Are you sending your kids to school next month?

[monsterkitty]

That was one rule my ds's broke at my direction. Who the heck is the school, or the gov't to tell my children they can't carry their life saving medicine on their person without permission from a doctor. So instead they make a child walk all the way to the nurses office when they are having an asthma attack or going into anaphylactic shock. Just because rules have been made doesn't mean they are for the benefit of the student.
If that was against the law, I'd have no problem being arrested for making sure my children were safe.

As far as carrying pain medication in one's backpack, it really should be up to a parent whether or not their child can take that when they feel it's necessary. If I as a parent trust my kid to do it at home, then I trust them at school (I'm talking middle school and up age) Our school eventually starting requiring a doctor's note for things like advil. Yeah I don't think so, in the backpacks it went and in the bathroom they went to take it.

The problem is, your child is responsible. The child who takes the OTC medication out of your child's backpack is not. Or if your child accidently loses the medication.

When I was student teaching a girl was having trouble breathing. Another girl let her use her inhaler. She had an allergic reaction and stopped breathing.

My second year of teaching I got called to the office because 4 girls had dipped their fingers in Jello powder/mix. All 4 were complaining of pounding hearts. They called me because I was a paramedic at the time and we didn't have school nurses.

No one could get the girls admit what was in the powder Jell-O because they didn't know. One of the girls finally told us where they got the baggie of powder from. We called that kid down. He had taken crushed-up Sudafed and mixed it in with the Jell-O mix. When one ambulance got to school, they called for 3 more because the girls were not stable enough to be taken in one or two ambulances.

Even when I was a student it was state law that all medication had to have a doctor's prescription, even OTC meds, and held in the office. "Here, I have a Tylenol, Advil, Benadryl you can take" can have horrible outcomes.

It is important for students to carry inhalers and EPI pens and the laws allow for that if the student has documentation from the doctor.

 

[Southernmiss]

That was one rule my ds's broke at my direction. Who the heck is the school, or the gov't to tell my children they can't carry their life saving medicine on their person without permission from a doctor. So instead they make a child walk all the way to the nurses office when they are having an asthma attack or going into anaphylactic shock. Just because rules have been made doesn't mean they are for the benefit of the student.
If that was against the law, I'd have no problem being arrested for making sure my children were safe.

As far as carrying pain medication in one's backpack, it really should be up to a parent whether or not their child can take that when they feel it's necessary. If I as a parent trust my kid to do it at home, then I trust them at school (I'm talking middle school and up age) Our school eventually starting requiring a doctor's note for things like advil. Yeah I don't think so, in the backpacks it went and in the bathroom they went to take it.

I'm of the same thoughts.

Yes, I understand rules and why they're in place. But I do believe exceptions should be made.

In April of junior year (2019) our daughter had 3 weeks of nausea, fever, and headaches. And lost 20 pounds.

She had several blood tests and visits to her pediatrician. But nothing could be done for her until she got in to see a specialist who took 3 weeks to get an appointment.

I tried to work with the school, even calling the assistant Superintendent about having her stay home.

She had earned the right to be exempt from term exams, except the school had an absentee policy that if she were absent, even with doctor's excuse, she could not be exempt. And no exception could be made.

So daughter went to school for those required classes armed with ginger, nausea meds, sea bands, mints, motrin and tylenol and bottles of water. And had her butt in the seat to meet the district attendance requirements.

Ridiculous. Her doctor was furious and demanded she start homebound. She finished the last 2 weeks with homebound status, but had to physically be present to take AP exams and state exams. So she went to school for those exams with her lunch bag full of contraband.

 

[DisLiss]

When has announcing I need to pee never not happened ? Isn’t it a universal rule , even back in my days , If you need pee you excuse yourself. Either raise your hand and ask for a hall pass and or permission to leave the classroom. I’ve never heard of kids simply being able to get up and leave a classroom to go use the bathroom without any notice

Very few things in life are universal, and I think that's part of why now, in the internet age, we sometimes have a hard time communicating well with one another; because we tend to believe that our experiences in life are similar to what others experienced. But places and people and experiences vary enormously from country to country, state to state, province to province, region to region, even town to town. And the differences are not all huge, life altering things, but tiny day to day things, too.

As for announcing you need to use the bathroom, in my personal experience, that varied from class to class, even within the same school. Yes, there were absolutely teachers in my schools that allowed you to simply leave to use the restroom. They felt it was better for someone to simply leave than to have their teaching disrupted by someone raising their hand to ask to use the bathroom.

 

[ramee]

I'm of the same thoughts.

Yes, I understand rules and why they're in place. But I do believe exceptions should be made.

In April of junior year (2019) our daughter had 3 weeks of nausea, fever, and headaches. And lost 20 pounds.

She had several blood tests and visits to her pediatrician. But nothing could be done for her until she got in to see a specialist who took 3 weeks to get an appointment.

I tried to work with the school, even calling the assistant Superintendent about having her stay home.

