I have heard rumors from multiple sources that the ISD where we live (DFW area) plans to send kids home with devices for Thanksgiving break and that they would switch to virtual. Details on how long this would last are sketchy, but one source seemed to think January. One of these sources tends to provide good info, the other not sure. Has anyone else heard similar rumors from their ISD?

Pretty much every college is going to do this. My son's elementary school is going virtual for the week after thanksgiving to try to buy a little time for anyone who might have picked it up over the holiday

That was discussed as likely back before school started. Not sure where it stands now.

Both my college kiddos are through the weeke before Thanksgiving.

Every single one of my kids teachers are out today.

Krum ISD just sent 3 of its 5 schools virtual until after the thanksgiving break.

We are not having community spread with hybrid, but Eagle Mountain Saginaw is having issues. They are full back if you want to, and today had to close a high school for at least a week with over 400 in quarantine. My grandson's class at his elementary is about to finish a 14 day quarantine. Arlington where I teach has kept the numbers down but the entire metroplex is having an upturn in cases.

Editing to say that I didn't intend to reply to you P.U.T.U. I saw that I did that when it posted.

I haven't heard about any districts doing this and have friends who work or send kids to multiple districts in the northeast metroplex (Collin/Dallas County border).

Slightly related note:
I find it interesting to look at the dashboards from various districts. The information they provide varies from district to district:

Wylie ISD Dashboard 42 current cases, 662 currently quarantined (exposed); You can even calculate the number of total positives from the beginning of the year: 185.

Plano ISD Dashboard 149 cases, quarantined/exposed not listed; They list number of recovered, though.

Richardson ISD Dashboard

The DSHS Dashboard compiles all staff and student cases from across the state into one place. They, however, only list students who actually go to campus, either for instruction or extracurriculars. Near the bottom of the page, you can choose a week to open an Excel Sheet that lists every district in the state and their weekly data.

JDL 96 said:

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There have been lots of articles and discussions this week and last week about how much kids in DISD have regressed as a result of being virtual.
The DISD admin wants to permanently lower the learning objectives so that a higher percentage of kids are on track.
In light of that, and the fact that schools aren't a hotstop for transmission, and kids are at almost zero risk, what do you think DISD might do?

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I've heard several calls in my own house with districts large and small having serious issues with standards not only for this year, but tied back to the 12 weeks of virtual schooling last year as well.

The issue we are having is pacing. Our kids can hit the standards IF we slow the pace from that we covered in pre covid school. Understand that face to face is not the same as pre covid. Not wise to have kids working in table groups in close contact, nor having them share touches by making hands on group projects, etc. This generation of learners have more success with those types of collaborative efforts. And when we are fully online....even for the kids in class...with all work and instruction through teams meetings and Canvas, it just take more turns through a standard for them to get it. AP/IB kids can move at that pace, but on level and special populations just get left out if we move at the normal speed. Our WONDERFUL principal has free us from the pace, saying he would rather the kids actually learn the standards we do cover, than cover all the standards with very few reaching any type of mastery. For most districts the issue is not really lowering the standards (what we now call what used to be called curriculum expectations) that taking more time. In English it is not all that bad since the scope and sequence puts the most critical standards at the start of the year anyway, and the ones not tested by the state at the end.

Kids will catch up. Juniors and seniors have learned almost anything important except US history and government prior to these last two years.

Lower grades if the nightmare that is TEA would allow, can just take kids where they are after Covid and when school can be normal, and in a year will have them pretty much caught up. Katrina kids were caught up by graduation and in some areas they pretty much missed a full year of school AND lived through family separtaions, economic collapse, homelessness, and the trauma of losing loved ones in many cases.

Prosper ISD here. We just received a call this morning that our 2nd grade daughter was exposed on Monday and must go into quarantine until the Monday after Thanksgiving(nothing was said about school possible being online). Our 4th grade son does not have to quarantine.

My daughter has been crying all day because she can't go to school. She has a class of 22 and has been in school since August 12. We made it 2 months before a quarantine situation hit us directly.

