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@graceandjoy: Does your company qualify for the FFCRA (Families First Coronavirus Response Act). I'm not 100% sure how it works but I think you would get 2/3rds pay for up to 12 weeks to stay home if school is closed due to covid.
My boss isn't going to like that idea but legally I think he'll have to get over it if it comes to that. (I def. think he'll say bring DS to work first).
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Well we were back for 2 weeks (first week just staff, second week very limited student visits) before the first positive case. And I'm in northern IL where things are not too bad. Now we wait and see if anyone else gets sick. And stupid HIPAA. I know it's important and people are entitled to their privacy, but it's very anxiety provoking to not know who it is, or even if it was a staff or student. They said that all close contacts have already been notified, but I'm an instructional coach and have been talking with probably 60% of the staff in the school.
ETA: we're all wearing masks in the building so hopefully it's fine -
Oof. Our teachers' union votes tomorrow on whether they will strike to put off (or cancel?) school reopening. They want everyone tested before start of class, which will never happen: there are 1.1 million students, 75,000 teachers, and many more support staff. By the time they test everyone and get the results back, who's to say someone didn't get sick between the testing date and the results date? If the union pressures the city into agreeing to this, I do not think anyone will see live class this year.
All because we're getting 250 cases and less than 5 deaths a day, in a city of 8 million. Poor kids. Some of them have pretty much dropped off DOE's radar, and might never catch up. Some of them will get themselves shot because instead of being in school, they're tangling with gangs. Mine are more or less OK acadrmically, but their mental health is sliding. DD1 is close to being crippled by anxiety - she's stopped asking about her friends, keeps finding more things to be terrified of, and won't leave the house without me.
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@josina: I still haven't broached the subject, I know a few others are in the same place soooo
1 week till school re-opens and I am so so anxious. Our infection rate has been low for a long time, I am kinda hopeful we will be okay...
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Ugh, we’ve got a week to go before we officially start (although with a staggered approach, my kids will only go one day the first week and three the second before going full time). I heard from my school principal today that my son’s kindergarten class has 25 kids in it and they’re expecting more to register this week. That’s too many kids!
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@erinbaderin: Just out of curiosity, what is the advantage of the staggered start like that? Are they trying to get everyone acclimated to being back in school or are they waiting to see if there is transmission of cases with fewer students?
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@erinbaderin: wow that's a large class - is that how big the classes are normally or is it different this year?
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@Chuckles: I have literally no idea, they haven’t explained why it’s useful. My only thought is it gives the teachers time in smaller groups to teach them the new rules, get them used to hand washing/masks/etc in smaller groups? It’s basically 25% of kids each of the first four days, then 50% M/W and the other 50% T/Th, then everybody on Friday and going forward.
@catgirl: Last year older son had 29 in his SK class. I had hoped with the option to go in person or virtual they’d have smaller class sizes but as kids choose virtual they’re collapsing the classes - I saw one teacher today say they had 12 classes of 30 kids and 6 empty classrooms. But they’ve also said they expect kids to wash their hands for 20 seconds each every time they come in from inside, before/after eating, etc. Having all those kids washing their hands in the single sink is going to literally take 10+ minutes every time. That’s a big part of their days!
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@Chuckles: We are doing a staggered entry here too for the first week and it’s exactly what @erinbaderin: said... to get kids used to the new routines and flow of the school without having hundreds of kids in the building at once. It also allows admin the chance to fix issues we hadn’t thought of. We can plan until the cows come home, but once there are actual children there to carry your plan out you never know. I am a K teacher and will have 5 kids come each day the first week. My kids also go to the same school.. my DD in Grade 2 will go 1x that first week while my daughter starting K will go 2x. Then the week after that we are all full time like normal.
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@erinbaderin: how big are these classrooms ??!? I’m just picturing 30 K kids in my room and I don’t even know where I’d put them ??!!?
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That is a big class! I think last year in K, her DD1's class was about 20-21. I believe now we're capped at 13 or something as a good amount of kids are remote. Per our class FB group I know of maybe 8 kids I think.
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@charm55: Not big enough for social distancing, that's for sure. They've cut the "safe distance" down to 1m in Ontario (only for public schools - private schools still recommend 2m, don't get me started) but even then I think the only way it would be possible would be to take out all the furniture, put 30 tape marks on the ground, and never let the kids move.
My friend teaches grade 4 and he said that he has 31 kids in his class right now, they're measuring the 1m safe distance from the centre of one desk to the centre of the next, and the back row is pushed up so far against the wall to make it possible that it's going to be impossible for kids to actually get into the chairs.
In related news, I've officially pulled my kids from daycare for the fall - I couldn't justify directly exposing them/us each to another 20-25 kids a day so that we could work an hour later in the afternoons.
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