How is it where you are?

[meganicka]

My sister-in-law is a teacher. A number of the students she teaches have tested positive so they are all having to quarantine. She was teaching that particular class virtually (though they were attending in person, but with very strict mask and distancing guidelines and with many classes moved outdoors), so she has not had to quarantine. She says schools here look like they will be forced to close in the next week or two because of an increase in cases, including within the schools.

Right where we are is so far not terrible, though cases are ticking up, so we are all preparing for more restrictions in coming weeks. We already more or less don't do anything non-essential, so it won't be an enormous change for us, but I know for others it will be harder.

 

[bookworm]

Wisconsin just shut down gyms again ...

 

[Greatlakesmom]

Wisconsin just shut down gyms again ...

So sorry to hear that!

 

[KSLaura]

That’s not “actively concealing” anything. Looking at the seating chart and room sign ins is called contact tracing. It’s following contact tracing protocol and not violating HIPPA. They can not by law violate privacy.

Only those deemed a direct exposure need to be notified and quarantine.

What constitutes a direct exposure should be clearly spelled out by the health department and the school district. I can easily access those guidelines on the CDC site, my state site and school site.

When we get notified of a case (and we have had several) the superintendent clearly states Who tested positive (student, teacher, staff) and how many folks need to quarantine. He also clearly states, due to privacy laws he cannot give specfics and if you do not hear from the board of health your student does not have to quarantine.

We have had a dozen cases in our district. Not one was “caught” at school.
And don‘t assume a child is sick because they are positive. In fact as per the FB parent group the 8 recent cases were from a Halloween party, while were already in quarantine. So there are 8 students who have had their quarantines extended.

Well, my kid’s school is actively concealing cases. The principal sent out an email blast stating there were no positives in the high school. My own daughter had tested positive and the school had been notified. Two of her classmates had also tested positive. I do understand HIPPA, but straight up lies send out the wrong message. I did have my daughter email each of her teachers to let them know they were exposed.
Unfortunately, I believe our family caught it via school. The elementary only requires masks for ages 10 and up. They aren’t required at all for lunch, PE, recess, and after school. My 6th grader has 27 kids in her class and the desks are a couple inches apart.

 

[bogwoppit]

Well, my kid’s school is actively concealing cases. The principal sent out an email blast stating there were no positives in the high school. My own daughter had tested positive and the school had been notified. Two of her classmates had also tested positive. I do understand HIPPA, but straight up lies send out the wrong message. I did have my daughter email each of her teachers to let them know they were exposed.
Unfortunately, I believe our family caught it via school. The elementary only requires masks for ages 10 and up. They aren’t required at all for lunch, PE, recess, and after school. My 6th grader has 27 kids in her class and the desks are a couple inches apart.

Likely the school is not informing public health or the school board either. UGH

 

[Deleted member 18037]

Well, my kid’s school is actively concealing cases. The principal sent out an email blast stating there were no positives in the high school. My own daughter had tested positive and the school had been notified. Two of her classmates had also tested positive. I do understand HIPPA, but straight up lies send out the wrong message. I did have my daughter email each of her teachers to let them know they were exposed.
Unfortunately, I believe our family caught it via school. The elementary only requires masks for ages 10 and up. They aren’t required at all for lunch, PE, recess, and after school. My 6th grader has 27 kids in her class and the desks are a couple inches apart.

Don’t know your state, county or district or their stated guidelines and policies. But I would be having a discussion with the principal, superintendent, president of the board and your county health officials.

And is your district offering remote as an option?

 

[IreneKa]

Likely the school is not informing public health or the school board either. UGH

well, actually its the other way around, board of health should notify the school, at least that's how it is in our state. DD tested positive last week. BOH notified the school even before they notified us. The school nurse called us before we knew the results ourselves.

 

[mommyof1]

My guess is that one reason some schools are concealing cases and using very narrow definitions of exposure is that they don’t want teachers in quarantine, which could lead to school shutdowns as a result of sub shortages. Our district had to shut one school down temporarily after there was spread during a faculty meeting.

 

[NutterButter]

Well, my kid’s school is actively concealing cases. The principal sent out an email blast stating there were no positives in the high school. My own daughter had tested positive and the school had been notified. Two of her classmates had also tested positive. I do understand HIPPA, but straight up lies send out the wrong message. I did have my daughter email each of her teachers to let them know they were exposed.
Unfortunately, I believe our family caught it via school. The elementary only requires masks for ages 10 and up. They aren’t required at all for lunch, PE, recess, and after school. My 6th grader has 27 kids in her class and the desks are a couple inches apart.

Wow. This is a reminder that not everyone lives in a public health utopia. I hope you all are well soon!!

