Cases rising or dropping by you?

[Colleen27]

Our school district recently released a survey data on how families wanted to proceed with their children going back into classrooms next year.
(No full-time in-person option).
View attachment 539165

That doesn't surprise me. From what I've heard from parents in districts that have tried hybrid, it is a worst-of-both-worlds solution - the scheduling is harder on working families than just not taking the kids to school at all, different kids in the same family end up on different schedules because they're at different grade levels/schools, and families still have all the same childcare, connectivity, and technology issues that come with remote. We're a K-8, so the childcare aspect is somewhat different than at the high school level but the other concerns are the same.

Of the three options we offered parents in the summer for our fall return to school, remote had the lowest support. Near zero, actually - only a single favorable response. We still have 85%+ support for staying open in person, but we're open on our regular schedule and at this point the only modifications we're debating are periods of full-remote as a sort of quarantine after the holidays (though that isn't decided because we know there's a good chance some of our families will use that time to travel, therefore negating the whole point of having two weeks between the holiday and the return to school). If that has to change, it will be to full remote because the parent feedback we got was that something is NOT better than nothing when it comes to trying to have the kids in school part time.

I do wish more schools were taking into account the academic impact of their choices, though. I have a friend who teaches science at a local high school and said between 50 and 80% of her remote students are failing right now. Her classes range from a required sophomore class to AP seniors, so it is a range of academic abilities, but none of the classes are doing well. And I don't think that's an outlier; the state's largest teacher's union has been lobbying to close all the schools (right now, only HS is required to be remote) and released the results of a survey showing more than 90% of their members think it is unsafe to be in the classroom. But also in that same survey was a question for teachers who are teaching remotely, and fully half said it wasn't working. I can't even imagine that stress on this crop of high schoolers as they worry about what these dismal semesters will mean for their college prospects.

 

[mrs. magoo]

I do wish more schools were taking into account the academic impact of their choices, though. I have a friend who teaches science at a local high school and said between 50 and 80% of her remote students are failing right now. Her classes range from a required sophomore class to AP seniors, so it is a range of academic abilities, but none of the classes are doing well. And I don't think that's an outlier; the state's largest teacher's union has been lobbying to close all the schools (right now, only HS is required to be remote) and released the results of a survey showing more than 90% of their members think it is unsafe to be in the classroom. But also in that same survey was a question for teachers who are teaching remotely, and fully half said it wasn't working. I can't even imagine that stress on this crop of high schoolers as they worry about what these dismal semesters will mean for their college prospects.

I completely agree with this. My school district is completely remote and I have so many kids failing. Parents want us to call them at all hours and I do not have a life outside of my computer. I am online from 6 am to 4 pm everyday. Wednesdays are the worst; I hate them. The kids think it is another day off and do no work and when i am teaching I have the kids for 25 minutes a class. I don't know how the state thinks it is going to hold regents exams in June. I teach special education and it is not going well for most of my students. The autistic kids are regressing socially and they are so lost in how to do work. I can't tell you the number of different types of technology I have tried to use with them. The 12:1:1 kids may have the opportunity to return to school in person 4 days a week after the Christmas holidays. This might mean my entire schedule will change and I will be teaching all new classes on January 4th (not even the end of the 2 nd marking period). I have 6 years until retirement but whose counting.

 

[DeeBee3]

That doesn't surprise me. From what I've heard from parents in districts that have tried hybrid, it is a worst-of-both-worlds solution - the scheduling is harder on working families than just not taking the kids to school at all, different kids in the same family end up on different schedules because they're at different grade levels/schools, and families still have all the same childcare, connectivity, and technology issues that come with remote. We're a K-8, so the childcare aspect is somewhat different than at the high school level but the other concerns are the same.

Of the three options we offered parents in the summer for our fall return to school, remote had the lowest support. Near zero, actually - only a single favorable response. We still have 85%+ support for staying open in person, but we're open on our regular schedule and at this point the only modifications we're debating are periods of full-remote as a sort of quarantine after the holidays (though that isn't decided because we know there's a good chance some of our families will use that time to travel, therefore negating the whole point of having two weeks between the holiday and the return to school). If that has to change, it will be to full remote because the parent feedback we got was that something is NOT better than nothing when it comes to trying to have the kids in school part time.

