The following information is from the Contra Costa County Health Dept.
:State rules allow elementary schools in Contra Costa County to apply for a waiver to conduct in-person classes.
However, Contra Costa Health Services (CCHS) will not be supporting elementary school waiver applications because we consider in-person education too risky at this time. Until daily case rates, percent positive test rates and hospitalizations in our county are stable or declining for at least 2 weeks, we won’t be reviewing any waiver requests. We will continue to update the County Office of Education and our other education partners about when local schools may begin submitting waiver applications.
Once things have stabilized, schools may submit an application demonstrating the following:
- The school has a plan to perform surveillance testing of staff (at least 25% of staff every 2 weeks/100% of staff every month) and has secured an agreement with a lab that has the ability to provide test results within 72 hours.
- The school must also have select staff members trained in contact tracing methodology and agree to assist CCHS with collecting contact tracing information.
- The school meets additional criteria required by the California Department of Public Health.
All parents should consider leaving California for their children’s education and well being. I will never raise my children in CA and have friends that have already left.
CA is going to be even more of a dumpster fire in 10 years. Get out while you can!
@LOL~I feel your frustration– for all the parents that are ‘behind the eight ball’ with their child’s education! The above regulatory items are a farce and will never be implemented as testing is a huge problem, not feasible at this time This is from the Ad-Hoc Committee Meeting minutes from 7/30: “Our County was prioritizing teachers and daycare providers among others at County-run testing sites as well as State-run sites. Currently, the highest priority for testing are hospitalized patients with COVID symptoms; outbreak investigations; people who are symptomatic, especially if they are close contacts of a person who tested positive; and asymptomatic people who are in high-risk settings (first responder, caring for elderly, works in a correctional or congregate care facility). With the shortage of test analysis and closure of schools, teachers are not currently being prioritized. It is likely that the granting of waivers will be conditioned upon the ability for schools to get their teachers tested. At that point, teachers may again be prioritized for testing.”
Bye!
This is extremely aggravating to me. Smaller private schools can provide the small class sizes, distance, and protocols needed yet they won’t even be considered. The cases and hospitalizations have absolutely been stabilizing for weeks. The FACT is that since they failed to keep Nursing homes safe, they are now 85 of 99 people hospitalized in this county. Disgusting.
From the CDC
As families and policymakers make decisions about their children returning to school, it is important to consider the full spectrum of benefits and risks of both in-person and virtual learning options. Parents are understandably concerned about the safety of their children at school in the wake of COVID-19. The best available evidence indicates if children become infected, they are far less likely to suffer severe symptoms. Death rates among school-aged children are much lower than among adults. At the same time, the harms attributed to closed schools on the social, emotional, and behavioral health, economic well-being, and academic achievement of children, in both the short- and long-term, are well-known and significant. Further, the lack of in-person educational options disproportionately harms low-income and minority children and those living with disabilities. These students are far less likely to have access to private instruction and care and far more likely to rely on key school-supported resources like food programs, special education services, counseling, and after-school programs to meet basic developmental needs.
Read the full article here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/community/schools-childcare/reopening-schools.html
Evidence also indicates that some children will die, and all of those infected will spread COVID-19 at home. As a result more adults will die. Let’s not forget there’s also concern about long term health affects, kids and adults alike. But so many like you fail to acknowledge the scientific, and medical facts.
@ Pat – did you bother to read the article? It’s from the CDC!!! That’s the people guiding our local health departments. No, it’s not people like me failing to acknowledge scientific and medical facts. It’s people like you spewing hatred and misinformation without reading said scientific facts.
@Pat
Tell me how many children so far have died from starvation, abuse, drug over doses, car accidents and suicides? And tell me how many children have died from COVID? I have read more on children dying from car accidents as these parents are taking small road trips then I have from children dying of COVID.
@ Pat, Apparently some on this site think losing a few children is nothing to worry about. ‘Death rates among school-aged children are much lower than among adults’. Um, so few will die? Who’s will they be? If they don’t die what life long health issues could they suffer from? Oh, and what if the teachers and other staff catch COVID from the children? Collateral damage? Who’ll teach the children then? This is not rocket science and should not be political.
If I still had children at home there is not any way I would be sending them off to be some experiment for the predicament we’re all in due to COVID-19. To have a healthy economy we must first be healthy ourselves.
So Grandmato
How many children have died in California from COVID, not with it?