She had earned the right to be exempt from term exams, except the school had an absentee policy that if she were absent, even with doctor's excuse, she could not be exempt. And no exception could be made.

So daughter went to school for those required classes armed with ginger, nausea meds, sea bands, mints, motrin and tylenol and bottles of water. And had her butt in the seat to meet the district attendance requirements.

Ridiculous. Her doctor was furious and demanded she start homebound. She finished the last 2 weeks with homebound status, but had to physically be present to take AP exams and state exams. So she went to school for those exams with her lunch bag full of contraband.

Curious what your daughter’s ailment turned out to be.

 

[Southernmiss]

Curious what your daughter’s ailment turned out to be.

Systemic lupus

 

[ramee]

Systemic lupus

Aw. Hope she is managing well. Thanks for sharing.

 

[Southernmiss]

Aw. Hope she is managing well. Thanks for sharing.

Thank you.

It's been a learning curve. She's got a good doctor and is on a drug that mostly has it under control.

Started college last week five hours away. I'm nervous hoping the stress of starting college doesn't cause another bad flare.

She's truly amazing with how she's handled it all and keeps pushing through and had a very full senior year.

 

[Heather07438]

Most of the rules have been less harsh than other reports for all the schools I've dealt with in NJ. OTC meds aren't allowed to be carried by students but kids are allowed to carry and self-administer Inhalers &/or Epi's. Part of the problem with carrying OTC is kids often think nothing of sharing which risks various bad outcomes. When my niece stayed with us thru high school, she'd take a dose of Motrin before school if needed and keep one extra dose in her backpack, which technically wasn't allowed but she knew it was strictly only for her personal use. I would've had a hard time defending her need to carry a whole bottle though.

It's also very common (usually beginning in middle school) for teachers to have sign in/out sheets for student restroom use without needing to raise their hand.

 

[ramee]

.

 

[amylevan]

Due to 30% going fully virtual, the rest being split in half for hybrid, and my sons relatively small grade level, there are 6 other kids in his class on his in-person days.

6!

That’s not exactly socialization, and since they do not leave their room at all even for lunch, (teachers are rotating instead), I hope he gets along with those kids or it’s going to be a long year.
The desks are super spread out but masks still required as per our state government.

 

[stout]

Our kids were supposed to start on Monday the 31st, full time, in school, everyday. I suspected it wasn’t sustainable...told my DH I thought the plan would last 2 weeks. He commented, “I’ll take the under on that.” We just got a notice that school is delayed because a number of teachers recently tested positive and a handful more are considered close contacts, so a bunch are in quarantine. New start date is Sept 8th.
So frustrated...no online plan implemented, just a delayed start.

 

[monsterkitty]

Due to 30% going fully virtual, the rest being split in half for hybrid, and my sons relatively small grade level, there are 6 other kids in his class on his in-person days.

6!

That’s not exactly socialization, and since they do not leave their room at all even for lunch, (teachers are rotating instead), I hope he gets along with those kids or it’s going to be a long year.
The desks are super spread out but masks still required as per our state government.

We're 100% in person but parents had the online choice. Cohorts are between 10-18 kids per class. I think one class has 7 in it. The kids stay in their "homeroom" class all day but we go get them for electives and bring them to our rooms.

The first day one student looked around the room and said, "I know no one here. We can't even see our friends."

Another replied, "True, but at least we are around people other than our families!"

First student agreed.

Kids are doing incredibly well and we are so proud of them. Only once in a while will we have to remind someone about pulling their mask above the nose.

 

[DopeyDame]

Due to 30% going fully virtual, the rest being split in half for hybrid, and my sons relatively small grade level, there are 6 other kids in his class on his in-person days.

6!

That’s not exactly socialization, and since they do not leave their room at all even for lunch, (teachers are rotating instead), I hope he gets along with those kids or it’s going to be a long year.
The desks are super spread out but masks still required as per our state government.

Oh that sounds great! I truly believe small classes can make an enormous difference in a kids' education. Even if it's not 5 days a week, that kind of attention should go a long way to helping ease the academic disruptions over the last six months.

 

[Colleen27]

Due to 30% going fully virtual, the rest being split in half for hybrid, and my sons relatively small grade level, there are 6 other kids in his class on his in-person days.

6!

That’s not exactly socialization, and since they do not leave their room at all even for lunch, (teachers are rotating instead), I hope he gets along with those kids or it’s going to be a long year.
The desks are super spread out but masks still required as per our state government.

As the parent of a child who is in a class of 5 at the moment and has never been in a class larger than 10, I can assure you that small groups absolutely are socialization. In some ways, they're better than bigger groups because there just aren't enough kids in the room to be cliquish or to define "in" and "out" groups, so the kids get to know others who aren't just like them. They learn to get along across their differences. And it makes for a lot of personalized attention from the teacher that isn't possible in classrooms of 25 or 30, which seems like it could be especially helpful right now as kids work to catch up from the lost spring quarter and adjust to a whole new way of doing things.

