My D’s public had vaccination requirements and I expect they will require a covid vaccine as well.
The schools may be waiting for
- Vaccine general availability.
- Full approval (instead of EUA).
before requiring the vaccine.
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Surprised USC still expects to need social distancing in the fall, with its implications for dorms, club mtgs, and class size.
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There are rumors that CDC may change the 6 ft distancing recommendation (and it’s only ever been a recommendation, some schools for example aren’t following that) to 3ft.
WHO recommends 3ft…so that’s what the rest of the world uses, if they follow any distancing guidelines. Neither the 6ft or 3ft recommendations are based on much science, nor is what little data there is specific to sars-cov-2.
I heard this rumor from our HS administrators who are in constant contact with state leadership.
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You may be in same SD or this is a common issue! Our School Board has a meeting tomorrow to address this issue. Our county issued new regs suggesting 3 ft may NOW be ok. A big issue with opening up from hybrid to full in person was the 3 v. 6 ft. So given the guidelines, the SB may be voting to open full in person. Not sure what colleges are currently following or their expectations for 6 ft v. 3 ft or no distancing for the Fall.
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Our schools which opened in VA were/are allowed to apply with plans that are 3ft, and at least one big public system has been open since fall like this. They have done well. they just have to bump bigger groups out to quarantine when they have cases(because anyone less than 6ft more than 15 min of a positive has to quarantine).
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What about lunch in school and those of us who do lunch duty in the classrooms? I sit in the hall (I refuse to be near kids who are not wearing masks) but a few teachers choose to sit in the room. Is it safe for teachers to sit in a classroom with kids who are eating lunch? What about snack (young kids eat snack 2x per day)?
I called the county health dept to ask about data regarding safety, and they referred me to the CDC. I called the CDC and was on hold for over an hour. I spoke to a generalist who could not answer my question, and he connected me to a specialist. The specialist could not answer my question, and referred me to the state dept of health. The state dept of health told me to check the website, and then commented that restaurants are open and suggested I look at data regarding servers. I was also told that if teachers sit 6 feet away and the ventilation is “good,” (whatever that means), that it’s “probably” ok.
There does not appear to be data regarding lunch in school, and I have not seen this addressed on the news. If parents want schools open full time with lunch, then teachers and staff need to be prioritized for vaccines.
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I agree teachers should be prioritized for vaccines. Most of the schools which are open in person seem to manage lunch and snacks just fine.
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I normally respect Jake Tapper, i watch his show everyday, but lately he has been going hard on schools for not reopening because “ the science says that its safe”. No, its safe IF the schools is decongested to a certain level, proper ventilation is in place and all the kids stay masked, and maintain social distancing.
Many schools don’t have the funding to put all those measures in place and face cultural barriers . My friend who works with under 5 year olds is forbidden to wear masks at work because it “ scares the kids” ■■■!
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My local public school district has 65k students. They have been in full time, 5 days a week, since labor day. There has not been a big outbreak at schools or increase in the surrounding community. Communities can make this work if they are dedicated to doing so
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They need to have money and space to make it work. My district is full day with lunch and is doing well. Other districts are not as fortunate.
It also depends on the classroom buildings. A school building where each classroom has big openable windows is quite a bit different in COVID-19 risk from a school building where many classrooms have no windows and the HVAC system is relatively weak and recirculates air in the building.
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We could all come up with potential objections to any school opening anywhere ever, or we could try to find creative solutions that let kids go to school. 6 million kids attend school in person in this state. Cases did not soar. Somehow, they make it work, and others could too.
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My D at Amherst College said despite the cases at UMass still being terrible, UMass downgraded their risk status from “high” to “elevated”, and plans to resume in-person classes soon.
My point was that someone needs to release the purse strings and give the schools that are currently online only the resources needed to open safely. Don’t tell people to go to school or work in unsafe conditions just for the sake of opening.
Why can’t every k-12 kid be given a box of lateral flow tests like health care workers do ?
Yes, based on data from schools which have been open , it is safe to eat lunch in the same room… more than 6ft away, etc: there has been little to no spread in schools w mitigation measures in place.
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We have capacity issues here in Illinois too. Eating lunch is hard because you can only have so many people in a room or a certain percentage of max capacity. And we can’t just put 3500 kids back in our high school and distance. I’ve been in the hallways during passing periods and they are packed with kids nine times a day. So this “let’s go back to school” thing isn’t realistic unless a lot of Covid rules change. We are at 50 percent but the only reason that is happening is because a lot of kids opted out so maybe 25 percent or less show up each day. It’s not worth going to school for most kids because they are still opening their chrome books and zooming with their teachers who are right in front of them. The only kids going are those whose parents think they aren’t motivated enough to actually show up to the zooms from home or those with IEPs.
So I honestly don’t even get this push to go back to school unless kids can go back “as normal” except wear masks.
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Yes, same here at the HS level. The kids who are signed up as hybrid (2 days in person) keep vanishing more and more. If you are in-person kid, you can sign in at home on virtual homeroom and it’s ok). My son has often been the only kid in the class. It’s hard for me to be the evil mom and make him go in person under those circumstances, but I get him to go most of the time. HS needs to be open in class full time to make this work, but our HS was too crowded even b/f the pandemic, in fact, they were working on an expansion.
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meanwhile, we do have a lot of parents putting pressure on the high school but I honestly think their hands are tied. Sure, some of the private high schools are back to 100 % in person but I don’t know any public high school in Illinois doing that. We have to follow the state rules. I’m not sure what the parents aren’t getting about that. I would not want to be on a school board or an administrator right now!
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I would definitely not want to be on the SB or Admin right now. The opening of schools has been the most ugly, emotional, no-win and divisive issue ever. I would say it’s on political lines, but it fractures beyond that. I belong to a local Dems FB page where there was a fight about the members who were also members of the open schools FB page. Controversy over innocuously worded lawn signs! God help us.
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