Below 4th grade is the real challenge in most of the public and private schools from what I have seen firsthand. Those kids will have to do in person and not virtual and will take more resources in the elementary schools to make it work. Those kids need in person learning and contact and I think those classes are usualyl smaller or have a teacher's assistant and hopefully can divide up the class. I still think they might have to go with half on and half off to accomodate kids in larger school districts. The real challenge is going to be K - 4th grade.
How does all that work when families- of which there are many- do not have computers and internet but are assigned to the "virtual" category? Should I expect to be seeing some type of Obamaphone type of giveaway and subsidy program or am I missing something? Obamaphones in the Obama Era to be replaced by Trump Tablets perhaps.
Let's take a look at how teacher and public employees who catch COVID-19 will be treated in Florida... Good luck getting workers’ compensation if you catch COVID-19 on the job https://www.sun-sentinel.com/opinio...0200713-hlvqytblqbcxvgd6wg5bh4oeri-story.html Teachers and others forced back to work despite Florida’s skyrocketing COVID-19 cases could be denied medical and wage-loss benefits under Florida’s workers’ compensation law, and their families could get nothing if they die. That’s how it goes in one of the nation’s most worker-unfriendly states. If injured by an unruly student or burned in a chemistry lab, a teacher would have indisputable proof of a covered workplace injury — of where, when and how it happened. But it would be virtually impossible for that teacher to prove he or she contracted the coronavirus at school, rather than somewhere else. Common sense says the probability of infection is immensely greater in a classroom — shared over six periods with a hundred or more students — than almost anywhere else. However, common sense has no standing at Florida’s First District Court of Appeal in Tallahassee, where workers’ compensation appeals often go to die. The danger this poses in the time of COVID-19 was dramatized last November by a pair of notably savage decisions. What the court said about toxic mold would apply to the virus as well. The court denied benefits to two public employees — one living, one dead — who had contracted a rare meningitis that’s known to be caused by fungi they likely encountered on their jobs. One was Robert Taylor, a heavy equipment operator for the City of Titusville, who had been clearing property for a new facility. A judge of compensation claims ruled in his favor. The city and its insurance carrier appealed. A three-judge panel sent Taylor home empty-handed because there was no “clear and convincing evidence” that he encountered the fungi at work. It was a classic Catch-22. The debris was long gone when Taylor fell ill. “It is the employee’s burden to establish the existence of a causal connection between the employment and the alleged injuries,” wrote Judge M.K. Thomas. Thomas was a lawyer who defended employers against workers’ compensation claims before former Gov. Rick Scott appointed her to the court. She conceded that state laws dealing with toxic substances put a “Herculean task” on injured workers. Employers have lobbied relentlessly to limit benefits and make it harder to get them. One result is this section of the law: “An injury or disease caused by exposure to a toxic substance, including, but not limited to, fungus or mold, is not an injury by accident arising out of the employment unless there is clear and convincing evidence establishing that exposure to the specific substance involved, at the levels to which the employee was exposed, can cause the injury or disease sustained by the employee.” (Emphasis supplied.) “Clear and convincing” is one of the strictest legal standards of proof. Strong circumstantial evidence ought to suffice. The court also reversed the award of survivors’ benefits to the widow and two children of Edward Cruce, a maintenance worker for the Indian River County School Board. After cleaning a storage building, he came home covered with an odorous white dust from bird droppings, a known medium for fungi. He had cleaned up the place, unwittingly destroying the evidence of what would kill him. The court’s excuse was the same. Expert testimony that the fungus is everywhere “does not alone constitute clear and convincing evidence sufficient to satisfy the burden of providing workplace presence.” In both cases, the court used law to subvert justice. The First DCA has not decided any COVID-19 case yet. Its shabby record on lethal spores holds little hope for victims of a lethal virus. According to Heather Carbone, a Jacksonville lawyer who specializes in workers’ compensation, some employers, through their insurance carriers, already are denying all COVID-related claims “as the burden of proof is so high. “Some insurance companies are denying all of them,” she said. “Some carriers are picking up some of them and denying some of them.” In a similar case not involving the workers’ compensation law, the AIG insurance company denied accidental death benefits to the family of Shannon Bennett, a Broward deputy sheriff who died of COVID-19. The company said it was not an accidental death, but owed to illness or disease, which are excluded from its policy with the sheriff’s office. The sheriff’s office is contesting that. Some favored workers might escape having to prove how they contracted COVID-19. Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis directed the state’s self-insurance fund in March to grant workers’ compensation coverage for COVID to state employees in health care, law enforcement, corrections, child safety investigations and emergency services, such as firefighting and paramedicine. An April 6 memorandum from the Office of Insurance Regulation appeared to apply that to all “public servants on the front line of COVID-19,” but left unsaid whether it would actually bind school boards and other local governments. In any event, it would not have paid benefits for Deputy Bennett’s death in the line of duty because he had no surviving spouse or children. Under any reasonable standard of public decency, everyone who’s routinely exposed to infection at work should be entitled to workers’ compensation. That should go for grocery clerks and wait staffs, as well as first responders. It shouldn’t matter whether they work for the state, local government or a private employer. A few states are trying, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. In California, an executive order and several pending bills extend coverage to all workers who test positive for the coronavirus and aren’t working exclusively from home. Bills covering most essential workers are pending in Colorado, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Michigan, Ohio and Vermont, passed in Illinois, and failed in Kansas and Louisiana. Similar legislation is all the more urgent in Florida because there were nearly 3 million people medically uninsured even before the pandemic struck. Still, the Legislature went home this year without expanding Medicaid as authorized by Obamacare, or without even talking about comporting the workers’ compensation law with the cruel realities of a lethal virus and an irresponsible appellate court. That’s as scandalous as scandal can get. Remember it when you vote.