Hmmm ..
Yeah, crickets, exactly what I thought. Let me tell you the number. 1 child under 18 has died, 1, as in a single child who had multiple underlying health conditions.
@parent….Schools have been closed since MARCH which could help to keep those child cases low.
Manny
Not everywhere … and surprise! Still no surge in children with COVID …
So wanna try again?
CDC director advocates smart reopening of schools. I thought the election-motivated Democrats were going to “Follow the Science”. NOPE!! Schools are closed. Damned hypocrites!!! I hope those of you suffering the WORST of it from the dumbing-down of your children are Democrats. Screw you.
https://thehill.com/changing-america/well-being/prevention-cures/509999-cdc-director-advocates-smart-reopening-of
Blame the Union, not the teachers. It’s the Union that is controlling these decisions. The teacher solution is simple, open the schools, let the teachers that want to opt out of teaching this year opt out which will be without pay, but you’re first in line for working next year.
it is the teachers ….
they back the teachers union …which is controlled by the unions
offering money to concede to union demands
they take the money and back the union way so yes it is their fault
the schools and teachers and dept heads and schools officials should be held accountable and not union tools against us and our children
why do you think the classes are over 30 normally
well the unions tell them its in their best interest they make more and the school does not hire more teachers
to spread out the budget money to more teachers
they tow the union line for money basic and simple
the unions have a huge amount of money …..they use it to buy teachers on the teachers union …who then push teachers to comply as well with union tactics
the unions own the politicians as well ….why do you think 4 months before any election union reps are out at union meetings telling them who to vote for ….to keep their union together and get more money for themselves
having teachers and transportation union based has cost us tax payers billions to run ….add in the strikes and you get bilked some more
follow the money ….the media wont tell you this because the unions own them as well
This particular opinion aside, it’s proven time and time again that the most educated political population, by all measures, are liberal democrats. Seems typical of a conservative republican to discount any information that doesn’t fit their narrative. Sad.
@jessica What’s education got to do with being a controlling, greedy, nasty, hateful political liberal? It’s not a republican narrative, it’s a fact.
The implication from OPs mess of a post (of Dems dumbing down kids and not following science and being “hypocrites”) is that Dems are stupid and making our kids stupid.
And liberals being “controlling, greedy, nasty, hateful and political” has also actually been disproven in a number of ways, anecdotally and statistically. But me referring to the statistics, studies, and articles around why your conservative parroting is inaccurate won’t change your mind either, so why bother?
So the CooCoo Health Director speaks again …
They consider it to risky .. they … so ‘they’ know more than State and Federal which advocates smart reopening. I think ‘they’ are just on a power trip.
Not to mention all the parents who will not be able to afford child care to watch their still-at-home children in order to return to work this fall. So more small businesses will fail and unemployment in the state will remain disastrously high. Democrats intent on destroying the state’s economy, no matter what the human or economic consequences.
If people across the country would follow the guidelines and wear masks and stay home we could be in the position other nations are in. You should direct your ire at the people protesting mask-wearing.
Then all teachers should not be paid their regular union salary. They already get 3 months off… now they get to do virtual learning which will be 5x easier.
As a teacher, I can tell you that we do not get 3 months “off”. I teach and tutor all summer and plan classes for the fall in those three months “off”. (Which is 2 months, by the way.)
Also, virtual instruction is certainly far more difficult than in person instruction. I was teaching my students daily, with Google classroom, all the while navigating technical difficulties, lack of school supplies in their homes, major distractions in the background, trying to help students with high anxiety and depression without being able to talk in person, paying for my own supplies, turning my entire living room into my classroom, staying up half the night trying to figure out how I can possibly use technology that I’ve never used to teach as effectively as I can in person, with dogs barking, microphones muting, computers glitching…trying to teach writing in a fresh fun way while my students are dealing with grief over a passing loved one, all while dealing with my own grief. With all respect, you do not understand what teachers do. How can you say that we shouldn’t be paid? Walk one day in our shoes my friend.
