K-12 fall plans

[polly_mer]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/los-angeles-public-schools-wont-open-in-fall-as-covid-19-crisis-continues-11594667074

Our local (much smaller) district took a survey on early June that indicated 90% of parents wanted hybrid over fully online.  The registration of students for hybrid or fully online came back at near 90% for hybrid.

The announcement this week is fall for K-12 will begin fully online for everyone because the district cannot possibly be ready for a safe enough in-person reopening in the time remaining before the start of fall term.

We're a rich district with very low current infection rate (under 20 total cases in the county).  However, we can't get enough PPE, we draw faculty/students/staff from places up to an hour away that have higher rates of infection, and our local cases doubled recently from a handful in March with zero new cases for months.

The current plan is to evaluate the situation as it unfolds and give at least a month's notice before switching to hybrid at some future quarter.  The priority is enough time to plan since the one-day notice in March was an emergency that we don't need to repeat.  I expect a reassuring notice today from the largest employer in town (>70% of adults) that we will remain in work from home mode because it's the same safety data being examined and paid childcare will remain unavailable.  The director of operations was part of the school board meeting to help ensure coordination in this company town.

How's it looking where you are since some school districts start fall in less than a month?

[wellfleet]

Our school district was also headed toward a hybrid reopening in three weeks' time, but the school board voted last night to begin the year in full-distance mode instead. Numbers are rising here, we've had new local closure orders this week, and testing availability here is far below demand. Full-distance should look different than it did in the spring (it was terrible in the spring), with more synchronous class and stricter accountability, and this family of a high school junior is keeping all of our fingers crossed. There may be a delayed start date, too, but that's still being negotiated.

[lightning]

https://www.wsj.com/articles/los-angeles-public-schools-wont-open-in-fall-as-covid-19-crisis-continues-11594667074

Our local (much smaller) district took a survey on early June that indicated 90% of parents wanted hybrid over fully online.  The registration of students for hybrid or fully online came back at near 90% for hybrid.

The announcement this week is fall for K-12 will begin fully online for everyone because the district cannot possibly be ready for a safe enough in-person reopening in the time remaining before the start of fall term.

We're a rich district with very low current infection rate (under 20 total cases in the county).  However, we can't get enough PPE, we draw faculty/students/staff from places up to an hour away that have higher rates of infection, and our local cases doubled recently from a handful in March with zero new cases for months.

The current plan is to evaluate the situation as it unfolds and give at least a month's notice before switching to hybrid at some future quarter.  The priority is enough time to plan since the one-day notice in March was an emergency that we don't need to repeat.  I expect a reassuring notice today from the largest employer in town (>70% of adults) that we will remain in work from home mode because it's the same safety data being examined and paid childcare will remain unavailable.  The director of operations was part of the school board meeting to help ensure coordination in this company town.

How's it looking where you are since some school districts start fall in less than a month?

I'm glad to hear that the school district where you live actually cares about what the parents thought about the situation. There isn't a school district near me that actually asked the parents about their thoughts, in a such a formal and organized fashion as a survey.

[jimbogumbo]

Two of our larger (and to be fair, more affluent) who already have robust E-learning programs are allowing parents to choose f2f or online. They have to make a one semester commitment to their choice.

[ab_grp]

Our school district was also headed toward a hybrid reopening in three weeks' time, but the school board voted last night to begin the year in full-distance mode instead. Numbers are rising here, we've had new local closure orders this week, and testing availability here is far below demand. Full-distance should look different than it did in the spring (it was terrible in the spring), with more synchronous class and stricter accountability, and this family of a high school junior is keeping all of our fingers crossed. There may be a delayed start date, too, but that's still being negotiated.

Almost the exact situation here with respect to timing of school reopening and the decisions (and I am also a parent of a high school junior!).  A week or two ago, we got a hybrid schedule under which high school students would go in either M/T or Th/Fr, and the other 3 days would be remote.  Now it will be fully online starting in August.  Daughter's school program also includes college classes, and I think the university will be open for f2f (although that may change given the increasing numbers here), so I am not sure what that will mean for her schedule.  I definitely hope they have things more together in the fall than they did in the spring, although I completely understand why things were not so smooth at that time.