I do wish more schools were taking into account the academic impact of their choices, though. I have a friend who teaches science at a local high school and said between 50 and 80% of her remote students are failing right now. Her classes range from a required sophomore class to AP seniors, so it is a range of academic abilities, but none of the classes are doing well. And I don't think that's an outlier; the state's largest teacher's union has been lobbying to close all the schools (right now, only HS is required to be remote) and released the results of a survey showing more than 90% of their members think it is unsafe to be in the classroom. But also in that same survey was a question for teachers who are teaching remotely, and fully half said it wasn't working. I can't even imagine that stress on this crop of high schoolers as they worry about what these dismal semesters will mean for their college prospects.

I agree - I have an elementary-aged daughter and she hates "online school." Unfortunately, I see the writing on the wall and think school will be fully remote in just a few days.

There is no substitute for in-person learning. Sure, she is practicing some skills and keeping up with reading, but all the other things are lacking. And she doesn't get a live lesson from a teacher. It's just a packet of work. Plus, let's face it, she works for the teacher a lot better than me even though she does a great job at home. The work that comes home from school has neat handwriting and the work she does with me, not so much. It's a small example, but I know the reason why. She needs more interaction and motivation.

Not to mention all the families, like us, that have other siblings running around. Very chaotic and noisy. I'm sure that's different when they are older and have better ability to focus and work independently. I basically run back and forth all day to help each child.

This doesn't even touch upon the people who are unable to stay home with the kids. I'm sure there is a large percentage of kids across all ages who are doing literally nothing. Since we have been remote since last March, it's basically like they are losing 2 years of school. I can't foresee them opening up full time this school year. The whole thing is tragic really.

 

[piglet1979]

I think a few of us are from the same area. My DS10 district is also remote next week now, so I’m guessing we may be the same district. I am also anticipating them following the other districts today and going remote until January. He (superintendent ) must want to watch numbers the next few days.

DS10 hates the virtual days, so that would be a struggle since my school (private) isn’t going to close regardless of what happens. Sigh.

I think we are in different districts. Our superintendent is a female. She has been great and we get tons of communications from her.

My kids are both doing full online. One is a freshman and the other is in 8th grade. My 8th grader is doing great and started out better then years in school. She has anxiety so the unknown at the start of the year is rough on her. She does want to be in school though. My 9th grader is doing ok. But I think it has been rough on him mentally. Since March I can't even get him to run into a store with me. He is very happy to be home but I think going back to being around people will be really rough on him plus being in high school and missing that first year to figure out the school (on top of being a brand new building) will cause issues next year.

I do wish more schools were taking into account the academic impact of their choices, though. I have a friend who teaches science at a local high school and said between 50 and 80% of her remote students are failing right now. Her classes range from a required sophomore class to AP seniors, so it is a range of academic abilities, but none of the classes are doing well. And I don't think that's an outlier; the state's largest teacher's union has been lobbying to close all the schools (right now, only HS is required to be remote) and released the results of a survey showing more than 90% of their members think it is unsafe to be in the classroom. But also in that same survey was a question for teachers who are teaching remotely, and fully half said it wasn't working. I can't even imagine that stress on this crop of high schoolers as they worry about what these dismal semesters will mean for their college prospects.

I have a 8th and 9th grader. My 8th grader is getting all A's this year. Better then when she is in school. I know this is not the norm for most. Being home she has not had the anxiety that she does in school so she is more focused. My 9th grader, well he could be doing better. This is nothing new for him. He is great in class and when doing tests but forgets to turn in the homework. Serious he just needs to hit submit now and he still has issues with this. This is nothing new for him as this has been an issue since 5th grade (it is set up like a middle/high school schedule). I do worry about his grades for college and have stressed numerous times that he needs to get good grades to go to the school he wants to go to and to get scholarships.

