Have there been any Covid related school closings in your area?

My boys (middle and high school) have closed a couple of times for 2 weeks. My middle schooler just got the notice today that it’s fully-remote until January. Both of them have been doing hybrid, which means they go to school 2 days per week.

Our Jr. High is still open but elementary is closed. Dammit. Ten year old can stay up to snuff on Schoology Ap. But six years old will need help. I’m no teacher. Damn stop screwing the pooch and get that vaccine out already. At least they only had three days left anyway. Then school is out for holidays break.

I could be wrong, but I think all Florida schools are open now. My governor has made statements recently that he doesn’t want schools closed again. Miami area schools were kept closed in the beginning of the year much longer than the rest of the state. Florida still continues to have parent choice (really we had this before covid too) parents can choose to do online school in lieu of in-person. Someone I know lives in Orlando and she sends her kids to school. The school is only about 35% in-person attendance.

I know in Tennessee and New York some schools temporarily a month or so ago. I assume they opened back up.

Our Gov keeps flip flopping on everything but wife tell me this was a school district decision.

My kids school has been closed since February, distance learning (zoom) only and it doesn’t look like they will be reopening at all this school year.

@cheebdragon Well damn, could be worse then with us I guess.

My daughter’s high school, which is using a hybrid model (half in-person, half online) has closed twice now, going fully online, for a few weeks.

A fair number of schools in Massachusetts have done the same.

@Nomore_lockout lol yeah, It honestly hasn’t been too terrible for us, but I know it’s been pretty difficult for several of his friends.

Well all can do is “Keep calm and carry on” I suppose..thanks for your input.

They’re all closed.

My daughter’s school was closed from March to the end of the school year (June). Then it opened for the new school year in September, and all of September and all of October were fine. School two days a week, and remote three days a week. Then in November they closed for three weeks, went back for four days, and now are closed until mid January. We just found out this past Thursday (four days ago) that it was going to close Friday, for a month. She was ecstatic. So all of her classes are remote now, 5 days a week. The reason given was that too many staff are quarantined. One of the moms told me the real reason is that since Christmas was two weeks from Friday, this enables the teachers to quarantine for two weeks so they can see family on Christmas day. I never thought of it that way and it’s a possibility, but I don’t know.

There’s the Federal breakfast and lunch program (through the FDA) where all children are entitled to free breakfast and lunch (no income requirement or paperwork required) and so I can pick up the food every day at the school if I want to.

Indoor dining is ending in NYC starting tomorrow (Monday). NYC is about an hour away.

@jca2 Interesting post that. I didn’t think about the Holiday connection but that’s a possibity. Strange coincidence that our school had been normal,other than masking and distancing requirements since Sept. and and now suddenly, this.

@jca2 I laughed when you wrote your daughter is ecstatic she doesn’t need to go to school. I would have been also.

I was saying to someone recently that they should not have in-person school Thanksgiving through Jan 4. Many colleges had this in their plans originally, and it seemed to me prudent for all schools. Thanksgiving was likely to spread some covid around.

@JLeslie: When I found out the news about school, my daughter was at the orthodontist and I was waiting in the car for her (the new procedures are that the parent sits in the car while the child is getting worked on). I got a text from another mom. When my daughter got back into the car, I looked at her really seriously and said “did you hear the news?” She looked kind of nervous and she said no. I said it again, “You didn’t hear the news?” She said no. I said “there’s no school until January 11th!!” Then we were both screaming with happiness! I told her I’m so happy too! This means I don’t have to go out in the cold and drive her to school. The only issue is that her sleep schedule is totally upside down. She and her friends are awake all night sometimes and then she sleeps after school ends, at 2. I’m hearing about kids all over with the same issues.

Lol @jca2. Sounds like a couple of happy campers there. Maybe Covid actually had an upside after all.

@Nomore_lockout: The whole way home from the orthodontist we were both ecstatic!

Don’t blame ya. It gets cold in them thar hills I bet! Stay warm and snug rather than get out in the cold. Brrrr…

@Nomore_lockout: Right now it’s 36 going down to 24 tonight.

@jca2 Lol. My mom used to love the summer because she didn’t have to drag my sister and I out of bed in the morning for school. Gawd, maybe just make school 12pm-8pm already for teenagers and fix that whole problem. My mom’s school in The Bronx growing up had two shifts. I don’t know how late the late one was.

@JLeslie: When I was in HS, it started at 8:30. Now for my daughter it starts at 7:30. They say it’s for sports, so the kids get out at 2 and have sports after school (which they don’t, now, with the Covid but that will end soon enough). It was hard to get up and to school by 8:30. 7:30 is like the middle of the night for the kids. In the winter, it’s still dark when we’re driving to school.

@jca2 I’m surprised NY is still torturing teens with those early hours. Some school districts around the country have switched the older kids to later hours. You probably know that. Lots of studies reinforce better learning for older children if they start school later in the morning.

Some districts around here advocated and won a later start time. My district is resistant, and it’s the sport parents who are holding on to the earlier start so the kids can do sports after.

History regarding push for later start times. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Start_school_later_movement

I’ve heard that sports excuse also. I have a friend who felt like if she suffered through it her kids can. Great, keep the suffering going. I completely disagree.

The local high school had to close a few weeks back when Covid numbers jumped. Three friends of mine got it from their offspring.

I’m in FL, which @JLeslie already spoke about. I’ll add that although our governor is not permitting hybrid or closed schools, we have alerts from our assigned school almost daily that a group of students, teachers and staff are quarantining at home for 14 days due to COVID exposure. We are not given any information about how many people are quarantining (or not permitted on campus) at a time.

On the covid Florida website created by Rebekah Jones there is a link to some sort of national site for K-12 covid monitoring on the first page. On her site if you go into the dashboard there is Florida school information. I haven’t looked closely at that part of the website, but here it is for anyone who is interested.

https://floridacovidaction.com/