Opening Schools in the Age of Covid

This post was borrowed.  These are some really good questions regarding reopening of schools.

 A reminder to Donald Trump and Betsy DeVos that working in an office is quite different than distancing in a school.

TEACHERS, RETURN TO SCHOOL QUESTIONS FOR DECISION-MAKERS RE-OPENING SCHOOLS:

If a student I am in contact with tests positive, will I need to quarantine?

If so, do I lose 14 sick days?

How will immune-compromised teachers or students be affected?

Will we be required to lose sick days if we test positive?

How will social distancing work in classrooms with more than 10-15 students?

If a teacher's child needs to quarantine will the educator parent be required to use their sick days?

Will the state attendance laws be changed so students/families aren't compelled to come to school sick?

Will teachers need to sign a waiver to work?

Will students sign a waiver protecting teachers in the event a student gets sick while in their class?

What happens in buildings with no AC and no windows to open?

What happens to fire drills?

Active shooter drills?

Evacuation drills? These are done multiple times per month and require close proximity.

The guidelines recommend keeping doors propped open. Will Covid precautions overrule active shooter precautions?

Who will be responsible for cleaning shared materials and supplies like computers?

Virus particulates are circulated from toilet flushing. School toilets do not have lids. Who will clean the bathrooms - including the ones in classrooms - after every use?

If teachers have children in other districts that choose different models of school with split sessions or etc. how would that be handled?

What accommodations will be made for educators/their families?

What about classes/grade levels that require close contact and collaboration for content and social-emotional development?

What happens when parents choose to home school their child(ren) and then enroll after the district’s deadline?

What safety measures will be put in place for non-teaching staff such as school counselors? Our offices are not large enough for social distancing

How will we address the mental health needs of our students in a safe and effective manner?

For someone such as myself who is asthmatic and has an office with no windows and poor ventilation, wearing a mask all day will be impossible. What options will I have to maintain my full-time status?

Will teachers be provided with the necessary PPE?

What about masks for unprepared students?

Will we be provided with the necessary cleaning products?

What if a teacher or assistant needs to use Crisis prevention intervention (CPI) with a student?

What about teachers, staff, or students in behavioral rooms?

If students are allowed the option to stay home, can teachers who are compromised, or live with someone compromised, also opt to teach from home?

Why are students given an option to not wear a mask?

If students are required to wear a mask in retail stores (regardless of social distancing), why are schools different?

Who is going to pay for all the PPE and cleaning supplies? I teach HS and imagine that when students leave a class the desks will have to be wiped down. I spend an enormous amount of money every year on tissues, paper, pens, pencils, etc.

Can I require students to have all of that even if we are Title 1?

What will be the protocol for Pre-K and special educators? We provide playtime, reading time, and also toilet training.

What will be the transition for these types of classes?

How will teacher evaluations be handled?

We are not allowed to use things like Lysol; we are only supposed to use the district approved cleaner. (Which doesn’t seem to be on the list of cleaners that kills Covid) Will we be able to use every precaution in our classroom to clean surfaces including necessary cleaning agents?

Will there be an option for parents to continue remote learning (following the school academics)?

What will the protocol be a classroom with no sink and the requirement to monitor bathroom numbers in situations where many students share a single bathroom?

Who is building the barriers between the students if there is not enough room to space them 6 feet apart?

How will my health be protected if students do not have a mask?

If a student is not wearing a mask then will the teacher help that student from a 6-foot distance, as otherwise the teacher will be put at risk?

Will face shields be an acceptable face covering for students and staff?

Many teachers travel between schools. How will this be handled?

Will districts be provided the funds to hire more teachers so that there will be enough "manpower" to teach both in-person and remote classes?

Will there be additional teacher/staff lounges available so that adults can also be distanced while eating?

How will events like Back to School Night and parent-teacher conferences be handled?

What about specialists who teach every child in the school or multiple schools? How can we safely teach hundreds of students each week?

If teachers are in class instructing students all day, who is responsible for online instruction for the students whose parents choose to keep them home?

What if a teacher travels between different classrooms and has no control over the classroom setting from room to room?

What will happen with classrooms that we set up with tables and have flex seating like bouncy balls? There is no way to spread out tables or quickly sanitizer those seats between the switching of classes.

What will be done for older buildings without air conditioning on hot humid days and the old radiators that blast lots of dry heat in the winter to accommodate those students and faculty members who are trying to breathe through a mask?

Will there be temperature checks upon entry?