My mom is a teacher as well. She teaches 7th grade. She said it was much easier for her to be fully remote. She is teaching kids in class and on line at the same time. She was quarantined for about a week and taught from home while another teacher was in the classroom supervising. She was able to teach to all the kids without having to deal with discipline in the class.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

The quant thing about this title now is that cases aren't dropping anyway, at least in the United States. Um... as far as I know.

 

[Suger Mag]

Rising.... Umass-Amherst has 80 new cases this week alone. And this is with remote classes.

 

[Turn the Page]

That doesn't surprise me. From what I've heard from parents in districts that have tried hybrid, it is a worst-of-both-worlds solution - the scheduling is harder on working families than just not taking the kids to school at all, different kids in the same family end up on different schedules because they're at different grade levels/schools, and families still have all the same childcare, connectivity, and technology issues that come with remote. We're a K-8, so the childcare aspect is somewhat different than at the high school level but the other concerns are the same.

Of the three options we offered parents in the summer for our fall return to school, remote had the lowest support. Near zero, actually - only a single favorable response. We still have 85%+ support for staying open in person, but we're open on our regular schedule and at this point the only modifications we're debating are periods of full-remote as a sort of quarantine after the holidays (though that isn't decided because we know there's a good chance some of our families will use that time to travel, therefore negating the whole point of having two weeks between the holiday and the return to school). If that has to change, it will be to full remote because the parent feedback we got was that something is NOT better than nothing when it comes to trying to have the kids in school part time.

I do wish more schools were taking into account the academic impact of their choices, though. I have a friend who teaches science at a local high school and said between 50 and 80% of her remote students are failing right now. Her classes range from a required sophomore class to AP seniors, so it is a range of academic abilities, but none of the classes are doing well. And I don't think that's an outlier; the state's largest teacher's union has been lobbying to close all the schools (right now, only HS is required to be remote) and released the results of a survey showing more than 90% of their members think it is unsafe to be in the classroom. But also in that same survey was a question for teachers who are teaching remotely, and fully half said it wasn't working. I can't even imagine that stress on this crop of high schoolers as they worry about what these dismal semesters will mean for their college prospects.

Interesting. Our district offered regular, in person or virtual. No hybrid model with the exception of students coming in for certain electives like band or CTE classes. We chose virtual the virtual option and our kids are doing well with it. Not perfect, DD14 is struggling with the platform being glitch but overall she is doing well.

We have had several building closures and I have wondered for those families who need to arrange childcare at what point it becomes easier to find a solution and go with it rather than a few days or weeks here and there when buildings are closed due to quarantine.

Your statistics about students failing virtual classes is interesting and may answer some questions DH and I had about some recent developments. For the first quarter DD's teachers were not lecturing at all and now, suddenly, they are. We wondered why, maybe that's it.

The superintendent has made his feelings about the virtual option quite clear and flat out said families should strongly consider sending their students back for in person instruction if they aren't being successful in the virtual program. I guess he didn't like the response he got to that so he had the director of the local health department telling parents our kids are safer in schools because we are abusing and neglecting our children at home and the school can't see them and mental health issues are on the rise and countries where schools didn't close are doing better combating the spread and it doesn't spread in schools anyway.

 

[holden]

Our cases are rising exponentially. Our schools are reverting to all virtual learning starting Monday. Dd13 cannot learn virtually. She has an IEP and was failing several classes when learning was virtual at the beginning of the year. They only got 2 weeks of in person learning in before being shut down again. We are looking at possibly switching to a small private school for her next year.

DD17 is hanging in there. She’s graduating in June and taking a gap semester or year next year. She’s an art major and wants the regular college experience, not virtual.

My brother-in-law is the chief of medicine at a major hospital in our area. He said they have no ICU beds available.

