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We’ve been in a hybrid model since the start of the year - the kids go to school for four hour days, five days a week, every other week. The alternate weeks, they are virtual and Zoom into their classroom (Classes are split in half by last name).

I just found out that starting in Mid-November they will keep the half days, but attend in person every day (no remote weeks). I’m cautiously optimistic....part of me worries that the “go date“ is so far out for this so that they can cancel the change and say they tried.

We've been completely virtual so far this year. Right now, the plan is to return on Oct 26, with an option to stay virtual for those who aren't comfortable with in-person. But it all depends on the latest case numbers that will be released tomorrow, so we'll see.

The school systems around us are all doing completely different things, from totally open to remaining virtual for the rest of the calendar year. There doesn't seem to be any consistency, even in our metro area.

Our schools are hybrid and the school board just pushed back our "hybrid-plus" model by a few weeks (this means all kiddos in class, but shortened days, and no one there on Mondays). We chose the virtual option, but cases are trending way up. Locally, kids on sports teams are agreeing to refuse testing to avoid quarantining. It is starting to spell disaster. I would be surprised if we don't shut down entirely after the election.

Our state has assigned counties a color rating - green means you can be 100% in person, yellow is hybrid, and red is 100% remote. The green and yellow categories still have long lists of requirements to be met by the individual school. Almost all counties in my state have a green rating but most districts still opened as though they are yellow because they can't meet the day to day requirements of green.

We started as a hybrid in my district and they had a school board meeting two weeks ago where they voted to stay in our hybrid/yellow instead of moving to green. They haven't set the next vote, but I assume it will be in early November. Our elementary school is four half days a week (half of the kids go in the morning, the other half in the afternoons) and fully virtual on Wednesdays. The middle school and high school have two full in person days per week (half of kids are Monday/Thursday and the other half are Tuesday/Friday) and a fully virtual day on Wednesdays. So at any given time about half of kids are in the buildings.

Even in the green level students have to remain 3 feet apart with masks on and 6 feet apart with masks off (for snacks and lunch). There simply isn't enough space to do that in the elementary school for snacks and lunch. If that distance requirement stays I don't see how we can move to 100% in person anytime soon. And for the middle and high school, many of the classrooms aren't big enough to fit everyone and the hallways would be too congested. We also don't have enough buses as a district to transport everyone at one - only one kid per seat, every other seat is allowed. Drop off and pick up would have to be staggered as well to not go over the outdoor gathering limit. So who knows???

@JCCovi: @Corduroy: I'm in the Bay Area as well (south bay) and while our district has a waiver, they are pushing back any in person instruction until at least January. They surveyed the parents and enough families said they weren't ready for in-person instruction yet.

I’m in the Bay Area as well. Our district has been very conservative - we are still in full-time distanced learning, even though technically they could be reopening based on our currents numbers/phase. They will be ‘discussing how to move forward’ after the fall break this week, with a priority for at-risk students, and then TK/K, but even with a hybrid program, I really don’t think we will see any sort of in-person school until January at the very earliest.

@theotherstark: I think most of the school districts in my county applied for and received waivers. But hardly any of them have kids back to school (that I know of).

I'm also in the SF Bay Area (East Bay) and although my county just got into the orange tier which means schools can open, due to labor negotiations school will be 100% virtual until at least 12/31. I'm dyyyyiiiinnnggg to get my kids out of the house and back in school but I get it. Super frustrating. DD1's kindergarten teacher sent a sweet video of him walking around their classroom today and it just made me so sad that she has no idea what that's like!

Our first quarter (August - October 30th) has been remote for everyone.

They are currently piloting a few classrooms to test out the plan for the 2nd quarter. Elementary will go 2x a week from 9-11:30 and the rest of the time be at home either remote or working independently. You can also elect to stay remote. The middle school schedule is also limited. High school plans to return one time PER MONTH for each grade level, but the push back on that has been insane, so that may change.

2.5 hours twice a week is pretty lame and impossible for working parents to make happen, so a lot are opting to stay fully remote.

My 2nd grader is in a learning pod (5 girls, each day of the week a different mom takes all 5 and helps facilitate the learning). We plan to continue to keep the pod going with the hybrid schedule and are hoping the girls are on the same in-school schedule. About 17 of the 24 in their class have opted in to the hybrid model, so there will be about 8 in each hybrid group.

We were supposed to return for in-person next week, but we found out on Friday that we will be remaining fully virtual until at least January. I don't see how cases will lower enough between now and then with winter and the holidays to go back in January either, so we're probably looking at virtual for the long haul. It's really difficult with the kindergarten age group, and lots of parents are having to return to work full-time in person, so childcare is also an issue. Honestly, this whole pandemic has been nothing but a mess.

@PinkElephant: I think you're right. And it also has to do somewhat, at least in our area, with the resources of the families and district. We have some very affluent towns and districts right nearby that have gone back with a hybrid model. The schools were able to hire extra teachers quickly so that class sizes could stay small, and the kids go home for lunch because there are fewer homes where both parents work (or they have been able to hire childcare). Also many students live within walking distance of their home school. They are also just smaller districts in general (2-4 schools in total) versus our district with 15 schools, so there's less to juggle.

3 out of the 4 girls (mine is one of the 3) have been super emotional. Their individual responses range from crying excessively to regressing to "babyish" behaviors to just full-on screaming. All of them have asked for time apart, saying they want a break, being more clingy with parents, saying they don't want to share toys and they want to spend more time with friends outside the pod (which we haven't due to covid). The parents agree that it just feels emotionally unhealthy overall. We were hoping it would get better with going back to school in person, but now that isn't happening.

@MamaG: yes it seems overall to be going well, which I put down to the mask mandate more than anything else. I’ll be interested to see if our rising community spread becomes a problem for schools. It seems pretty clear that with masking, spread in school is not a problem for now (the cases all seem to be related to socializing outside of school or sports). But does that change as positivity and case numbers go up? No idea. I’m also wondering how much distancing matters, as we had more kids go back in person this week from virtual.
I guess what I hope the pressure from the county health dept will do is convince the district to keep protocols strict and help talk people into good behavior outside of school (questionable!).