HowdyTexasAggies said:

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jah003 said:

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As a teacher going back after Thanksgiving just doesn't seem worth it.

My school is averaging about a positive case per day. I'm currently quarantined and tested positive last week. I'm averaging about 1-3 in person kids per class right now. What's even the point of having kids in school right now?

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Their proper education and mental health?

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I'm in 100% agreement that we should be running full in person classes. However... that's not going to happen. What is the point of having 1-3 kids in person per class and requiring teachers to be on campus? My in person numbers have been steadily dropping all year.

jah003 said:

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HowdyTexasAggies said:

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jah003 said:

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As a teacher going back after Thanksgiving just doesn't seem worth it.

My school is averaging about a positive case per day. I'm currently quarantined and tested positive last week. I'm averaging about 1-3 in person kids per class right now. What's even the point of having kids in school right now?

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Their proper education and mental health?

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I'm in 100% agreement that we should be running full in person classes. However... that's not going to happen. What is the point of having 1-3 kids in person per class and requiring teachers to be on campus? My in person numbers have been steadily dropping all year.

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Is it due to actual positives, or quarantining everybody?

HowdyTexasAggies said:

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jah003 said:

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HowdyTexasAggies said:

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jah003 said:

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As a teacher going back after Thanksgiving just doesn't seem worth it.

My school is averaging about a positive case per day. I'm currently quarantined and tested positive last week. I'm averaging about 1-3 in person kids per class right now. What's even the point of having kids in school right now?

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Their proper education and mental health?

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I'm in 100% agreement that we should be running full in person classes. However... that's not going to happen. What is the point of having 1-3 kids in person per class and requiring teachers to be on campus? My in person numbers have been steadily dropping all year.

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Is it due to actual positives, or quarantining everybody?

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Both. 10 reported positives in the past 10 days. We have 7 or 8 teachers and well over 100 kids quarantining right now.

Yesterday, my sister's school (school librarian) had 15 unfilled substitute positions.....so they are having to get real creative.

Ironically, she was forced to be back on campus this week. She had the needed signed doctor's statement that being on campus is not medically advised (in treatment for pulmonary embolisms). Her VP decided they had made reasonable accommodations (damned jokes--my sister is 6' her head is above the protective screen, and they will not allow an extension). Two days after coming back, VP "I'm so sorry, I didn't realize your situation was that serious.".....shocker, you are not a doctor. Needless to say the district HR was not aware of this, and is causing a pretty big stink.........and why I am not saying what district.

HowdyTexasAggies said:

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jah003 said:

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HowdyTexasAggies said:

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jah003 said:

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HowdyTexasAggies said:

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jah003 said:

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As a teacher going back after Thanksgiving just doesn't seem worth it.

My school is averaging about a positive case per day. I'm currently quarantined and tested positive last week. I'm averaging about 1-3 in person kids per class right now. What's even the point of having kids in school right now?

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Their proper education and mental health?

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I'm in 100% agreement that we should be running full in person classes. However... that's not going to happen. What is the point of having 1-3 kids in person per class and requiring teachers to be on campus? My in person numbers have been steadily dropping all year.

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Is it due to actual positives, or quarantining everybody?

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Both. 10 reported positives in the past 10 days. We have 7 or 8 teachers and well over 100 kids quarantining right now.

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I get the positives being out, but sounds like more OVER quarantining causing the issue than actual positives or school spread. I have yet to hear of anything pointing to covid spreading in the school environment.

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To be fair... I was quarantined because I was in contact with a positive and then tested positive a few days later. I am asymptomatic, so I would have never tested had they not quarantined me. The best part is both my kids have to be home for 24 days because I tested positive.

JDL 96 said:

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There have been lots of articles and discussions this week and last week about how much kids in DISD have regressed as a result of being virtual.
The DISD admin wants to permanently lower the learning objectives so that a higher percentage of kids are on track.
In light of that, and the fact that schools aren't a hotstop for transmission, and kids are at almost zero risk, what do you think DISD might do?

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Is this a pacing thing or a we are going to dumb down the requirements in order to improve the numbers?