 

[GYM0M]

Everything is open here. Schools, sports, and other activities as well. I’ll be the first to admit that I do not look at county statistics, as I believe them to be misleading and often times misrepresented, but when school started in August, we were receiving a ‘required notification’ about once per day, but now that’s about once per week. Teachers try their best to make the students wear their masks, but my teenagers freely admit that they do not wear them appropriately (often below their nose). I’m a pharmaceutical chemist and my company manufactures many antiseptics. Since covid, we have been making a spray hand sanitizer. My kids take a bottle to school and spray any surface or their hands as needed. Also works great at gym between rotations and turns. Seems to be working.

 

[bookworm]

Likely the school is not informing public health or the school board either. UGH

In our office , when we get positive COVID results , we (the pediatrician's office) notify the Board of Health, the family and the child's school....there isn't an option to not report it as COVID is considered a reportable illness, at least in our state. The rate of infection by town is reported every week (via the BOH) in the newspaper, with a breakdown of age groups affected ... so if you're in Town A and they report "3 positive cases, age 15" and the schools are saying all clear, you know it isn't. The schools here send notification to all students in an affected class because we're all indoors now in the Northeast.

 

[FlippinLilysMom]

Minnesota gyms will be forced to shut down Friday for at least 4 weeks.

 

[mls529]

Minnesota gyms will be forced to shut down Friday for at least 4 weeks.

Same in Illinois - it starts Friday. Not just gyms, but all organized sports including high school

 

[Akl597]

Minnesota gyms will be forced to shut down Friday for at least 4 weeks.

Have you heard from your gym? I saw the news today but wasn't sure how gymnastics was classified and we haven't heard anything from our gym yet.

 

[MILgymFAM]

Have you heard from your gym? I saw the news today but wasn't sure how gymnastics was classified and we haven't heard anything from our gym yet.

The governor will be making the announcement of the new restrictions at 6pm, I’m told. My daughter had already elected to stop gym to have less worries about covid, but my younger daughter is wondering what will happen to her. She is in a professional dance company. They’re expecting to have to go virtual for the school that the company runs, but they’re unsure about where the professionals will stand with regard to new restrictions, and of course are hopeful they’ll be allowed to continue to work- at least until December 5th when they film their Christmas ballet for streaming. They’ve already sold a lot of tickets and as a new-ish company, they’re really hopeful to be able to honor the ticket sales. We shall see, I guess. My husband is work from home again (he’s a Marine) because of a covid positive on base (in his building), so now my daughter going to her dance company is the only thing any of us leave the house for (besides hiking with just my gymnast daughter and I).
ETA: gymnast daughter has had a covid test each month for the past three months, and dancer daughter is tested weekly through her company. Hubs was tested a week after the work exposure, and I tested twice with my daughter (they encouraged everyone in the car to test at the drive-through). We’ve all been negative so far. Fingers crossed.

 

[KSLaura]

Likely the school is not informing public health or the school board either. UGH

Public health is notified by the testing agency with positive results. They are about 2 weeks behind, though. I got a call from public health about contact tracing 2 weeks after I got sick. Kinda too late...

 

[KSLaura]

Don’t know your state, county or district or their stated guidelines and policies. But I would be having a discussion with the principal, superintendent, president of the board and your county health officials.

And is your district offering remote as an option?

It’s a charter school. I did actually speak with the principal, but nothing has come out since then. The school does offer DL. At this point, since my kids have already had it, I’d prefer that they go back to school.

 

[Mrs. Puma]

Public health is notified by the testing agency with positive results. They are about 2 weeks behind, though. I got a call from public health about contact tracing 2 weeks after I got sick. Kinda too late...

Same here. My older daughter was in class with a student who was positive and the health department didn’t call until day 12. The school called my husband on day 10 to give him the heads up, but I’m not sure if that’s because he works there or if they called all the parents whose kids were in contact with the student. I know of four other cases around here with similar lag times. I fear it will get worse because our numbers are rising quickly. About a quarter of the cases total in our county are from the last 3 weeks

 

[raenndrops]

Our first local (district) positive case was November 9 ... and currently (although there was no spread through the school - it is all community spread), there are 8 students and 6 staff that are positive and 129 students and 30 staff that are in quarantine due to either symptoms or possible exposure. Instead of going to hybrid for the last 4 days before Thanksgiving break, we will be in Learning Level 4 (our most restrictive) ... fully remote learning, mandatory google meets, all assignments on Google Classroom, and all before and after school activities (including athletic events, practices, clubs, and community use of our facilities) are cancelled or postponed through Sunday, November 29.

 

[JBS]

Wisconsin just shut down gyms again ...

Dane county is shut down... the rest of Wisconsin is not as of yet.