Oh Debbie, I totally understand how you feel. I’m in northern Virginia, our kids just started going back two days a week in February. We opted in JULY to send our high schooler back but keep the 3rd grader virtual. 11th grader is thrilled to be back, even if it is only 2 days a week. Good new is coming though, they announced a return to 5 days a week instruction in the fall. Thank goodness.
In our district if you chose virtual, you have to stay virtual. They go back 5 day in-person on April 5th. (Granted, Missouri, where things are very, very different in terms of how COVID has been handled, although our district has been one of the few that did go virtual and has taken mitigation measures.)
Our school district had a similar setup—you had to choose incredibly far in advance based on now outdated information. I’m sograteful that my husband convinced me that we should put our 4th grader on the list. She started back on Tuesday for 2 days a week and she is almost a different person, just after 2 days of interacting with her peers again.
I'm realizing more and more how the last admin really set us up for failure with the school stuff. Imagine if last May, instead of some sort of crazy "only in-person is good" philosophy that set us up for this all or nothing situation that so many people are in. I think about what if they had said all school districts needs to create plans for safe, accessible in-person learning (adjusted depending on community transmission levels), or quality virtual instruction AND a plan if families needed to switch between these (2 weeks prior notice? once a quarter change possibility?).
Here in the Front Range of Colorado most districts have had an in-person option for most of the year (most were virtual during December) and days in-person have gradually increased throughout the year. Now they're sticking with 4 full days through the end of the year. AND most schools/districts also have a strong, quality virtual-only option that families can still choose. I really wonder where we would be if leadership had actually presented and encouraged the vision that having multiple options was good, necessary and would be supported by funding and flexibility (i.e. no standardized testing!!).
Oh Debbie, I'm so sorry about your school situation. My kids are in elementary school so I think the social isolation is way less of an issue, but we have slowly been moving towards full time in person school and I'm thrilled we're so close at this point. We started the year with 2 days a week in person (half the class going at the beginning of the week, half at the end, all virtual on Wed), then in late fall we moved to 4 days a week in person (but HS stayed at 2 days a week). In Feb HS moved to 4 days a week in person, and after spring break (which is right now) everyone that hadn't opted for full virtual is going back in person 5 days a week. Hooray!
Oh Debbie, I totally understand how you feel. I’m in northern Virginia, our kids just started going back two days a week in February. We opted in JULY to send our high schooler back but keep the 3rd grader virtual. 11th grader is thrilled to be back, even if it is only 2 days a week. Good new is coming though, they announced a return to 5 days a week instruction in the fall. Thank goodness.
In our district if you chose virtual, you have to stay virtual. They go back 5 day in-person on April 5th. (Granted, Missouri, where things are very, very different in terms of how COVID has been handled, although our district has been one of the few that did go virtual and has taken mitigation measures.)
Our school district had a similar setup—you had to choose incredibly far in advance based on now outdated information. I’m sograteful that my husband convinced me that we should put our 4th grader on the list. She started back on Tuesday for 2 days a week and she is almost a different person, just after 2 days of interacting with her peers again.
I'm realizing more and more how the last admin really set us up for failure with the school stuff. Imagine if last May, instead of some sort of crazy "only in-person is good" philosophy that set us up for this all or nothing situation that so many people are in. I think about what if they had said all school districts needs to create plans for safe, accessible in-person learning (adjusted depending on community transmission levels), or quality virtual instruction AND a plan if families needed to switch between these (2 weeks prior notice? once a quarter change possibility?).
Here in the Front Range of Colorado most districts have had an in-person option for most of the year (most were virtual during December) and days in-person have gradually increased throughout the year. Now they're sticking with 4 full days through the end of the year. AND most schools/districts also have a strong, quality virtual-only option that families can still choose. I really wonder where we would be if leadership had actually presented and encouraged the vision that having multiple options was good, necessary and would be supported by funding and flexibility (i.e. no standardized testing!!).
Oh Debbie, I'm so sorry about your school situation. My kids are in elementary school so I think the social isolation is way less of an issue, but we have slowly been moving towards full time in person school and I'm thrilled we're so close at this point. We started the year with 2 days a week in person (half the class going at the beginning of the week, half at the end, all virtual on Wed), then in late fall we moved to 4 days a week in person (but HS stayed at 2 days a week). In Feb HS moved to 4 days a week in person, and after spring break (which is right now) everyone that hadn't opted for full virtual is going back in person 5 days a week. Hooray!