 

[luvsvacation]

Our school district is in person full time. They have a virtual option also but most are going in person. For the most part it is going very well except for the quarantines. Anytime someone test positive all the students who were sitting near that child must quarantine for 2 weeks. In high school with 7 classes this amounts to about 40 kids being sent home for each sick child. This is a huge disruption. The kids at home on quarantine are not given in person instruction for 2 weeks and are just given the assignments online. Luckily my son has only been put on one quarantine, but several students are already on their 3rd! That is a lot of valuable in person learning that is being missed. My son is in AP classes and it was tough enough trying to catch up from 1quarantine. Each day I sent him to school I hope that today isn’t the day he gets sent home again. Our governor recently changed the criteria for quarantining and said schools no longer need to quarantine students who were in contact with positive students. I am hoping our district will follow the governors guidelines but it’s been a week and so far they are still doing the quarantines. There has been a great debate on the district fb page with about 75% of us in favor of ending quarantines and about 25% against. My son said at this point so many healthy kids are out on quarantine that his many of his classes are down to having single digits of kids instead of 20+

 

[RamblingMad]

Our cases are rising exponentially. Our schools are reverting to all virtual learning starting Monday. Dd13 cannot learn virtually. She has an IEP and was failing several classes when learning was virtual at the beginning of the year. They only got 2 weeks of in person learning in before being shut down again. We are looking at possibly switching to a small private school for her next year.

DD17 is hanging in there. She’s graduating in June and taking a gap semester or year next year. She’s an art major and wants the regular college experience, not virtual.

My brother-in-law is the chief of medicine at a major hospital in our area. He said they have no ICU beds available.

I would take a gap year too under these circumstances.

 

[bobbiwoz]

A happy story from a friend in Wisconsin!

My sister-in-law in assisted living had the virus and was very ill. Considering her other health issues we thought this would take her. But, as of now, she has started on the road to recovery. It was a long siege and the whole place had 69% of residents affected as well as a large number of the staff and caregivers. No visitors of course so it’s been hard. The last testing of the residents this week showed NO positive cases. Great news!

This gives me hope that even for elderly, there are medicines that help you get better. Right now, I have two friends with the virus in a hospital, one on ventilator.

 

[Colleen27]

I had a DVC night booked at BWV on Monday to use expiring points. We didn't even go to the room. We drove to BWV, took a walk on the Boardwalk, which was mostly empty, but people were walking around not wearing masks. Took the bus (we were alone, so no problem there) to the Magic Kingdom. MK looks okay until you get behind the castle - was a total zoo, and again, we saw at least 30 people walking around eating, drinking, not wearing masks and nobody telling them to put them on. The lines are winding around buildings and you almost can't avoid getting within 6 feet of people. We were there long enough to take a walk around the kingdom and then left. I'm staying out of there until at least January.

I'm really sad to hear that compliance is so poor down there. We had a trip booked for next month, tentatively, that I have since pushed to January out of respect for relatives who aren't comfortable getting together for the holidays if we're traveling right before. I'm not sure we'll keep the January plans either. I'm a bit torn between wanting to go, since my girls have been talking all year about missing WDW even though we had no plans to go back this year or next before the pandemic, and feeling like we'd be better off sticking to destinations where mask compliance and distancing would be easier than in Orlando.

I agree - I have an elementary-aged daughter and she hates "online school." Unfortunately, I see the writing on the wall and think school will be fully remote in just a few days.

There is no substitute for in-person learning. Sure, she is practicing some skills and keeping up with reading, but all the other things are lacking. And she doesn't get a live lesson from a teacher. It's just a packet of work. Plus, let's face it, she works for the teacher a lot better than me even though she does a great job at home. The work that comes home from school has neat handwriting and the work she does with me, not so much. It's a small example, but I know the reason why. She needs more interaction and motivation.

Not to mention all the families, like us, that have other siblings running around. Very chaotic and noisy. I'm sure that's different when they are older and have better ability to focus and work independently. I basically run back and forth all day to help each child.

This doesn't even touch upon the people who are unable to stay home with the kids. I'm sure there is a large percentage of kids across all ages who are doing literally nothing. Since we have been remote since last March, it's basically like they are losing 2 years of school. I can't foresee them opening up full time this school year. The whole thing is tragic really.

