Are you sending your kids to school next month?

[Lumpy1106]

I disagree with this. My 8th and 9th grader have been remote all year. Our choice. Both kids have been engaged with class. My 9th grader's teachers have told me in conferences about how engaged he has been. I do have to stay on top of him with homework but that has been the case since he was in 5th grade so nothing new. My 8th grader has exceled more with being home then at school. She has no drama to deal with to distract her. Both have learned the same amount as they would in school. I am not saying that this works for everyone because I know it does not but that there are kids that are engaged and paying attention to what is happening in there class even though they are remote.



This does not happen here. My kids do not have access to work ahead of time. They get the work as the kids in school get it. They are in the same classes as the kids in school just online. My DD has had 100% in Math both quarters this year and has had none of the work early. She is getting all A's and maybe 1 B. DS is getting all A's and B's and does great on tests. He gets none of his work early. They both do great on test because they study and do the work that is given to them. They have changed none of their school habits either with being home except for eating when they want. They have 10 minutes between classes so they have time to grab a snack.

That's great it's working for them but they are the exception. What's more, they are still going to be set back when schools do re-open. The teachers are going to have to go back and review a lot of what has been taught - you have to teach to the class level. Then there's the toll on the kids - depression from all the isolation, especially High School kids, is rampant. Adolescent suicide due to COVID shutdowns far outpaces adolescent deaths due to COVID. It's not even close.

For every kid for whom remote learning is working, there are dozens who are like my DD15 - withdrawn, barely talks to us, failing classes they would have otherwise aced, unmotivated to the point of not even bothering to take exams. It is a daily, sometimes hourly struggle for me to keep her engaged at all. THAT is the norm.

The real bummer about all of this is it is so unnecessary. Florida has had schools open from the start and they took a lot of flack for that. Well, turns out they got it right, as now every expert is demanding that schools re-open, and many are of my mindset - they should have never closed in the first place.
https://www.sfgate.com/news/editors...mic-exit-interview-COVID-19-UCSF-15954178.php

 

[piglet1979]

That's great it's working for them but they are the exception. What's more, they are still going to be set back when schools do re-open. The teachers are going to have to go back and review a lot of what has been taught - you have to teach to the class level. Then there's the toll on the kids - depression from all the isolation, especially High School kids, is rampant. Adolescent suicide due to COVID shutdowns far outpaces adolescent deaths due to COVID. It's not even close.

For every kid for whom remote learning is working, there are dozens who are like my DD15 - withdrawn, barely talks to us, failing classes they would have otherwise aced, unmotivated to the point of not even bothering to take exams. It is a daily, sometimes hourly struggle for me to keep her engaged at all. THAT is the norm.

The real bummer about all of this is it is so unnecessary. Florida has had schools open from the start and they took a lot of flack for that. Well, turns out they got it right, as now every expert is demanding that schools re-open, and many are of my mindset - they should have never closed in the first place.
https://www.sfgate.com/news/editors...mic-exit-interview-COVID-19-UCSF-15954178.php

As I stated before, I know this does not work for all. All I was stating is that it does work for some so your statement of saying it is like this for all is not correct. It has worked for several in my area.

As far as having schools open and Florida did it right. Well I don't think there is really a right way. Each school and each school district is going to be different. They reason why my kids did not go back for the second semester is because our district is no longer quarantining close contact because this is what our governor has said schools can do. My mom's district is still quarantine as before. My mom's school district that has been hybrid and then only elementary students full time have had a total of 295 test positive and 1873 students quarantined at different times through out the year. This is with a mask mandate and social distancing up to 3 feet. My district has had 161 test positive but they didn't tract quarantines.

 

[VandVsmama]

My kids are going back in person TOMORROW! We are all thrilled about this!!

Day 1 back in person went well. One of YDD’s BFFs is back in person also, so she’s a happy camper. Same for ODD. For YDD’s art class, it’s just her and the art teacher in person. All the rest of the kids opted to remain online only. Makes for some great one on one instruction! They spent the class period yesterday talking about Marvel movies (relevant to an art project YDD is working on).

 

[Lumpy1106]

As I stated before, I know this does not work for all. All I was stating is that it does work for some so your statement of saying it is like this for all is not correct. It has worked for several in my area.