[polly_mer]

Part of the case where we are for deciding on fully online now is for faculty to really get proficient at one modality through the trainings that are being held to help bring everyone up to speed.

One parental concern from the survey was quality of education in the spring.  The district has invested a lot in getting better quality for the fall.

[Vkw10]

Last week, governor announced that schools would open in August and would be 100% f2f after 3 weeks or lose all state funding. This week, governor backed off on the 3 week limit and encouraged districts to delay opening until after Labor Day to allow preparation for having as much f2f time as possible. Plans are due to state this month.

One of my colleagues is married to an elementary school principal in neighboring district. They are discussing having grades K-4 attend five days a week, with older students attending one day a week. They'd like to divide the younger students up, with half at elementary and half at middle school buildings, then have all the older students using high school buildings. Staffing is major issue, since they'd need to many more teachers for K-4. One possibility is to assign all the grades 5-8 teachers to work with younger students, then have the HS teachers handle all the grades 5-12 students. Colleague's spouse said everyone would be delighted with better suggestions, especially if they maximize time younger children have to learn reading and arithmetic.

[kaysixteen]

Oh, that's great, have your AP calc teacher teaching 5th grade mathematics.  One-size-fits-all.  Hmmm...

Around here, we are one of the few states where the curve has indeed been flattened and the case counts dropping.   Still, to the extent that I pay attention to the news wrt school plans for the fall (not having kids or being an employed k12 ps teacher now), methinks the issue is being avoided, and that most folks are assuming that school will reopen, without necessarily there being much actual official evidence that this is true.

[apl68]

Our district announced this week that they will start classes no later than August 26.  They plan to be on-site five days a week, but with contingency plans to move online if another shutdown becomes necessary.  Parents will have the option to go with distance learning from the start, using school-issued Chrome books.  They're spending a king's ransom on new technology to facilitate distance learning.  Beats me where a little district like ours got the money from.

They're stocking up on cleaning supplies, rearranging classrooms to allow as much distancing as possible, providing masks for all staff and students and requiring their use, and seeing how they can adjust meal schedules to have social distancing in the cafeterias.  Parents will not be able to visit students on-campus unless truly necessary.  Open houses will be all virtual.

Students will be screened each day by parents for temperatures and coughs.  If they're found to have these at school, they'll be sent home.

The online option is only going to be an option for families with adequate service at home--which an awful lot of people (Not just poor ones, either) don't have at home.  I'm in the process of putting together a proposal to our library Board of Trustees to supply mobile hot spots to patrons.  That could help, but at best we'll only have funding to make a drop in the bucket compared to the need.

[theblackbox]

Students will be screened each day by parents for temperatures and coughs.  If they're found to have these at school, they'll be sent home.

This will result in virtually no different screening than all previous years, where parents determine whether their kid's illness is severe enough that they have to call into work and take the day off. Spoiler alert: Unless they're actively vomiting or unable to walk around, these kids with fevers and coughs and running noses get sent to school. Not because their parents are monsters, but because the parents are faced with losing their job/hourly wages and having no money to pay for food/shelter/healthcare for their kid, or sending their sick kid to school. Our system has been broken for a long time.

I do think some families will be more vigilant, of course, and keep kids home with mild symptoms. But many simply can't afford to.

[polly_mer]

Screening for symptoms also doesn't help enough when people are asymptomatic or presymptomatic while still being contagious.

The concern in some discourse communities is that kids don't show symptoms, but can still spread.

[hmaria1609]

Maryland, DC, and Virginia are announcing their plans:
https://wtop.com/education/2020/07/fall-school-plans-for-dc-maryland-virginia-systems-during-coronavirus/

Mayor Bowser's updated DC schools announcement:
https://wtop.com/dc/2020/07/bowser-dc-public-schools-decision-delayed/

[polly_mer]

Slate claims that there's no effort to hear teachers' voices.  A Slate writer interviews Slate's Ask a Teacher panel, who say the same things that have been showing up all over the media for the past couple weeks.

[jimbogumbo]

Don't have the link but I saw a CDC report summarized yesterday that said students 10 years old and up spread COVID in the same way adults do.

[polly_mer]

Don't have the link but I saw a CDC report summarized yesterday that said students 10 years old and up spread COVID in the same way adults do.

The Chicago Tribune has a summary of a recent, large-scale study that has the same headline.