Someone should clue Chumpie in on his new adopted home state's constitution (after he reamed NY with his tax cut that did away with City/State deduction on fed tax return which he would no longer be able to take advantage of) that local authorities, not state or federal, decide school year when to open and when to close. Then again understanding Constitutions of any kind was never his strong point. If it doesn't involve ratings he doesn't care, he doesn't know and he doesn't want to know. Same with Russian Bounties. No ratings, need to know basis - nope.
In Wake County, North Carolina the county school system is planning on re-opening on a schedule where students would spend some time in school and the rest virtual. This is known as "Plan B" out of the three proposed plans. Under Plan B students would be divided into three groups; each group would spend one week in school and two weeks virtual. Teachers would have to teach the in-school kids and their virtual kids at the same time (imagine what a pain this will be). Of course this proposed plan is subject to changes from the state level (for example if the governor declares all schooling must be virtual). Wake County is also allowing families to sign-up to have their children only taught virtually via the "Wake County Virtual Academy". The plan seems to be to dedicate separate teachers to this effort (the teachers must come into school to teach the remote students however). In 3 days, 11% of Wake students apply for 'virtual academy' https://www.wral.com/coronavirus/in-3-days-11-of-wake-students-apply-for-virtual-academy/19187086/ In just three days, 11% of the students in Wake County – 18,000 of the average enrollment of about 162,000 – have applied for consideration in the planned Virtual Academy, the district's answer to remote learning amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The Virtual Academy will provide all core classes online for students as an option for those at higher risk for coronavirus infection or whose parents don't feel comfortable sending them back to school yet. Wake County will use those application numbers to determine how many students are interested and how many teachers will be needed. Superintendent Cathy Moore said on Friday that the district does not have a cap the number of students who can apply. On top of the online learning school, the district has established other plans in accordance with guidance from the state to limit the number of students at school to slow the spread of coronavirus. Each district in the state is required to create three plans for reopening. The governor will enact one of those three plans ahead of the first day of school. Wake County has leaned toward a middle road – offering a plan to divide students into three groups that would each rotate through one week of class at school and two weeks of online learning. Superintendent Cathy Moore said on Friday that the district does not have a cap the number of students who can apply. On top of the online learning school, the district has established other plans in accordance with guidance from the state to limit the number of students at school to slow the spread of coronavirus. Each district in the state is required to create three plans for reopening. The governor will enact one of those three plans ahead of the first day of school. Wake County has leaned toward a middle road – offering a plan to divide students into three groups that would each rotate through one week of class at school and two weeks of online learning.
It’s gotta be a case by case. A school may be in a hot spot area. It would be worse to open to then have to close again...at what point do you eject? What is the exit strategy if it flairs up? Etc. On a teachers salary it might be hard to sign many up.
There is already talk of hot spots being created for families without internet and many school systems are giving kids laptops or chromebooks to use for virtual classes. Many school districts are working on solutions to this problem and presidents have nothing to do with it except DoE could supply federal funding for backing these initiatives...but Trump and DeVos don't give a shit about the poor kid without internet or computers, they just want them back in school tomorrow so he can win the election.
Our state, North Carolina, has a problem with rural internet access. While in suburban areas like Raleigh & Charlotte most families have internet access and access can be arranged via hot spots or free donated service -- the poor rural counties do not have this option. North Carolina has numerous poor counties where at least 20% of families with school age children do not have internet access at home. This is due to a number of reasons - they live in locations where no service is offered or the family cannot afford internet. Many live in areas remote enough where hot spots via cellular will not work either. This is coupled with the issue that the local county school systems do not have the necessary funds to provide laptops and chromebooks for virtual classes. When attempting virtual classes in our state - these are difficult problems to solve for our poor rural counties.
Rural areas have an easier time opening and using social distancing and safe practices because school sizes and class sizes are smaller. As I said, schools in my district are doing a hybrid of 2 days in and 2 days off to work at home and class sizes tend towards 30. Many rural counties can spread students out easier in existing rooms and make use of cafeterias and other spaces. In elementary schools the kids don't change classes so they can stay in one room and safer with teachers. Wearing masks helps with kids who tend to sneeze and talk at the same time. Rural counties can get more support from the State to work a system that shares the space while keeping students safe. There are a lot of solutions out there to be applied by county based on population density and school class size in each area.. Rural areas have smaller risks than more densely populated city areas. There are numerous non political ways to approach this with State and federal support as no one plan fits all counties.