As far as having schools open and Florida did it right. Well I don't think there is really a right way. Each school and each school district is going to be different. They reason why my kids did not go back for the second semester is because our district is no longer quarantining close contact because this is what our governor has said schools can do. My mom's district is still quarantine as before. My mom's school district that has been hybrid and then only elementary students full time have had a total of 295 test positive and 1873 students quarantined at different times through out the year. This is with a mask mandate and social distancing up to 3 feet. My district has had 161 test positive but they didn't tract quarantines.

What you are talking about are, sensible, "abundance of caution" precautions. We we are facing in CA is MORE than a full year of schools completely shut down. This would be the same as if an in-person school had a super-spreader event and they had to close the whole school down - FOR A YEAR. That would be alarming - THAT is what we are going through. I'll take the occasional quarantine, thanks.

 

[EACarlson]

Today's the day my DS8 finally gets to actually meet half the kids in his class. Starting today my district is back in full time for everyone.

 

[lanejudy]

For every kid for whom remote learning is working, there are dozens who are like my DD15 - withdrawn, barely talks to us, failing classes they would have otherwise aced, unmotivated to the point of not even bothering to take exams. It is a daily, sometimes hourly struggle for me to keep her engaged at all. THAT is the norm.

I'm really sorry to hear your DD is struggling that severely; I agree many are finding significant challenges due to the COVID closures (long-term or repeated open/closed/open/closed). I do hope you are pursuing some counseling or other mental health assistance to help your DD cope with the current situation. My state has pushed assistance for those who need it -- students or adults -- and it can be a long wait for an appointment.

 

[Lumpy1106]

I'm really sorry to hear your DD is struggling that severely; I agree many are finding significant challenges due to the COVID closures (long-term or repeated open/closed/open/closed). I do hope you are pursuing some counseling or other mental health assistance to help your DD cope with the current situation. My state has pushed assistance for those who need it -- students or adults -- and it can be a long wait for an appointment.

Thank you - yes, all of the above. NOT GIVING UP!

 

[Lumpy1106]

A little update from the alternate universe that is Long Beach. They had a school board meeting last night...and pushed back re-opening schools AGAIN! UURRGGHH!! The last promised was they would open all schools March 1 if the COVID numbers came down into "red". Well, we are on-track to meet that goal, but now they are saying hybrid, 2.5 hours a day, K-5 ONLY March 29, Seniors, April 19 (same nonsense), everyone else a week later. That's what they are saying, we've long ago stopped believing them, and this was all release in a memo BEFORE the meeting. No public discussion whatsoever - shady as all heck. It's a cautionary tale; THIS is what happens when you let the teacher's Union pick the school board members. All are either endorsed or have former, long-standing connections with the union. The parents have no voice and NOBODY is advocating for the kids. Shameful.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

The last of the 3 big districts in my county announced a return to full time in-person learning for all grades effective March 22nd. Elementary is already full time in-person. The other grades have been hybrid or remote.

As I mentioned earlier the parents have been demanding in-person, have gone to board meetings etc.

This was from the Board meeting yesterday:


It was noted the district made the decision to allow in-person prior to the parents who spoke at the meeting.

 

[mrs. magoo]

Locally some of the districts are appealing to the state to lift the 6 feet of distance rule so they can have kids come in full time instead of hybrid. My district is just this week allowing high schoolers to come in hybrid. We have 147 out of 800 coming in person. I have been in person since January 4th with the autistic kids. My own kid continues to be hybrid 2 days a week in person. I have to say even with a 3 feet mandate my current room could not hold the 12 kids on the roster for my self contained classes and my class that is co taught there is no way we could have 30 kids in that room and maintain any kind of social distancing. I believe that we will come back full time after April break. That would mean the 4th schedule change for kids.

 

[hulagirl87]

We received a notice from our school district that they aren't sure how they would be able to accomodate all the students back full time with keeping them at a safe distance. We are all remote here at home right now. DS is first grade and getting a lot more work and learning than DD who is fifth grade.

 

[Lumpy1106]

A little update from the alternate universe that is Long Beach. They had a school board meeting last night...and pushed back re-opening schools AGAIN! UURRGGHH!! The last promised was they would open all schools March 1 if the COVID numbers came down into "red". Well, we are on-track to meet that goal, but now they are saying hybrid, 2.5 hours a day, K-5 ONLY March 29, Seniors, April 19 (same nonsense), everyone else a week later. That's what they are saying, we've long ago stopped believing them, and this was all release in a memo BEFORE the meeting. No public discussion whatsoever - shady as all heck. It's a cautionary tale; THIS is what happens when you let the teacher's Union pick the school board members. All are either endorsed or have former, long-standing connections with the union. The parents have no voice and NOBODY is advocating for the kids. Shameful.

