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I think this year our school will do nothing. Mask mandates are against the law here in TX 🙄 so we won’t have many precautions in general ..: but I will say that they ate in the cafeteria last year (with masks in classrooms) and it seemed to be ok, most cases came from behavior outside school. With delta being more contagious I don’t know, but perhaps the limited time (they have a pretty short lunch) helped.

I totally feel where you are coming from though. We did virtual + some homeschool all of last year but now virtual is gone. I don’t want to commit to true homeschool, and I think they need normal school after a year off, but it’s pretty scary to throw them back in knowing only some will wear masks and we’re in a red county. I know two families whose preschoolers got it from school exposure and gave it to the rest of the family even with vaccinated parents!

When DD's school went back full time at the end of April and the kids started eating lunch at school they completely reworked lunch. They divided the cafeteria in half, to create two lunch spaces, and also used one of our gyms. They got rid of all tables and used individual desks. The desks were spaced six feet apart and all faced the same direction. Two of the spaces could fit two classes and one space could fit three classes. Kids weren't allowed to talk at all, so they played music for them. It meant having 7 lunch periods, which was obviously not ideal time wise. But it all worked out.

For snacks, they ate outside whenever possible but if they had to be inside they were spaced out at their desks with plexiglass shields. Again, no talking. But they watched 15 minutes of a PBS show.

We haven't heard anything about this upcoming school year yet. So no idea what lunch will look like. Or if masks will be required.

@caitcat: can you email the principal and ask the plan? Last year our kids were in their public school full day, and they moved tables into the bigger gym, with the clear plexiglass dividers. Kids sat every other chair.

That meant that gym was outside the whole year, in all kinds of weather. When it was heavily raining, the gym teachers would do gym inside the individual classrooms, and they’d do fitness videos or dance parties. So there were several “pivots” as the year went on, but the gym was used for lunch the entire school year.

I’m not sure how this year will work, but I’m hoping it’s similar. Our kids don’t go back to September so we haven’t see anything regarding this year yet.

Masks will be required inside at our school, except at lunch, and are optional outside. For lunch, they are spacing kids 3 feet apart and have shields on the tables for when they take their masks off. They are reworking the lunch schedule to have only 1 grade in the cafeteria at a time. They did something similar at the end of last year, and it seemed to work well.

My kids' school just sent out the lunch plan. "Outdoor spaces will be utilized as much as possible. We will maximize spacing between students and utilize other measures as feasible.". I'm hoping outdoors is feasible for everyone since we generally have good weather.

We were in person all of last year (in a rural community with low numbers). Kids masked in the classroom and hallways but ate lunch in the cafeteria with assigned seating for contact tracing. They also ate breakfast at their desks (also assigned seating) I’m not aware of a single school-transmitted case in the elementary.

We just got an email from DS's school. The kids will be masked in school, but they are eating in the cafeteria. They said they will use other spaces and classrooms if needed to spread kids out, but that makes no sense to me. Kids were packed in to the lunchroom pre-covid, so I don't know why the district is making it sound like other spaces are a plan B. Either they are spaced out or not. And the email also said that kids will be told not to talk during lunch as much as possible- who is going to police that? The one good thing is that there will be assigned seating for contact tracing.

My kids are outside and I think they're pretty well spaced but a different issue has popped up, yellow jackets. My kids have almost completely stopped eating lunch. I thought it was just my kids being sensitive since my daughter has always been sensitive to bees/wasps. I crossed paths with a noon aid and she was complaining to a friend. I asked her about it and she confirmed it wasn't just my kids. She called lunch a 'screaming mess'. Just one more layer layer of difficulty for lunch time (+ smoke from the wildfires).

My kids were in different schools last year. In one school everyone ate in the classroom, in the other one kids ate in the cafeteria with plastic partitions. No problems either way. I think both schools will go with the same idea this year.

Ugh … first school in our district got closed today! An elementary where the county health dept asked them to close because of strong evidence of in-school spread in multiple grades and over 25% positive or quarantined. Have to wonder if lunch is a part of it. We have masks in classes but all eating inside. Yesterday my 9yo said every girl (and some boys) in her math block were quarantined or isolating … this is going to be a long fall!