@Joe
“Teacher” is absolutely correct. There is a lot of misinformation floating around, and it’s important to be accurate. The helpful thing to do would be to apply to be a substitute teacher (requirements are a Bachelors Degree and passing results on the CBEST competency test.) There was a substitute teacher shortage even before COVID-19 and our local schools would be happy to have your assistance.
newscum is already realizing that he controls the state and the people
with the covid fear
he will continue this into 2021 and 22
we have already seen the numbers are skewed and at best far from accurate
yet they use them to fear the sheep
who are the mask natzis on here commenting to others about the numbers
ahhhhhhhh oh no fear the numbers
use your head do some research
if you really believe this state has your best interest then you are the problem you are the welfare and freebees gathering voter who refuses to work for your dreams and instead wades through muck so you can get 200 dollars a week ….living your dream
while the tax payer has to fund you and the bums and the schools and the transportation and the city and the state and the police and fire and forced to fund the unions
this is your fault and you should own it
A few questions for you
1. If a teacher tests positive for COVID-19 are they required to quarantine for 2-3 weeks? Is their sick leave covered, paid?
2. If that teacher has 5 classes a day with 30 students each, do all 150 of those students need to then stay home and quarantine for 14 days?
3. Do all 150 of those students now have to get tested? Who pays for those tests? Are they happening at school? How are the parents being notified? Does everyone in each of those kids’ families need to get tested? Who pays for that?
4. What if someone who lives in the same house as a teacher tests positive? Does that teacher now need to take 14 days off of work to quarantine? Is that time off covered? Paid?
5. Where is the district going to find a substitute teacher who will work in a classroom full of exposed, possibly infected students for substitute pay?
6. Substitutes teach in multiple schools. What if they are diagnosed with COVID-19? Do all the kids in each school now have to quarantine and get tested? Who is going to pay for that?
7. What if a student in your kid’s class tests positive? What if your kid tests positive? Does every other student and teacher they have been around quarantine? Do we all get notified who is infected and when? Or because of HIPAA regulations are parents and teachers just going to get mysterious “may have been in contact” emails all year long?
Not one child under the age of 17 has died in the State of California. Stop using the excuse that it for the “safety of the children.” Science is pretty much telling us that there is no threat to our children.
@Anon
They say wearing a mask and washing your hangs will protect you. Why can’t these teachers wear a mask and wash there hands?! These teachers most likely go out to go grocery shopping or to Target or wherever to get things they need go pick up food at a restaurant so why not teach? You can go about your life and still do things safely. It really is simple.
Off course everyone throwing their head back and howling are rabid conservatives. Go ahead, go take your kids to an open school without proper protections. I’m staying in. Generations of children grew up isolated in rural areas, educated by parents and were just fine as adults. My kids can live without large groups it for another year. But the rest of you, go ahead, risk covid and potential spread. See if I care, I just know I’ll roll my eyes when i see the obits and gofundme’s.
Okay
Give us the opportunity to go to the classroom. See, I grew up in a time when we went outside to play. We played in the dirt, we ran around, we learned obedience and discipline. When we were sick, we stayed home. We did not learn to cower in fear. I attended public school and lived through dirt, being outside and all that jazz, and I feel pretty well rounded.
Now, I know folks who grew up rural, they don’t interact very well within society. They FEAR the interaction with other human beings. That is my experience, but if you are okay with living your life like that and allowing your children to suffer through that … GO AHEAD, but do not force me to join you in that world – I want NO PART OF IT.
Guess what parent, you dont have to have part in it. However, what you cant do is insist others create a world for your and your families convenience. So if you cant find someone, a shop, a restaurant, a school district that wont cater to you…**shrug**. Go find a like mind that will.
Lazy stereotyping, “Staying in Mom.” My kids are homeschooled and I definitely agree that you don’t need a school in order to educate your kids. IF you have the ability for one parent to stay home and teach them full time. That’s a big IF. Most people in CA aren’t in that boat – and it sounds like you don’t like conservatism, so I’m guessing you don’t want to go back to the single-income family as the norm.
So mommy, it is okay to impose your will on us and not allow us to make a choice? I see how it is mommy. I disagree with you, and so do many others.
As for like minds … well every parent on son’s baseball team minus one wants their child back in the classroom. Every parent on my block wants their child back in the classroom. So guess what mommy, I have like (sane) minds around me. We are going to do exactly what was already mentioned elsewhere in the post, create our study groups and let the kids socialize, cause we as RESPONSIBLE parents know our kids need an education that cannot be supplied by mommy and a digital screen.
Yes, what could possibly go wrong with the little germ factories!!
Do you people even read the news or just parrot your favorite talk show hosts?