Replying to myself to add - the Governor has been touring the vaccine sites for the last few weeks and has repeatedly held up Long Beach as a model for how to get kids back in schools - but the kids AREN'T back in schools!! I dunno - maybe look outside the state for some real motivation?

 

[EACarlson]

Madison is supposedly having a "Sickout" (also known as an illegal strike) to "protest" that the school board has made the decision to allow some kids to come back to school in 4 weeks. They are one of two districts in the state that is still completely virtual.

Meanwhile, today marks one week for my 8 year old back in school full time. He is so much happier not having to stare at a computer screen.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

My state had a bill originally been proposed that would have made all schools offer (though not require) in-person by March 26th. That ended up not passing.

However, a bill requiring in-person to be offered by March 31st just passed and our governor is said to be signing it. The original bill put contingencies on the schools by prohibiting them from requiring remote or hybrid at any point in the future. The updated bill removes those contingencies.

The statement from the governor's office says the bill was made possible because she made sure to push out vaccines to teachers but I'm a bit iffy on that one because the message had been that school is still safe even when teachers weren't vaccinated and that was because we saw so many of these situations where teachers were refusing to teach until they got vaccinated. It wasn't that I didn't understand their concern but frankly there are way too many occupations out there where people have had to work and continue to work without the availability of the vaccine.

Back to the bill---Traditionally in my state it's important that school districts be allowed to make decisions (which is why the governor's mandate last March to close all school buildings caused such controversy) but it's also why the bill had issues originally being passed, not because of concerns over safety (and that's not to say they didn't care about safety we just didn't have evidence to support schools being a major point of transmission) but over concerns that it removed the decision from school districts.

The governor did say that largely most of the districts in the state had plans to return to in-person already (or were already having in-person) so the bill was more or less not the most needed but it's still out there now. There is one district in the county above me that went largely remote throughout all of this and they will be affected. Originally they were set to return older students to in-person April 5th though younger and middle school would be back at the end of March. I think they saw the writing on the wall because Tuesday, before this bill was fully passed, they opted to move that date to March 31st. The difference is early childhood children were not set to return until April 5th but now the school district will have to offer in-person for those children as of March 31st.

 

[tink89]

We were notified that my daughters school would allow them back starting this week. I talked about it with her and she wanted to back and i thought it would be good for her. Then we got the full details and students were going to stay in one classroom still doing their classes on zoom just at school. We saw no point in that so we choose for her to just stay home for the remainder of the year.

 

[mom2rtk]

We were notified that my daughters school would allow them back starting this week. I talked about it with her and she wanted to back and i thought it would be good for her. Then we got the full details and students were going to stay in one classroom still doing their classes on zoom just at school. We saw no point in that so we choose for her to just stay home for the remainder of the year.

That’s awful. Not the purpose of being back “in person” at all!

 

[tink89]

That’s awful. Not the purpose of being back “in person” at all!

Exactly. Plus we had to decide and stick with what we decided until end of year. With out knowing how many days they would be on campus or which days. They would only give us the info after they received responses from parents. Plus the teacher in their classroom was going to be teaching their class through zoom so very distracting for the kids.

 

[neverlandsky]

Full-time in-person for everyone starting Monday April 12.

 

[VandVsmama]

Our kids have been back in person for about a month now and it's been great. My kids are much happier. 2 weeks ago, the school urged high schoolers to consider going back in person, especially in preparation for AP exams, since it's FAR easier for teachers to gauge student understanding by seeing the kid in person than doing it in an online format. My kids are thrilled to just see other people each day in addition to just their parents. It's been great for their mental health.

 

[DisneyJamieCA]

It's been awhile since I've been on this thread, but...

my younger two are going back hybrid on April 12th! AM/PM model 4 days a week with everybody remote on Wednesdays.

My older two (high school) could go back on April 19th, but both have elected to finish out this school year on remote. The schedule and plan seems to disruptive and they're both doing really well as it is. None of their friends are going back in person either. As of yesterday only 40% have requested to go back.

They are all back in in person ballet though!