 

[MrsBooch]

As the parent of a child who is in a class of 5 at the moment and has never been in a class larger than 10, I can assure you that small groups absolutely are socialization. In some ways, they're better than bigger groups because there just aren't enough kids in the room to be cliquish or to define "in" and "out" groups, so the kids get to know others who aren't just like them. They learn to get along across their differences. And it makes for a lot of personalized attention from the teacher that isn't possible in classrooms of 25 or 30, which seems like it could be especially helpful right now as kids work to catch up from the lost spring quarter and adjust to a whole new way of doing things.

fully agree with all of this - our non public school is still set to start on the 3rd and class size will be 8 or less. I assure you - socialization happens, and personalized attention like that is the best thing for them after the ending of the school year they had previously.
Our school did just send out an update telling us that they would be doing rapid testing at the school as well for the first month - weekly randomized testing of groups of 75. I'm happy about it - along with the other choices they've made to be safe. My son is BEYOND excited to get back to school.

 

[Colleen27]

fully agree with all of this - our non public school is still set to start on the 3rd and class size will be 8 or less. I assure you - socialization happens, and personalized attention like that is the best thing for them after the ending of the school year they had previously.
Our school did just send out an update telling us that they would be doing rapid testing at the school as well for the first month - weekly randomized testing of groups of 75. I'm happy about it - along with the other choices they've made to be safe. My son is BEYOND excited to get back to school.

We went back yesterday and DD12 was over the moon about it. Of the 5 kids in her class, 3 (including her) have been together since pre-K and the other 2 since 3rd grade, so they're all pretty close and thrilled to be back to seeing each other every day again.

And a lot of parents seem to be looking for those small classes right now - after the Archdiocese warned us to expect a 20% covid-drop in enrollment, based on financial stresses and a reluctance to commit to a year's tuition with no assurance of in-person learning, we've actually grown by 10% and had to close some classes to protect the ability to distance students.

 

[MrsBooch]

we've actually grown by 10% and had to close some classes to protect the ability to distance students

Yes we had the same results! People wanted the smaller class sizes - we anticipated having some major cuts in enrollment but the opposite ended up happening.
I'm so happy for your DD - my DS will be in class with kids he's known since PreK so a very similar experience. He already laid out his uniform for the first day

 

[godisney14]

We went back yesterday and DD12 was over the moon about it. Of the 5 kids in her class, 3 (including her) have been together since pre-K and the other 2 since 3rd grade, so they're all pretty close and thrilled to be back to seeing each other every day again.

And a lot of parents seem to be looking for those small classes right now - after the Archdiocese warned us to expect a 20% covid-drop in enrollment, based on financial stresses and a reluctance to commit to a year's tuition with no assurance of in-person learning, we've actually grown by 10% and had to close some classes to protect the ability to distance students.

Yes we had the same results! People wanted the smaller class sizes - we anticipated having some major cuts in enrollment but the opposite ended up happening.
I'm so happy for your DD - my DS will be in class with kids he's known since PreK so a very similar experience. He already laid out his uniform for the first day

Im curious, how did enrollment go UP when classrooms need to have students spread out more? Did additional classes and teachers open up?

 

[Colleen27]

Im curious, how did enrollment go UP when classrooms need to have students spread out more? Did additional classes and teachers open up?

Our starting point was well, WELL, WELL below capacity. Like most private/parochial schools in rural areas, we've been struggling with low and declining enrollment for years. We're in a pretty decent public district and the population of our area is both shrinking and aging, so there are fewer kids overall and economic forces discourage many families from choosing private school. The building can (and up until the '90s did) hold about 250 students. Last year, we had 57.

We did hire one extra teacher for this fall, because a 3rd/4th split class got big enough to justify separate classes, but mostly it is that even with capping class sizes at 12 to 15 (depending on grade level), we still had empty seats in most grades. As I mentioned upthread my daughter is in a 7th grade class of 5 students, one of whom is enrolled in the remote option we're offering because he has sensory issues that make mandatory masks too difficult to manage. Her class size could triple and the classroom would still be operating at less than half the capacity the room was designed for.

 

[MrsBooch]

Im curious, how did enrollment go UP when classrooms need to have students spread out more? Did additional classes and teachers open up?

For us - once public schools went virtual and we came out with our guidelines - enrollment went up. Our campus is on just under 130 acres and spread over four buildings - upper schools are separate from lower schools and they built outdoor classroom space, and repurposed indoor space to exist as mobile classrooms with technology etc. Anyone who could swing the cost, made it happen. They hired more staff, pushed upper school to hybrid/mostly virtual and focused on the lower school as they were concerned that the lower school kids would have the largest emotional and mental health hits from another virtual year. Also - our school closed down on March 6th so we have been home for A LONG time. The little kids took it the hardest. So to answer your question - tl/dr: yes, additional class space was opened and they hired more teachers to maintain the ratio's.