I am torn about the plans. Both sides have plus and minus. If school are allowed to open, virus may spread among students, teachers and as well as unsuspecting parents. But on other hand, many students may struggle without formal teaching instructions. What is the opinion of other parents?
Any larger classrooms I’ve ever seen don’t have windows. 
Everyone keeps talking about better air filtration but has anyone seen that plan in any of the college plans? Maybe it’s it out there I have not seen one. At the older institutions, lots of classrooms are in pretty old buildings.
No clue. But will find out when I can. Maybe hire more professors? My son’s a senior in engineering and his classes except for a beginning minor class are actually very small. I have just seen that the like freshman English classes have a multitude of sections all through the day and many later night classes like 5-7 or 8-10.
I’ll assume younger means elementary school:
- That age group does not appear to be as contagious.
- Stagger entry/exit from school
- Keep kids in one classroom
- Take temperature every morning and afternoon
- Increase ventilation where possible
- Teach proper mask protocol. Kids in other countries wear them all day, so our kids can do it.
- Do not have "specials" like art or music face to face.
The plans we are seeing are mostly missing the details. If a school (K-12 or college) really intends to have classes all year, then we should see hiring/training of covid support staff and construction activity.
The logistics necessary to pull off most of these plans is staggering. Feeding all of the students healthy interesting boxed meals, an army of test administers, IT upgrades for almost every student to be streaming video at the same time, quarantine/isolation staff at the ready, etc.
Since there is no money for any of that, schools will need to do what they can, and parental expectations will have to be adjusted accordingly. Bring your own food if you want healthy interesting meals. The school can, as a baseline, make sure poor kids don’t starve.
@AlwaysMoving yes have a daughter in 7th grade. Worried about her when the middle school opens. Yes mask is necessity. She loves her music but she can practice at home
Just an example. Think about the lecture halls you had at Northwestern. The rows are not one foot apart… They are longer then that from row to row. Forgot what they are for fire hazard. I am not talking a classroom here. Then space every other one kinda thing.
Yikes, which school maybe we ask? Don’t answer if you don’t wish to.
Dickinson College, Carlisle PA
I am certainly sympathetic to how difficult this situation is for colleges. However, it felt manipulative and underhanded to me to have students pick rooms before knowing the status of their courses and how they will be taught. In addition, there is still so much that is unspecified for the fall. For example, will students be able to access the library’s physical holdings? D is doing a research project for which she will need older resources, likely in book form. Secondly, it is unclear whether a student who doesn’t select a residence for the fall can get housing for the spring. Normally there’d be vacancies due to study abroad, but not this year. Also, with de-densifying there may be fewer rooms available, though we didn’t notice them not allowing quads erc
By the way, when seeking to change her course selection we took a quick look at the offerings in various departments. There are entire departments which are only offering distance teaching. There are a lot of mixed medium courses throughout, but VERY FEW in person offerings. So to bring everyone back to offer mostly online teaching is less than satisfactory. If she weren’t a senior with language courses, I think we’d keep her home and save money.
Also, I think we expected that the smaller classes would be in person with social distancing and plexiglass etc. Not so. 2 of D’s courses with 10 or fewer students aren’t ftf.
I generally agree with what your saying and if our kids were going to be freshman maybe gap year would be a better alternative. But is this a suburban view VS a city view? I do not know of one city family (of course I don’t know all of them and I am sure some are deferring), from full pay families with kids going OOS paying similar fees as you that is considering a gap year. But since I do work in the suburbs this seems to be more common place. I just find that interesting.
Better patent that idea… Lol ?
@Knowsstuff wrote:
This.
I gotta be honest. If I were golfing, swimming and playing tennis everyday at that age (even assuming I knew how to play golf at the age of 18), I would be considering a gap year, too.
@knowstuff Maybe that’s because life in the suburbs is kind of ok right now when it comes to the virus? The general density of the city offers fewer options for life feeling more “normal”. Kids here have cars and can get around. Don’t have to use public transportation. So, life in the city versus going to a college campus might be more appealing that life in the suburbs versus going to the college campus?
Ha! Well it is easier to do those things in the suburbs and there were fewer jobs to be had for these kids but, just fyi, S19 has two internships right now and he’s got two other projects on the side. A few of his friends are working in grocery stores. But, yes, life doesn’t feel too too restrictive here right now and college campuses do not seem inviting.
Mine has already had a 4 month break from any serious academics and is tired of swimming and tennis. Plus she has likely forgotten most of the French and multivariable calculus she will need next month, so she would lose a lot more ground if she took yet more time away from academics. She is done with her high school cohort and ready for new college experiences, whatever they may be, she doesnt want to miss out.
Mostly a vent. H’s school system (K-12) still has zero plans out to teachers, parents, etc. New teachers begin on the 27th of July. H goes back August 3rd. Kids on August 10th. There is a date for open house on August 6th. Is that in person or virtual? Who knows? H has no idea if he’ll be teaching real kids, virtual kids, or partial kids. Will he even be allowed to teach PE at all, or will he be assisting classroom teachers? And if the latter, what’s that supposed to look like? Should he be brushing up on those math skills? 
Can’t say I’m surprised. Anyone care to make a bet on when anyone will be told? They did name an interim superintendent yesterday. Maybe that will help.
6 feet may not be enough in a higher risk situation, such as an indoor or enclosed situation where the people are stationary and exposed to the exhaled air from the same other people for an hour or more – consider the restaurant example and the workplace example, where a contagious person infected others who were much further away than 6 feet.
On the other hand, 3 feet as one is quickly walking by someone outside may be lower risk that 6 feet (or 20 feet or more) where you will be with the same other people indoors for an hour or several.
A classroom is more like the higher risk indoor situations in terms of infection spread. The mitigating factors are mainly in the lower (but not zero) risk of serious effects of getting infected on the part of most of the students.
Suburban family here. Living close to an excellent community college is an influence. 360 graduating from my son’s high school this spring with over 80% planning further education. All recruited athletes are planning to attend on campus if available. Anyone that is paying over $30,000.00/yr for all online is having second thoughts.
The gap year has limited appeal because there is a planning component that requires some work on the parent’s part and there is some risk. Many people looking at local schools since admissions are pretty fluid right now and the classes are online anyway.