School Reopening - What About The Children????
As a parent, one of the biggest challenges you’ve been managing is how to let your child safely return to school during the pandemic. With many school districts offering in-person classes this August, you're now facing the question of how to keep them safe in the classroom.
There is so much contradicting information coming out of the school districts and government agencies, so our recommendation is to use your common sense and block out all the chatter, if you’re opting to return them to the physical classroom.
Common Sense practices include: Creating a habit with your child/children, proper hygiene practices (i.e. frequent handwashing), wearing a mask or 2, maintaining distance from other children as much as possible, avoid gathering in large groups, especially indoors, sanitizing book-bags and supplies before and after use, and finally if they’re not feeling well, encourage them to share that information with you or the school nurse.
Below is some additional information from various pediatricians from around the country as well as information showing that they too, as parents grapple with how they handle indecisiveness with their own children.
When Should My Child Wear A Mask At School?
Dr. Adams: If they are going to school or pretty much anywhere in public. They should be wearing a mask. I think they should be wearing their mask, getting comfortable with their mask. We know that masks protect us from COVID-19. It has been shown to decrease the spread. Right now, that's the main thing we need to do is to keep these kids safe. I think wearing a mask all of the time is the best policy.
How Can I Help My Child Feel More Comfortable While Wearing A Mask At School?
Dr. Lum: This question comes in two parts. The first part is being emotionally comfortable. There might be some anxiety with wearing a mask and what that means and it is important to talk to kids about why we wear masks. Not only to protect themselves but also to help protect others. As a community that's really important. We teach kids every day to be kind to other people, and this is part of that kindness.
In terms of it being physically comfortable, masks are not comfortable. We don't enjoy wearing them, they're difficult to talk in, and it can take some time to get used to. The first thing I'd say is to make sure that it fits well. Make sure that it's fully covering their nose and mouth to make sure that droplets don't get spread, and that it stretches from ear to ear. Make sure that the fabric itself is comfortable, that they can breathe through it easily. Sometimes masks have nose bridge pieces that help the mask fit better so the kids don't have to hold it up and adjust it. That helps it fit.
And then make it fun for kids! There are different ways you can personalize it. Put their name on it, let them pick their fabric, put a character on it. That's something you can do to make it not so scary. Also, model the behavior that you're wanting them to imitate. The more they see you wear the mask and that you're comfortable with it, that will help the kids realize that this is okay, this is something we're going to do.
Finally, find time to practice with it. Again, it takes time to get used to, so if you can practice for a little bit at home before they have to go out, that will help them get used to wearing it and feeling more comfortable.
The situation is highly confusing, and the guidelines seem to be shifting. So we asked twenty doctors, public health experts and epidemiologists with school-age children if they’re sending them to school this fall.
We got a wide range of responses, which were highly dependent on their location, personal risk tolerance, degree of support at home, the measures taken at the individual school, and the age of their children.
Six of the medical experts felt confident about sending their kids back. Eight were in “wait and see” mode. And a final six were leaning strongly towards remote learning and were not comfortable with the prospect of having kids in school -- at least for the beginning of the year.
In ‘wait and see’ mode
Many of parents were still on the fence.
Dr. Esther Choo, an emergency medicine physician at Oregon Health & Science University, has four school-age kids. She’s leaning towards distance learning because her school is asking parents to decide within a few weeks if they plan to return their kids by September. For Choo, that’s a big challenge as there’s no way to know yet whether Covid-19 cases will spike by then.
“What I struggle with is schools needing us to commit now,” she said.
Likewise, Aaron Miri, a chief information officer for UT Health Austin in Texas, said it would all depend on the plan in place. He’s hoping there will be adequate personal protective equipment available and whether there’s testing and/or contact tracing to track potential exposures to the virus. Right now, he’s not feeling confident. And his wife is a fifth-grade teacher, which makes the issue more complex for him. “If they can’t give assurances soon, I think lots of folks will say ‘no thanks’ to in-person,” said Aaron Miri.
Texas, where Miri lives, is still struggling to get Covid-19 under control. The situation starting to level off in Austin, he notes, although it’s unclear how things will be in the fall.
For many of the doctors, it’s a challenge to look at the public health data objectively because they’re also parents. And as parents, they feel their kids would be best served by being back in school.
Dr. Megan Ranney, an emergency medicine physician at Rhode Island Hospital, recognizes the challenges for so many of her peers trying to juggle work with kids at home. She feels fortunate to have some child care support, but recognizes that it isn’t easy to recreate the stimulation that her two kids -- ages 8 and 11 -- are getting at school.
“I believe so strongly in getting kids back, but it has to be done in a way that is safe for the kids and the teachers,” she said by phone, while her son reminded her that it’s time to play Roblox.
Ranney said she plans to send her kids back if there are protocols in place, like proper ventilation, masks and smaller class-sizes. But she has warned her kids that she anticipates a scenario where the situation doesn’t last because of an outbreak. She personally doesn’t expect life to return to normalcy until next spring. “I want them back but with the state of public school funding and the state of Covid-19, I don’t know how it’s going to be possible,” she said. “But in Rhode Island, I think we at least have a chance.”
Unlikely to send kids back to school
For Katie McMillan, a public health expert with a digital health consultancy firm, it doesn’t feel like the right time to send her three-year-old back to pre-school. Cases in North Carolina, where she lives, are continuing to rise. McMillan said she initially pulled her daughter out in March and then fully un-enrolled her in June. McMillan’s husband works at a hospital in the area, so they were also concerned about putting others at risk if he got sick -- although he’s taking steps to mitigate that possibility by using proper protective gear and leaving his scrubs in the garage.
For the fall, she may enroll her daughter in a school that offers smaller classes fully outdoors “from a sanity standpoint,” but says it’s unlikely. McMillan, with the help of her childrens’ grandparents, keeps up with her own work as best she can. It’s a struggle because her youngest is only eight months old.
Dr. Jonathan Slotkin, vice chair of neurosurgery at Geisinger based in Pennsylvania, is keeping his five-year-old at home. But he recognizes that he’s in a fairly unique position to be able to do so. Still, with Covid-19 still spreading in the United States, it’s a firm “no” for him.