If latter, I don't understand how that keeps anyone on track other than to graduate them at the normal age

Feel bad for this generation of kids. They are getting screwed over by all of this.

YouBet said:

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JDL 96 said:

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There have been lots of articles and discussions this week and last week about how much kids in DISD have regressed as a result of being virtual.
The DISD admin wants to permanently lower the learning objectives so that a higher percentage of kids are on track.
In light of that, and the fact that schools aren't a hotstop for transmission, and kids are at almost zero risk, what do you think DISD might do?

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Is this a pacing thing or a we are going to dumb down the requirements in order to improve the numbers?

If latter, I don't understand how that keeps anyone on track other than to graduate them at the normal age

Feel bad for this generation of kids. They are getting screwed over by all of this.

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The proposal is to move all the grade level requirements down a grade. I.e. 5th graders would be on level if they mastered what was previously 4th grade material.

Our school has said they have NO plans or intentions of virtual again... however, their hand may be forced because of lack of subs for teachers who are out (and like our football team, more often for contact tracing than for being sick)

Well, our school district (Carroll) sent out an email last night essentially asking everyone to wear a mask and socially distance when outside of school. They basically said they are concerned with the recent spike in the area, and are asking everyone to take care of themselves outside of the home so the school can remain open.

They also mentioned they are very low on substitute teachers. They currently have 20 teachers with positive cases (mostly in high school) and a bunch more who have been quarantined and are teaching remotely now. There's basically the same number of positive teachers as students, but since there are 20 times as many students, I suspect there's a lot of kids who just aren't symptomatic.

Anyways, it sounds like the district is laying the ground work for possibly going remote relatively soon. If they do that, I expect all hell to break loose among the parents. It's already extremely tense between certain parent clicks.

HowdyTexasAggies said:

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jah003 said:

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As a teacher going back after Thanksgiving just doesn't seem worth it.

My school is averaging about a positive case per day. I'm currently quarantined and tested positive last week. I'm averaging about 1-3 in person kids per class right now. What's even the point of having kids in school right now?

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Their proper education and mental health?

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This

AustinAg2K said:

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Well, our school district (Carroll) sent out an email last night essentially asking everyone to wear a mask and socially distance when outside of school. They basically said they are concerned with the recent spike in the area, and are asking everyone to take care of themselves outside of the home so the school can remain open.

They also mentioned they are very low on substitute teachers. They currently have 20 teachers with positive cases (mostly in high school) and a bunch more who have been quarantined and are teaching remotely now. There's basically the same number of positive teachers as students, but since there are 20 times as many students, I suspect there's a lot of kids who just aren't symptomatic.

Anyways, it sounds like the district is laying the ground work for possibly going remote relatively soon. If they do that, I expect all hell to break loose among the parents. It's already extremely tense between certain parent clicks.

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Wait, there are 20 positive cases at SL Carroll HS? That sound very high for confirmed positive cases. Are you sure that most of those aren't out b/c of contact tracing?

Proposition Joe said:

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I know we've been saying for quite some time now that "it doesn't spread in schools", but is that off of any legitimate large sample data, or was that a case of "it hasn't happened yet so we assume it doesn't"?

Because it certainly seems like at least anecdotally by these posts that it's spreading in schools.

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It spreads in school the same that it spreads in the general population. There's nothing magical about school buildings, when people are concentrated and don' take necessary precautions there will be cases.

Katy ISD COVID Dashboard

KISD averaged 3 new self-reported cases a day in September, this jumped to 14 new cases a day in October and has since to an average of 50 new cases just in the last 4 days.

All of this is to be expected. Everyone has COVID fatigue and kids are being kids. This holds true in schools and in the community. Hope we find a way to slow the rate of growth before governmental agencies intervene but I have my doubts.

"It spreads in school the same that it spreads in the general population." What are you basing this statement on? This is flat out FALSE.

It is not spreading in schools, there is no data pointing to this. There is a big difference between a school environment setting and kids hanging out at parties, or catching it from relatives in their home.

There is no Katy data suggesting that it is being spread in the school environment. If there is, they are not reporting it to the state (which is one of the reporting fields) and you can look up yourself.