What will happen with students who are sent to the nurse with fevers or other Covid-19 symptoms?

Will districts provide classrooms with amplification systems for hearing impaired students to hear their masked teachers?

What about hearing impaired teachers who rely on lip-reading and will have a hard time hearing both students/staff who are wearing masks?

How can these teachers be accommodated?

We have class sets of textbooks for a lot of our courses, how is the sharing/cleaning of shared resources being handled? (Desks, books, pencil sharpeners, art supplies etc)

What about Art teachers-how do we share supplies? Even if we have to divide up the supplies we will need a bigger budget to ensure each child gets all supplies AND storage for each class/child's materials.

How are they going to implement social distancing with specials?

Is it possible to keep specials on remote because of large class sizes and have the smaller classes go back? We can have up to 30 kids in one class. Sometimes more.

Will schools be hiring more school nurses, custodial staff, and counselors?

Will there be specialized, paid training for staff to prepare before the first day of school for all these changes?

If a staff member or student comes down with a fever will they be required to get tested for COVID-19 and provide the school with documentation of the results?

How should science labs be handled? I know that I’m not planning on doing them because it would be impossible to social distance, not to mention that I have one set of goggles and aprons.

How will grading work (especially if some students remain at home)? Online assessments vs in-person assessments are entirely different.

Do families need to sign waivers of disclosure if they’ve been exposed, tested, results?

Do we violate privacy laws by asking?

What about staff bathrooms?

Will someone be sanitizing them in between uses or will the staff members be required to do so?

Can teachers who have breathing issues use face shields in place of masks?

If we aren't comfortable going to school to teach once plans are laid out in our district, can we opt to do so remotely?

Will there be an aide on every bus to monitor distancing and mask use, since the bus driver will be focused on driving?

Will there be a cap on sick day usage for older teachers who have accumulated more than 50 days? 75? 100?

Will individual teachers be allowed to require that students wear masks in their classroom?

Will bathrooms have monitors to ensure only X amount of children enter at a time?

If a student tests positive, what does that mean for the rest of the students in the class?

Will all specialists/support staff still push-in?
Will they push-in to multiple classrooms?

Will fans and/or AC units be installed in all classrooms to ensure the air is circulating and the room stays at a decent temperature for those who are wearing masks?

Will there be a nurse in the building every day?

If students are allowed the option to stay home, can teachers who are compromised, or live with someone compromised, also opt to teach from home?

If a student on our class tests positive, will we be told?

Will there be dual offices for nurses, one to handle covid symptoms and another to handle first aid and other health issues?

If students pretend to cough or sneeze on each other or a staff member, how should this be handled at a disciplinary level?

How will physical education classes happen?

Students are being encouraged to wear their gym clothes all day and that comes with hygiene issues. In addition, PE classes are some of the largest in the school and are usually made up of multiple grade levels. If students can’t share equipment what will the class expectations be?

If class is held outdoors what happens in bad weather?

When it comes to younger students, our curriculum is play-based and hands-on. How will play-based learning work? (Blocks, games, manipulatives, puzzles, kitchen, puppets, play-doh, cars, etc)

Also, who will be required to clean all these? And how often?

This is a quote from the state restart plan: "Staff roles will also have to expand to accommodate new health and safety regulations." What exactly does this mean?

Are we cleaning and disinfecting classrooms?

And what exactly does this quote mean: "Instructional and non-instructional staff schedules may also include designated time to support school building logistics required to maintain health and safety requirements." Does taking temperatures become a duty?

How do lockers work? In many buildings students share lockers (or they are on top of each other). If they opt out of using them, do they just carry around a book bag all day congesting the halls even more?

If split sessions are used to help with social distancing/decrease class sizes, will the minimum number of hours be waived to count a half-day of instruction? For example, if a half-day is 4 hours and one group of students attends in-person morning session while a different group attends the afternoon session, that will go past the normal contractual teaching hours.

Will sign language interpreters be required to wear masks? Facial expressions and mouth morphemes are a big part of ASL; some students rely on lip-reading to support their understanding of sign language.

Will we be following guidelines provided by groups like EdTA (International Thespian Organization) for activities like theater and band?

Is it possible that for the duration of the pandemic state testing is suspended and the monies school districts allot for testing be diverted to funding district readiness?

Schools do not permit students to wear hats, hoods and the like because student identity is concealed; if students can not be socially distanced, masks are required, for health reasons. Student faces are concealed which poses a safety issue within the dwelling.