wearing her mask, but has never done so for more than a few hours.  Hope it goes OK.  I think she will like it if all her friends wear them too.

Infant still doesn't wear one. So if a staff member in his room tests positive, both kids are out for 2 weeks again.

[meerkat]

Five weeks in with a kindergartener, it's going okay overall. My biggest gripe is with the reading curriculum - the way its set up functionally is garbage (they'll do a story, then several slides later have questions about the story, sometimes there's a printable page that just says "Draw" with a box. Draw what? Where are the instructions? Then there's the times you need Adobe Flash just to ... go to a thing that you click on to take you to another page altogether. They could have just had a direct link and eliminated the need for Flash.) I have a book on order so we'll probably do a different reading curriculum and just fill out the three question quizzes (half of which he knows because of other work we've done with him on learning his letters and not because of him actually learning from the curriculum).

Pros: we signed up for a flexible set up so we blasted through the first units of science and social studies in two weeks when they suggested schedule has them taking two months. We do school first thing in the morning and after work. The subjects are math, reading, science, social studies, and gym. Gym is on the honor system, there's a "quiz" every week where we write what activities he's done that week and how many minutes (minimum 150, as soon as he has 150 I submit the quiz even if its early in the week). Activities have been stuff like family walk, running around inside, running around outside, dance party.

Given the shitty situation we're starting with, I'm actually really liking this online school set up. If the pandemic were over tomorrow, though, we'd happily send him back to a physical school where he could interact with other kids and probably go to after care till we picked him up after work.

[chemistk]

Updating this thread with cautious optimism - we just got a note from our district today sharing its appreciation for all the families, students, and staff who are taking the virus seriously. It's only mid-October, and things are probably not going to be as 'easy' as they have been to date especially if our state's levels start to increase significantly, but they were eager to give thanks to everyone who has worked hard at this point to keep the schools clean and to everyone who is following the public health guidelines.

There have been about a dozen and a half or so cases within our district since the school year (in-person) started about 6 weeks ago. Through contact tracing, they have been able to determine that (so far) all of the cases were isolated - none of them led to another positive case within the district/all of the cases originated from outside school grounds. Multiple cases never even made it into the building - some individuals self-isolated out of caution only to later discover they were, indeed, positive.

Our district has roughly 4100 students, and about 85% or so opted for in-person school. Considering teachers and staff among the 6 schools, plus buses, there's probably over 5k people currently cycling through the district on a given day. That's a heck of a lot of opportunities for things to go south.

This is not standard for the area, many neighboring districts have seen far higher numbers, especially among high schoolers. In those districts, most of the outbreaks were linked back to unsanctioned afterschool gatherings where most kids didn't wear masks.

The above highlights how critical it is that families take things seriously, but my district's communication also shows that there could be a 'right way' to handle things. We don't know if any of the positive cases resulted in hospitalization, but we are very thankful for the vigilance of the district, the openness of their communications, and that in-person school has been going supremely well so far.

Also affirming our choice for in-person, there are families within the district that still have not yet received the necessary books, technology, and supplementary materials for virtual learning. 

Plus today was picture day, and I'm hoping our son cheesed well. His preschool picture was hilarious and I'd love if he turned out another great one.

[GuitarStv]

We put our son back into school (in person) this year.  It has been a mixed bag.  The school is taking a lot of safety measures (every child required to wear a mask at all times, social distancing rules, plexiglass bubbles over each desk, etc.)  There's a daily questionnaire that has to be filled in by parents of student regarding chance of contacting someone with covid, and this has to be checked (outside) before the child is allowed to go into school.  Staggered entry times for each grade have made it a little more complicated to do drop off/pick up.

Attendance in the school has dropped to about 50% of normal.  A huge percentage of the schools in Toronto have had kids who tested positive now.  Our son's class was sent home for two weeks quarantine because of a positive case, and he's due to be allowed back in school this Thursday.

Virtual learning sounds like it has been pretty shit so far, and the last two weeks of trying to do virtual learning with our son while quarantining has been pretty bad.  I have to assume quality of education is much higher in person.