IME, not really. It is just a different set of distractions. My 12yo and my college freshman both struggled in the spring because having so many people at home, including my two young adult sons, provides a million temptations to procrastinate. We ended up going to a friend's cabin up north for several weeks to give them some quiet and space without the distractions of two laid-off gamer brothers, the TV and game systems and books and crafts and toys at arm's length, people being noisy because they didn't realize the girls were in Zoom classes, etc.

I'm hoping we'll be allowed to stay open, but I suspect you're right that it is only a matter of time until the closure order comes. Most of the districts around me have gone full remote anyway and I agree that is tragic for their students. For too many kids, this is entirely lost time - the last quarter of last year, very likely all of this year, and potentially the first quarter or half of next year. That's a lot of learning to miss/try to make up later! But from a selfish perspective, I do hope that if most schools in my state are prudent in choosing if/when to go remote, we can escape a blanket order like we had in the spring. We just had our first case - a staff member who was exposed through her husband and was quarantined for over a week before she tested positive - and while the adjustment to covid-normal hasn't been easy for students or staff, everyone feels like this is better than being remote so we're hoping to keep it going as long as possible.

 

[wdwfan51]

"What virus?" - DeSantis

DeSantis is an idiot. Contact him by email along with our senators to let them know. Maybe if enough of us complain he may see the light. I don’t really believe it will help but contacting them relieves some of my Covid stress.

 

[EACarlson]

I do wish more schools were taking into account the academic impact of their choices, though. I have a friend who teaches science at a local high school and said between 50 and 80% of her remote students are failing right now. Her classes range from a required sophomore class to AP seniors, so it is a range of academic abilities, but none of the classes are doing well. And I don't think that's an outlier; the state's largest teacher's union has been lobbying to close all the schools (right now, only HS is required to be remote) and released the results of a survey showing more than 90% of their members think it is unsafe to be in the classroom. But also in that same survey was a question for teachers who are teaching remotely, and fully half said it wasn't working. I can't even imagine that stress on this crop of high schoolers as they worry about what these dismal semesters will mean for their college prospects.

St. Paul (MN) Public Schools said that they are at about 70% failing right now. And my Governor next door has proposed his first legislation since April, to not require standardized testing or publish school scores this year.

WI is down to 6,700 cases today after being at just under 8,000 yesterday. My son was one of the negative tests on Tuesday that didn't get reported because he had tested negative in June.

 

[Dan Murphy]

Illinois--yesterday 14,612 new cases, 168 deaths. Terrible.

 

[North of Mouse]

All lower 48 contiguous states have Covid on the rise. It was predicted to be this way when winter hit and people are naturally staying inside more. Scary to think what it will look like come January with the coming holidays.
So hard on every age, and our children (general) are by nature very social and need that interaction with each other, so it's a very tough call on knowing what to do about 'in class' or 'virtual'.
Am sure we've all been 'touched' in some way with Covid by now - we've had friends from different states that have had it very bad - some have died - some are battling it now. So very sad.
STILL, I know some that think it's no worse than the flu and is being blown out of proportion! Don't know what makes some people tick!

 

[monsterkitty]

Someone in one of the COVID threads stated that kids can socialize, have sleep overs, pasta parties, and other teen activities if the parents are okay with it.

Our district student numbers increased by 7 today. All went to the same sleep over last week. Three of the students attend one middle school, two attend ours, and the other two are elementary students at different schools. One party, 4 schools affected.

 

[Cannot_Wait_4Disney]

192,186. A record.

43 states over 1,000. A record.

32 states over 2,000.

21 states over 3,000

17 states over 4,000

12 states over 5,000

11 states over 6,000

8 states over 7,000

3 states over 10,000.


We're over 2,000 deaths today for the first time since May 7.

 

[disneychrista]

My county just had the highest single day number of cases today. We are also seeing a steady increase in the positivity rate. 30% of our cases are categorized as community spread.

Time to hunker down for the winter.

 

[ORD2KOA]

Someone in one of the COVID threads stated that kids can socialize, have sleep overs, pasta parties, and other teen activities if the parents are okay with it.

They closed a school here (Orange County/Orlando, FL) last month because of one birthday party.