Plan to Return to Face to Face Learning?

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Specializes in Geriatric Home Health, High School Nurse.

If your schools are virtual, or optionally virtual (like us), is there a plan of when to end the virtual option?  Are you using data thresholds or measures you must meet for a period of time?  I am seeing some promising trends in our area and I would like to start advocating for our Charter to look at ending the madness that is synchronous in person/virtual learning, I just need some direction.

Thanks!  You are all such a lifeline in this sideways time! 

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Specializes in School nursing.

Our virtual option will be all year. 

But we aren't doing synchronous in person/virtual learning. We have it built into teachers schedules when we do go hybrid to have a class period they teach live only to the remote students 2x week per subject level from the classroom. Because juggling both is madness.

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Specializes in school nursing, ortho, trauma.

I've had a few parents tell me that they will send their child back after the New Year - as if Covid is going to expire Dec 31 2020... and right in time for flu season.  

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Specializes in School nursing.
1 minute ago, Flare said:

I've had a few parents tell me that they will send their child back after the New Year - as if Covid is going to expire Dec 31 2020... and right in time for flu season.  

Yep, I've heard this so. many. times. I feel like folks are thinking a vaccine will be out by then and therefore it will be "safe" again.

Even if a vaccine comes out by then, it will still take at least a year to make it available to enough of the population to matter. And then you have to convince those people to get it...

Winter is going to be rough. I'm just prepping myself for that. 

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We're doing synchronous learning--bless our teachers--and as far as I know we will have a virtual option for the remainder of the school year.  The rough part for me is that students can access virtual learning at any point.  So if Susie has bad cramps and mom says she can stay home then Susie can still attend class virtually.  This is a contact tracing nightmare. We're having the hardest time getting teachers to correctly mark "present-in person, present-virtual, absent" on attendance 

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Specializes in Geriatric Home Health, High School Nurse.
10 minutes ago, BrisketRN said:

We're doing synchronous learning--bless our teachers--and as far as I know we will have a virtual option for the remainder of the school year.  The rough part for me is that students can access virtual learning at any point.  So if Susie has bad cramps and mom says she can stay home then Susie can still attend class virtually.  This is a contact tracing nightmare. We're having the hardest time getting teachers to correctly mark "present-in person, present-virtual, absent" on attendance 

We are having the same problem!  Students are coming and going all the time. I am trying to track it, but when students just do whatever they want, it isn't easy! This entire year is insane.

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Specializes in Peds.

We have been all remote so far but plan on returning face to face in October.  Our Governor states we must offer virtual.  To combat the madness we are making our parents make a decision and stick to it.  No flip flopping back and forth.  

 

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We have been in person learning since we started school 9/8/20.  No major outbreaks yet! 

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We have Virtual and Face 2 Face - parents have a choice between the 2 and have the opportunity to switch at the 9 week marking periods. We will be having this option for the school year. 

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Specializes in School Nursing, Public Health.

I will be surprised if many teachers return next year. I see many in tears everyday from regular classes, virtual same time as class, and the virtual that just checks in now and then. Plus being rural, internet is not always reliable.  We also have some where workbooks are sent home. 

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Specializes in Geriatric Home Health, High School Nurse.
16 hours ago, ruralseok said:

I will be surprised if many teachers return next year. I see many in tears everyday from regular classes, virtual same time as class, and the virtual that just checks in now and then. Plus being rural, internet is not always reliable.  We also have some where workbooks are sent home. 

Yes, teacher burnout is just moments away.   I am seeing so many stress-related psychosomatic complaints from the teachers.  They are at their breaking point.  If we could safely get these kids back in the school, I think it would help to some extent.  However, I do feel having that many kids on campus may cause some teachers to leave because they are so fearful.  There are no easy answers this year.

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Specializes in pediatrics, school nursing.

The teachers in my building have been turning to me for every little thing (think "Make me handwashing signs! Make me a step-by-step visual aid for how to don and doff masks! Print and laminate that sheet that you made available for all of us on the district website and then let me ignore it and come to school with a cough and sore throat anyway!) and they don't like that I don't have all the answers right away. We (the nurses in my district) also have this sense from a lot of staff that nursing is "the enemy" now. They see us in cahoots with admin, and that our lack of supplies is us actively not understanding how "unsafe" our environment is, not that there is still a national shortage of PPE... That the whole reason we even have kids in the building is because nursing said it was safe to do so even when it wasn't safe... When in actuality, we have come up with a lot of creative ways to keep them safe, going above and beyond DPH and DESE's recommendations and worked all Summer doing so, without pay.

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