Having a change of heart about sending kids to school?

Any decision will feel weird. If your son will wear a mask and use sanitizer frequently, I say let him try and salvage a tiny piece of normalcy for his senior year. That said, make the choice that feels right for your family. That’s all we can do.

I am leaning toward the hybrid model for DS. I am comfortable with the steps the school is taking: masks are mandatory for everyone, desks will be 6ft apart, etc. My biggest concern is that I have trust issues. I fully believe parents, that are in a bind, will dose their kids on Tylenol and send them to school with a fever. Happens with the flu, I'm not naive enough to believe it won't happen with COVID. But I also fully believe that everyone will be remote by Halloween anyway. Currently our town has 1 active case but watching what's happening with the colleges, I think it's only a matter of time.

I didn’t have an option. Our school started fully online. If we did have an option, I’d still go with online, because our county and city numbers aren’t good. My boy is also a senior. I’m crossing my fingers that the second half of the school year will be salvaged. Luckily, he’s ok with online, and says that he would want online if he had a choice.

I agree with this.

If you are generally inclined to let him go in person, you might still want to wait a couple of weeks. Watching all these universities open and then close again makes me wonder how well we can contain this when there are groups of kids.

There is no good answer, and the best answer will be different for everyone. Our district (began today) is online only for the first 3 weeks and then it's one or the other. We'll be staying online for the immediate future at a minimum, but we are allowed to switch at the end of every grading period.

I think it depends what is going on in your area. If you were in a hot spot versus a controlled area would affect my decision.

My girls are going back full time. High school dd got her schedule yesterday and it felt so good. She’s excited. I also trust my school and the measures they’re taking. We don’t have their full plan. Gov’t approval for school plans isn’t coming out until aug 26 for a sept 8 school return. Gov’t has mandated masks in halls, buses, etc. School has mandated masks in classes with teachers.

I also have a senior whose school will also be hybrid with the choice of completely online. He will be attending. It is both of our choices. He starts on the Sept. 8 and will have two classes for 9 weeks, one every morning and one every afternoon. He will be in person Mon, Wed, Fri and online Tues and Thurs.  Masks are mandatory

We have no one vulnerable in our house. Also he has been working 3 jobs - grocery store, construction and umpiring since mid July so imo it would be weird to not allow him to attend school like he wants when he could have been exposed at any of his jobs.

I agree with all of this. Also, are they hanging out with friends now? If they will be seeing friends outside of school the might as well be in school.

IMO, as a senior, his opinion should carry significant weight in the decision. We didn’t give yds a choice (but he’s only 9), he’s going back full time in person. Virtual is not good for him and isn’t the best choice for our family. If ods were still in school (he just graduated) the decision would be his.

Most of our students are doing really well on the second day. I lost nearly 50% of my class to online and the spacing in my room is great. The problem I see is the playground. We remind them, but they are getting pretty close to friends. I think the issue will be there and not inside with masks. No masks would make me nervous.

Pay attention to what the teachers are saying. If the teachers in your area are fighting going back to school, there’s a reason.

Look at the thread here titled Teachers in TN...

No matter what the school tells you about their safety procedures, teachers are being told something else and it’s not good.

Is anyone in your household in a high risk category? Are you otherwise extremely cautious? Will your child follow reasonable precautions. If you answered no, yes, yes that would be a go for me. 

This is exactly why we chose online. The thing is I *DON’T* trust other parents to do the right thing when it comes to keeping their kids home when they should. The only people I can absolutely trust to do the right thing when it comes to *my* kid’s health and well-being is me and my DH, and the only way I can do that is to keep my kid at home where we can have more control over who she comes in contact with.

My DD is a Jr. We had the option of digital or face to face. We had no second thoughts about face to face. We aren’t in a hot spot area (our specific community). I felt the district was going to do the best they could. My DD wears her mask. Her choice. Masks aren’t mandatory for students but highly encouraged. They have altered the traffic flow for changing classes.

Here’s my opinion. And it’s probably not a popular one. But if we are all going out for the most part, we are getting exposed. I feel that schools can do it safely.

I also am not sure I agree with sending a teacher or kid home for 10-14 days because they were exposed. There are levels of exposure. Was it for hours on end? Was it for 20 mins? Again, I think we are all exposed when we go out. My bosses mom had it last week. He and his wife went down to help her. They didn’t think she had it but her test was positive. So far they feel fine. His sister also had it (she and the mom were together). So far no one in his sister’s family have gotten it. They are quarantining out of precaution. But they were with her for 5 days.

I know my take isn’t a popular one.

For me, it would depend on how many cases were in my area; the culture in my area (are people inclined to take precautions or do they think this is a hoax?), how well my kid did with online schooling, how many people were going online (the emptier the school, the safer), etc.

I think the college situations are slightly different than K-12 because the young adults don’t have parental structure, which, again, is why the culture of the area would matter to me.