What do you think the odds are that we will be back to normal next fall, as in parents invited into the building for curriculum night and to walk younger kids into the classroom, no pods, no masks, no social distancing, kids allowed to sing and play instruments at school?
and what about after school? early morning drop off? parents need these things to be able to work and live a regular life!
0% (Sorry), assuming you mean 2021. Remember kids won't even have begun to be vaccinated by then. Best hope is that the teachers are vaccinated, so there is less risk to them teaching IN school. This would allow all schools to open, at least on a hybrid schedule.
oh yeah. we can also hope that the vaccine a)remains effective against new variants and b) proves to be pretty good at preventing transmission (all this class was tested for for was to stop severe disease, which they are great at)
In NYC? I think things will be mostly back to normal. Probably not full afterschool programs but some options will be available. Remember how low our cases were in Sept? And that was without a vaccine.
Kids won't be vaccinated by then but teachers probably will. I REALLY hope things will be as close to normal as possible.
I can deal with fewer extracurriculars and on-campus meetings and even some Zoom classes if they need to thin out crowds. But I desperately want my kids to be back on campus at least 4 days a week.
The majority of my DC's class is already in school five days a week with afterschool. (NYC public, with private afterschool).
I'm much more optimistic that thing will go back to normal. Even during the height of the pandemic people chose to send their kids to camps and schools. With more and more people getting vaccinated, hospitals will not be strained and people will not be worried about infecting the vulnerable. As time goes on, the risk to children from staying remote will increase. People will make a cost/benefit analysis and it will overwhelming be in favor of going back to school
I agree. If many adults are vaccinated, there will be some level of herd immunity, so even if children are not vaccinated, the levels of virus circulating will be much lower. It is absolutely ridiculous to keep children out of normal school this long.
@Anonymous This assumes that vaccines will work against new variants, of course...the jury is still out on that.https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/01/new-coronavirus-variants-could-cause-more-reinfections-require-updated-vaccines
@anonymous Even if there are reinfections, if the impact is less severe, life will continue back to normal.
Oh for private school , schools in Florida and on Long Island totally back to normal. Public schools in larger cities, 0% chance. It’s truly pathetic
NYC publics are already in session 5 days a week. By Sept, the cases will be way down and almost the entire high risk population will be out of harm's way. Things will be much better.
@Anon My middle schooler hasn't been in person since mid-November. I think he was in school all of 10 days this year. All his teachers apparently got their first vaccine shot, yet we are still hearing "no timeline for return."
No they are not, middle and high schoolers are home