It’s been done in other countries and not gone well.
https://www.pri.org/stories/2020-07-29/israels-hurried-school-reopenings-serve-cautionary-tale
Did you read the article you posted? No one is advocating schools go back without safety precautions. The article you posted spoke of Children climbing on each other, no masks, no social distancing ect.
Read past the headlines.
Comparative study between Sweden and Norway, where one shut schools and one didn’t. No effect detected. https://tinyurl.com/y68gwh2v
Study of which professions are most risk of Covid in Sweden, where primary schools didn’t close. Teachers not at more risk. https://www.thelocal.se/20200625/study-these-are-the-professions-which-are-over-represented-in-swedens-coronavirus-statistics
More:
https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/schools-reopening-coronavirus/2020/07/10/865fb3e6-c122-11ea-8908-68a2b9eae9e0_story.html
YMCAs have had child care centers open in the US for kids of front line workers, esp. health care workers, all through the pandemic. No outbreaks.
Heck, school districts in the Bay Area are opening “care centers” to babysit kids and help them with their “remote learning”. If we can do that safely, then it is just a failure of institutional will to actually have them learn in person. School districts and the teachers’unions are not willing or able to get their act together and think creatively. Just bureaucratic turf protection and risk aversion all around.
In a better-functioning education system where decisions could actually be made and executed nimbly, elementary schools would reopen with all classes held outside. Daily schedule and the whole calendar would be adjusted to avoid extreme midday heat in inland valleys. At-risk teachers would do online lessons for parents across their whole district who want their kids to stay home. Unused spaces would be rented or repurposed to spread small cohorts of kids out from each other. Teachers would get real PPE, real masks and be trained how to use them properly.
I write this almost as a therapy session for myself. How can these supervisors do this to our children.? All Dr and scientist agree kids need to be back in school. My children and everyone else’s that I know are so depressed. We are trying to stay positive for the kids but it is hard bc they are missing so much. If I thought there was a real serious threat I would not advocate going back but I agree with the CDC, Dr and even Bill Gates !
These power hungry people are insane.
@ LOL I wish so badly I could move my children out of CA and give them some sort of normal childhood but sadly we are stuck here
Please help vote these people out!!!!
I totally agree. This isolation has really taken a toll on my daughter. She really wants to go back to school. It is very difficult position to be in as a parent. These past few months have been horrible. Also, Staying in Mommy, a parent wanting an education for their child has nothing to do with political party preference. But, since you brought it up and given your comment referencing “rabid conservatives”, you must be one of those snowflake liberals I see driving around town, alone, wearing a face mask- and no, I am not talking about ride share drivers. So, please do us all a favor and stay home.
To all of you who are up in arms: I’m sure your local school district could use substitutes as there has been a shortage across the county for years. How about you risk your health and step into a classroom for a day while COVID is running rampant? Or even when COVID is under control. See how you feel after that. Only problem- you need a bachelor’s degree which some of you may not have…
This will not prevent a thing. I know many families that will now gather together and home school. You can’t stop this. More restrictions means people get more creative in doing what they think is right. A man convinced against his will is of the same opinion still.
I work in a hospital and I am there everyday. There have been no problems. But, sure, keep running around screaming “the sky is falling!” I would be more than happy to “step into a classroom.” You can even talk to all the daycares in this county that have been open and caring for children the whole summer without any incidents.
@bobbyhopeful—I would help any family that would like to homeschool their children (my child is in college). I haven’t earned a bachelor’s degree, but I can sure teach mathematics, reading and writing! You are absolutely right in doing whatever you can to educate your child as I see no end to this…
@subs—I would ask you: Isn’t your health at risk every time you go to the grocery store, doctor’s office, or hardware store with COVID-19 running rampant? We all take risks everyday…
Well, I do have a bachelor’s degree. Also a Master’s and a PhD. And I am an educator, of people from an age group more likely to spread Covid than elementary kids. And I do want to be in the classroom, and have indeed opted to do so if I get the chance. So take your assumptions and … reexamine them … 😉
Of course they said no, they have to remember who they work for.
And this is why I didn’t even bother to enroll in private school I KNEW they would block that too, just like I knew they would insist on an entire year of “distance learning.”
Just scroll past all the comments from the non-scientist and non-educator people. You will be smarter for doing so.
And if anyone is wondering how you tell which ones those are … just pick the ones you disagree with. Those people are uneducated rubes!