[waltworks]

We're still chugging along at ~8 weeks in. There have been some outbreaks at the high school involving sports and parties. The biggest problem there is that a lot of the teachers have kids those ages and have had to quarantine. But it's at least going.

Elementary schools have had 1 case total, I think? They are doing great.

-W

[Longwaytogo]

We are still 100% Virtual; it still 1000% sucks :/

Glad its going reasonably well for those of you that are open. Gives me some hope for next Semester.

Our district is hopefully meeting and making decisions through out Nov to determine if they'll go back in some fashion Feb 1st.

[Chrissy]

Update:  at Chunky Baby's last day at [BabyBarn], before heading to [MontessoriKids], a teacher tested positive at BabyBarn, so we had to hold off for 2 weeks before making the switch.  No one else ended up getting it from the teacher, who, in turn, had gotten it elsewhere.

Warrior Princess is in parochial preschool in the mornings, and french preschool in the afternoons.  Both had to shut down for a time, but there was no spread, and all the cases came from outside the schools.

[Buffaloski Boris]

We're still chugging along at ~8 weeks in. There have been some outbreaks at the high school involving sports and parties. The biggest problem there is that a lot of the teachers have kids those ages and have had to quarantine. But it's at least going.

Elementary schools have had 1 case total, I think? They are doing great.

-W

We're at about the same place 8 weeks in.  One teacher went out with COVID; got it from a family member outside of school. No in-school infections.  A couple of kids were exposed outside of school and were quarantined. So far, so good.  Temperature checks every morning, masks on all day, social distancing.  It seems to be working so far.  With the cold weather coming, time will tell.   

[Michael in ABQ]

Our kids just finished their first quarter of in-person school. No cases so far. They wear masks outside and in the hallways but not all day in their classrooms. The public schools are all still online-only and my niece at a state university is coming home as they just shut down the minimal in-person classes they had. No reason to pay for a dorm room and live hours away if it's all online.

[Queen Frugal]

We are still 100% Virtual; it still 1000% sucks :/

I hear you!

We are a family of two - myself and my 9 year old 4th grader. Virtual has been tough and there have been lots of tears. My mother is retired and lives in town and she has been helping me three days a week and for that I will be forever grateful. I would pretty much have to quit working without her help. I work from home but I don't get much done on school days. My daughter is depressed and I am exhausted. However, as the weeks go by, we do seem to be developing our own routine and it is getting easier week by week.

Our county's % positive rate just dropped below 6% for the first time in a long while.

Most of the schools around us are 100% in person but our district is all virtual right now. In a few weeks our district will start doing hybrid classes for those who want it but they will keep a 100% virtual option for those that want it. I'll be sticking with virtual until the school district works out the kinks. I am barely keeping our ship upright and I just can't deal with sudden changes of schedule.

My cousin teaches a few hours away in Missouri. She had a student test positive in her class (5th grade I think) and they only quarantined the other kids at the positive kid's table.

I watched part of my district's school board debate the return to hybrid classes - whether to do it at all or whether to wait until kids could return full time. What tough decisions they face. Some of the Board members were in tears. I know we are lucky - so many kids are getting left behind right now.

[StarBright]

Our kids just finished their first quarter of in-person school. No cases so far. They wear masks outside and in the hallways but not all day in their classrooms. The public schools are all still online-only and my niece at a state university is coming home as they just shut down the minimal in-person classes they had. No reason to pay for a dorm room and live hours away if it's all online.

We just finished our first quarter too. We seem to have several to a few dozen positive or presumed positive cases a week in a relatively medium sized school system (5k kids). Last week we had 5 positive tests and 27 presumed positive and we generally have 50-300 people quarantining any given week. The cases all seem to be caught at home and are not spreading at school.

Parents in our community gave a really hard push to open up the schools and the schools gave in but also said they would be incredibly strict when it came to quarantining. They have kept their word on the quarantining and mask enforcement and I am thankful.

My kids' elementary school has only had one teacher who needed to quarantine because they split time at another school and no cases so far.  We don't expect this to last forever, but our fingers are crossed that our kids' school makes it until Thanksgiving break.