Here in NJ, the governor gave every family the right to choose all remote learning and every school needed to find a way to accommodate. Our school district estimates about 30% of the student base opted for all remote.
My daughter's school (she's in her first year of high school now) is on a hybrid system. She goes two days per week and three days every other week. And she's remote the remaining two (or three) days. Classroom sizes are therefore smaller. They have their temperatures checked before entering the building. They're not allowed to use lockers. Hallways are one way only. They're not allowed to eat or drink in the classroom. (They have to go out to the hallway to even drink from a bottle of water). Windows in class are kept open, although with temperatures sinking I'm not sure how much longer they'll keep that up. Students have to wear masks.
We thought she was old enough to make an informed choice and she wanted to attend class as she thinks it's easier to learn, face to face (or mask to mask). Although frankly, I think she was also eager to see her friends again.
My wife on the other hand, is a first grade LLD teacher for a different district. They also have a hybrid system but it means the teachers are there all 5 days. And to make it worse, being an LLD teacher, and with many teachers deciding to take a medical leave, they're short staffed, which means my wife is also helping in classrooms other than her own during her free periods. So she has twice the exposure she should have. She's not happy about it, but accepting it somewhat stoically. The one particularly irksome issue she has is that the original proposal was to shorten the day and cut out lunch. But the superintendent in the district where she works, insisted on lunch. So she now has to deal with 1st graders, many with learning disabilities, removing their masks to eat, all while maintaining social distancing. Predictably, it's a disaster. She's taken to wearing hospital scrubs and just bagging her clothes when she gets home and showering. She's been tested 3 times since school started, all negative thank goodness. She also suffers from seasonal allergies so when she starts sneezing, everybody looks at her with wide eyes.
Judging by the rising daily numbers in the northeast, we suspect at some point, the schools will probably go all virtual again. But at least if they do, I think we're all better prepared this time around.
