Do you think that it is safe for Schools to reopen?
 

What is your personal opinion on schools opening? Is it safe for children? Teachers? Staff? Will it further spread Covid-19? How safe/dangerous is it?

I think we have to find a way to make it safe. Kids need classroom learning. Too many are being left behind. We have to figure it out.

It might mean half the kids attend in the morning and half in the afternoon, for social distancing. It might mean condensing the curriculum. It might mean omitting gym and chorus. It might mean a mixture of classroom and online learning. It might mean more homework.

I don't know the answer, but we have to do something.

Life threatening right now. How could anyone send their child into a crowded room under these circumstances?
This would be child abuse and WILL cause some children to die. One child dying is too many. Stop this insanity and listen to the medical and scientific experts. Wait for a vaccine before endangering the lives of children.

Yes it is safe, many European countries have already done so without problems. Studies show children tend to not infect adults much at all, it is adults who infect children

CDC death totals per age group. As this chart shows, people under 24 years old are much more likely to die of other causes than from covid 19. Like 1000 times more likely. Under 24 deaths from Covid = 171 Under 24 deaths from other causes = 22,214

Let's keep everything shut down forever because someone might die. :22yikes:

Attachment 85146

Sweden kept its schools open for children 16 and under. Keeping schools open, despite coronavirus, worked in Sweden - Axios

That depends on your definition of safe. If schools are reopened children, teachers, staff, bus drivers, cafeteria workers, custodians, PTA members, coaches, etc. are all placed at increased risk. Some are going to die of COVID. Some who do not die are going to become critically ill with lifelong disability from COVID.

Some children are going to be minimally ill but are going to carry the virus home to grandma and she is going to die. Despite more than one person's continuing attempts to minimize the seriousness of this disease, children do catch it and do spread it. They catch it less often, become less ill, and spread it less frequently. But they do all of those things.

Thus this becomes a question of risk vs reward. Are you going to fire all the 50 year old teachers who refuse to work? Are you going to offer comprehensive alternatives for the family where Dad has obesity and diabetes? What do you do if a child tests positive? Do you just send him home? Do you send all his classmates home for 14 days? Do you close the whole school for every sick child? Can a child come if a parent is Covid positive?

I'd love to see schools open. I cannot imagine how families will otherwise work and provide child care. I am glad I am not the one making the decisions. But I hope that the decision is science based not ignoring the advice of the CDC and AAP. And keep in mind that as schools open the data is going to be changing. There is some early suggestion that smaller class size may be a factor in avoiding spread.

Data from other countries where there is not an ongoing surge in cases may not translate to here. We are now over a half year into this pandemic. There is still no effective cure nor preventative. There is only risk reduction with social distancing [impossible in a school], mask wearing [extremely unrealistic with children], and handwashing may or may not play a role but it doesn't happen with kids.

Leave it up to parents, educators and health officials --NOT to politicians who care only about reelection!

Frontline workers have been going into work from the get go. Just think about all of the workers in retail, food service, police, EMTs, healthcare, transportation, etc that are already out there in the trenches.

I think that it's fine for the vast majority of kids (and school employees) to go back to work. Distance learning will be available for those who prefer it just as it was available this past spring.

If kids can go to the mall, the beach, pool parties with friends, church camps, summer jobs, team sports etc they can go back to school.

Great question that we are not qualified to answer.

Will talk to our kids about this and what they would do with our grandkids of schools do reopen

Wow, talk about a $50K question...

It has to be tough being a parent with school age kids right now...you aren't sure if you should be buying back to school things, or just more wine

I spoke with an elementary principal yesterday...all 12 of the custodians at her school are currently out for 14 days due to one of them testing positive earlier in the week for the virus....although the custodians have been working for awhile, there's no way the building will be ready to open for the deadline.

At least one teacher is in quarantine as are a couple of aids

Do I personally think it's safe...to a degree yes, but this is not a yes or no question. It's a no for anyone (young of old) with a health issue.

It's critical that kids education continue...and they need to get out of the house and socialize with their friends...

IMHO there are too many open questions for those of us that are "beyond arm's length" to make an informed decision on this. I do believe that the adults will be the ones that will be most at risk though, as kids bounce back quickly.

So what happens when a significant number of teachers and aids in a school test positive? Or there's an outbreak among the bus drivers or the custodians? or the cafeteria staff?
Is there a contingency plan...most likely not.

If a teacher tests positive...does the whole class go into quarantine? If the teachers all share a lunch/break room, how many peers would have to go into quarantine?

If someone refuses to wear a mask because this is a free country...what's the school's position?

Are teachers, staff and students going to be screened upon entry daily, will they all wear masks? and will those that show signs of the virus be sent home? (or quarantined somewhere in the school until a parent can come for them)

What's the deal with meal programs? Many families depend upon the school meal program...will the school cafeteria practice social distancing?

Are the classrooms large enough so that the desks can be arranged in a social distancing pattern...or do class sizes need to be smaller?

Will every school have someone empowered to make the right call on all of the above?

We can't continue to 'give up' teaching the arts, history, geography, shop, home economics and gym...these are important too

It's time that a 'new model' for learning is introduced at all levels in the system....a blend of f2f and virtual most likely needs to be embraced. There should be enough folks in the higher ranks in the educational hierarchy to focus on designing a new approach for learning. Universities have done it...no reason that public school systems can't.

The younger generation has grown up with technology...it's the old adults that will have the most challenge making any shift from the traditional f2f format

Lack of proper education far more destructive than a virus.
Our youth are poorly educated as it is..Falling further behind will have much longer consequences that what they are facing now

I went to the link you provided. It discusses the situation in Sweden and Denmark. Neither country had the community spread we have here. Of interest in your link for how Denmark opened
I don't think that is what is being proposed here. For a more comprehensive discussion of what is known and more importantly what is not known. HERE

How many new cases were identified in Germany, Sweden, Norway, and Denmark yesterday? Can you really use their experience with safety of reopening schools as a guideline to the situation in the US where we are far and away the worst petri dish in the world.

In Austria where one of my grandsons lives, they halved the class sizes, and kids go to school three days one week, and twice (two times) the following week. Home work for days not attending.
In UK where my other grandson schools, they are (allegedly) making class years into 'bubbles' where they only mix with the same kids all the time, and stay in that group all day.
Seems a reasonable solution for a school of 1200 pupils, but the bubble bursts when they go to and from school, as all ages and 'bubbles' mix on the busses!
As initiatives, and directives seem to change hourly, and on a whim here in UK, that system could be out the window soon.
Kids are in the least vulnerable group, so I don't see it as a dangerous move for them.
The only problem I could see is if they bring the bug home without them feeling ill.
We shall see.
Most Parents will be happy with any system!!

They don't have community spread like we do because they do not have the beaches crowd, the protesters shoulder to shoulder, the amount of foreign travel coming and going and they adhere more readily to masking.

There is no big mystery to why the USA has the spiking that it does.

The risk of children getting the virus? Throw a dart to get the percent you like.
The risk of the children dying from having the virus? Extremely low.

To avoid future consequences the kids need to get back to school....and most educators and administrators have what they feel are safe plans to do so.

The goal is to get them back to school. Adjust by exception where issues/incidences occur.

I'm sure you all are going to hate me for saying this, but I think that they should just go back and resume school as normal. This virus is less dangerous to this age group than the flu is. Symptomatic kids should stay home and if they come to school sick they should be immediately sent home and possibly put on distance learning for the rest of the year.

Beyond that, let kids be kids. Enough with all of the rules and regs that teachers will never be able to enforce. If it all sounds too risky - online school is a perfectly good and 100% safe option.