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| What Will Schools Do When a Teacher Gets Covid-19? |
| 2020-07-29 |
| h/t HotAir [NYT] - The logistics of reopening schools are daunting. Plans are full of details about which days kids will be eligible for, and pages and pages on preventing students and staffs from getting sick. What kind of limits will be placed on class sizes? What kind of cleaning? Will there be symptom checks or temperature screens? Masks for everyone or just adults? These plans are important and necessary. But there is an issue that we aren’t talking enough about: What happens when there is a Covid-19 case in a school? The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released its first guidelines on this topic last week, a long-overdue step toward getting schools to take this question seriously. The instinct, I think, is to say we are working to make sure that doesn’t happen, and of course that is the goal. But that goal is unrealistic. Even if schools are successful at ensuring there is no Covid-19 spread in schools at all, there will still be cases arising from the community. Of course, there is that - extremely uncomfortable result - on Covid-19 spreading by children from South Korea, but we can just ignore it. When we look at data from places with open schools — Sweden, for example — they are encouraging in showing that teaching is not a high-risk job. But that means that teachers are infected at the same rate as the rest of the community. Put bluntly: If 5 percent of adults in a community have Covid-19, we expect 5 percent of school employees to have it even if they are at no greater risk. This problem is largest in places that currently have high community spread, but it is a concern virtually anywhere. Bottom line: When schools open, there will be cases. It is necessary to have a concrete plan for what will happen when this occurs. It is worth pausing for a moment on why there is a reluctance to discuss this. In my view, it is because those who want to open are afraid that if they acknowledge there will be cases in schools, those who oppose opening will use that to argue schools are unsafe. Indeed, there are movements in California and elsewhere saying that teachers should not return to the classroom until there are no new Covid-19 cases in the school community for 14 days. This is effectively a mandate to not open at all, possibly ever. However, this concern should lead us to more transparency rather than less. Is it really better to trick people into opening, only to face panic and anger when there is a case? If we face the reality now, we are better able to prepare both emotionally and practically for what is inevitable. Once you acknowledge the reality of cases in schools, it is clear that schools need a plan. The first part of this plan should recognize that schools should not open in person until cases of the virus in the surrounding areas are low. Putting a precise number on this is difficult, but at a minimum places that have locked down except for essential services should not open schools. But for areas with low incidence, you still need a plan. And this plan needs at least two parts. First, there needs to be what I’d call a micro plan: What happens when a single student or teacher in a classroom tests positive? Of course the affected person will need to remain home until cleared for a return to school. But what about the rest of the classroom, the rest of the floor, the rest of the school? |
| Posted by:g(r)omgoru |
| #16 Why isn't the Trump Education Dept making several national curricula for K-12 available online for homeschooling? Too many broken rice bowls? |
| Posted by: Ebberegum Croling1752 2020-07-29 19:17 |
| #15 #12 - Moderator Snark O' The Day |
| Posted by: Frank G 2020-07-29 19:10 |
| #14 I'd almost love to be a substitute teacher; bet I'd get shitcanned after the first day, maybe in mid-class. |
| Posted by: Raj 2020-07-29 18:35 |
| #13 Dang good thing I wasn't on a coffee break there, Skid. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2020-07-29 18:01 |
| #12 What happens when there are zero butts in chairs? Why, your school tax will be reduced. |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2020-07-29 17:17 |
| #11 #8 I thought state aid to schools was based on butts in the chairs. What happens when there are zero butts in chairs? if butts in chairs => pay full salary & benefits @16k/butt if no butts in chairs => pay full salary & benefits @$16k/chair |
| Posted by: Lumpy Mussolini7603 2020-07-29 16:57 |
| #10 What will the schools do? Contract subsitute teachers? |
| Posted by: Snakes Schwarzeneggar1950 2020-07-29 16:53 |
| #9 Like Buzzfeed - they'll get paid by mouseclicks |
| Posted by: Frank G 2020-07-29 15:37 |
| #8 I thought state aid to schools was based on butts in the chairs. What happens when there are zero butts in chairs? |
| Posted by: Bobby 2020-07-29 15:23 |
| #7 ^I'm sure there will be web companies connecting teachers with pods, TW. |
| Posted by: g(r)omgoru 2020-07-29 14:39 |
| #6 Whatever schools do, more middle class and upper class parents will home school, hire tutors, and form what are currently being called “pods“ to do the same with like-minded parents of similar aged children. My first step would be to call the school to get the names of some of their substitute teachers, then if that did not prove satisfactory, see if any bright university or high school students wanted to get in in the fun. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2020-07-29 14:31 |
| #5 The teachers should be more worried about standardized test scores going up without them. As for teachers getting sick they should asked the administrators of the private schools in my area that are currently full of tuition paying students for in class room teaching starting next month. |
| Posted by: Airandee 2020-07-29 14:28 |
| #4 Gonna be fewer subs. More than 6,300 COVID-19 cases are linked to US colleges - as schools like Harvard opt out of in-person classes when the academic year starts but Florida will offer a mix despite surge in infections |
| Posted by: Skidmark 2020-07-29 12:15 |
| #3 The teacher's organizations will go ape shit? |
| Posted by: JohnQC 2020-07-29 09:59 |
| #2 Call in BLM to substitute? |
| Posted by: gorb 2020-07-29 09:09 |
| #1 The same as when a teacher gets the Flu? Give them time off to recover and when they're better let them start work. It's not like they have something dangerous to children like AIDS... |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2020-07-29 07:50 |