Having to follow up with every student that sends a note/email stating "attending virtual due to illness.. not feeling well.. I'm sick" Is anyone else doing the same? Do you have a standard message that you use?
We are back in school 5 days in person, with an option to due virtual if they are not comfortable. Because we have that virtual piece and have students that are doing virtual full time, sick days are something of the past. Since every symptom of COVID is also a symptom of many numerous illness, the kids were instructed not to attend school with any type of symptom (of course now they listen) and if they are feeling up to it they may attend virtually for that day or days. The students have to email their teachers that they are attending virtually and most of the time it is the statements above. Because that is a blanket statement I have been requested to follow up with everyone of these notes/ emails to get more details on what is the symptoms/illness to verify when they may return to school.
Is anyone else doing the same? We are a small private school of only 260 students but I also have to follow up with faculty and staff when they are out sick.
I am calling every family with a kid called in sick - at least so far. We're a school of 1800 kids with about 900 participating in hybrid classes (the other half stayed 100% online). If they have COVID associated symptoms, I calculate the isolation period and notify the attendance office of their date to return in-person. They put some kind of code in the system that lets teachers know that the student will have an exception to attend online during particular days, but keeps them on the hybrid schedule overall. It's a logistical challenge, but seems to be working so far.
As volume increases, I probably won't be able to keep up with the calls. I anticipate sending an email similar to @BrisketRN's at some point.
I do think it's worth the time to do this outreach. Most parents have been very good about keeping students home while they have observable symptoms, but few of them have realized that the 10-day isolation period (or testing for COVID) applies. They would otherwise send kids back in a day or two, I think. So for me the effort is still worthwhile. I feel like I owe it to the teachers who are in enclosed spaces with these kids for 90 minutes at a shot.
I've only caught one kid who clearly was lying to get out of class - and to her credit, she was horrified and very apologetic when she realized how scared her teacher and other students might feel about being around someone who'd reported illness
( Also: I can't tell you how helpful this group has been to me. Y'all are the best!!)
Specializes in Med/Surg, Emergency Room, School Nurse.
On 10/29/2020 at 2:05 PM, Queen of Icepacks said:
One of the teacher just mentioned that snow days are a thing of the past. I don't think that the students have realized this yet.
Fortunately or Unfortunately our student never had snow days/ inclement weather days. We have been doing Digital learning for years. They do at least one a month just to keep up with it. So when the pandemic hit they didn't miss a beat.
Even though we are doing synchronous learning with virtual and in- person we are still doing one day a month as a digital day for all students.
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I am calling every family with a kid called in sick - at least so far. We're a school of 1800 kids with about 900 participating in hybrid classes (the other half stayed 100% online). If they have COVID associated symptoms, I calculate the isolation period and notify the attendance office of their date to return in-person. They put some kind of code in the system that lets teachers know that the student will have an exception to attend online during particular days, but keeps them on the hybrid schedule overall. It's a logistical challenge, but seems to be working so far.
As volume increases, I probably won't be able to keep up with the calls. I anticipate sending an email similar to @BrisketRN's at some point.
I do think it's worth the time to do this outreach. Most parents have been very good about keeping students home while they have observable symptoms, but few of them have realized that the 10-day isolation period (or testing for COVID) applies. They would otherwise send kids back in a day or two, I think. So for me the effort is still worthwhile. I feel like I owe it to the teachers who are in enclosed spaces with these kids for 90 minutes at a shot.
I've only caught one kid who clearly was lying to get out of class - and to her credit, she was horrified and very apologetic when she realized how scared her teacher and other students might feel about being around someone who'd reported illness
( Also: I can't tell you how helpful this group has been to me. Y'all are the best!!)