From Orange County (CA) Dept of Ed Site: Schools won’t close until 30% of students are absent???
See PANDEMIC INFLUENZA SCHOOL FLOW CHART.
Also, their tabletop exercise document assumes that the Dept of Ed in OC won’t be told to close schools until 40–50% of the population is ill!
See PANDEMIC TABLETOP FOR SCHOOLS.
As a parent, I know that I will be pulling my child out of school a lot sooner than this! (I’m glad we have our early warning system - fluwikie ;))
Ooops, I meant to write 30% on the topic title. How do I edit?
I was just listening to a presentation that indicated that school closings were seen as one of the most effective nonpharm methods of slowing/restricting spread of a pandemic, but wouldn’t waiting this long take most of that helpful impact away?
I think schools are clueless. We are closing after the first confirmed case. DUH!
They want to gamble “illness” doesn’t = “Death” ?
Doubt the parents will feel that way; why doesn’t someone ask them?
What part of
Is Possible to go Pandemic with Current H5N1 cfr (or Worse since medical care will be Overwhelmed and people Triaged out to Die
don’t school officials understand?
-haven’t they seen the WHO report, and, the managing nuclear war, or, an influenza pandemic year’s mass casualties with “Scarce Community Resources” -that’s the one with the informative Palliative Care chapter…
And if children have at least a 50% attack rate from something we’ve never had before, and are superspreaders under bus and classroom and daycare conditions??
Parents aren’t ready to feed their kids nor manage their safe care for months during disruptions, and municipalities do not have good community preparations ready, either. Schools will put themselves out of business, if half the kids die; I doubt parents will ever trust anyone currently in charge again. (If the current officials survive.)
School administrators aren’t public health experts - they rely on the advice of state/local health departments.
Methinks they are geeting some real lamebrained advice on this. Else, they are REALLY sticking their necks out and asking for the axe.
We have already filed a private school affidavit in our state, and will pull our kids out at the first human-human case and home school them.
I plan to file one every year, so that I can take the kids out at a day’s notice if/when the time comes.
Waiting until 30% are ill/absent in a pandemic is beyond criminal.
Wish the media (and the state attorney general?)saw it that way.
In Orange County Florida the Dept. of Ed Rep. said that they believe they “will be told to close down”. Implying the order will come from the Govenor or Feds. The School Boards aren’t the only ones who can close a school. The Health Dept. can as well as state officials and Feds. I hope one of these powers has the gonads to do what the School Boards may not.
Bird guano - We have already filed a private school affidavit
Please elaborate. What is that, what is the purpose and tell us how to get one.
Thanks
Birdie Kate — 30 November 2006, 09:05
It probably has to do with her Bird quano’s state home education laws. Check into your state laws for the protocols for homeschooling your child. A few states have parental educational requirements, but not too many. Some states don’t require “letters of intent” until you actually pull the child out of school. That is the way FL is.
Each state’s laws are slightly different. If it is your intent to homeschool during a pandemic, best get familiar with the laws now.
If you want to homeschool your child in the case of a pandemic, do your “homework” now.
You don’t need a bunch of books or supplies, but you will want to have a plan to deal with the goverment. I hope they will be way too busy dealing with the sick and dead, but you never now!
I highly recommended taking a look at the HSLDA website. They have a link to the laws for each state. It’s www.hslda.org
They are an organization that is like pre-paid legal to protect you from police, social workers, attorney generals, etc. and will help you know which paperwork you are required to fill out and which are “optional” and just being foisted on you by an overzealous bureaucrat. At about $100 a year for all the protection you will need, it’s a great deal.
We homeschooled all three of our kids from 1st grade through high school. It’s the best decision I ever made. Just have plenty of paper, pens, pencils and maybe an encyclopedia on CD (or a real one if you think the power will go down) and maybe a couple of good Saxon math books and you can teach them the rest yourself. No need for expensive curriculum packages.
BTW my kids turned out pretty well academically. My daughter just graduated Cum Laude with departmental honors and my son is graduating from a military academy with an early commission after having already earned the Combat Infantry badge in Afghanistan and he’s only 21!
NEMO, if I’m not mistaken, homeschoolers do as well or better academically from the latest stats I’ve seen.
I have to repectfully disagree with Nemo, about the HSLDA. Telling folks that they need legal insurance to homeschool is a terrible thing to do to someone looking into homeschooling for the first time. To me, it implies that homeschooling isn’t reall on the “up and up” and that we need some kind of protection.
This year our laws here in VA changed. The law now states that I can use ANY nationally standardized test to prove that the kids are on track. Before that it was up to the Superintentent to decide which tests he wanted to accept. My “acceptance” letter from the Superintendent this year stated that the C.A.T. test would no longer be acceptable. Since this is the test I use normally, I will again be using it this year. If they say anything about it after I turn the results over, its simple enough to have the superintentent, or his lawyer, show me where in the law it states that the superintentent can decide which tests are acceptable and which aren’t. I imagine it will go no further than that. I don’t see ANY lawyer going further after reading the law.
The bottom line is, become extremely familar with YOUR state laws. Know them better than the superintendent, and stand by them. Don’t ever give more than your lawfully expected to give, that way THEY won’t start to expect the extras from others. And never feel like you have to defend your choice to homeschool your children. Some states have more hoops to jump through to homeschool, but it is legal in ALL 50 states.
Do they even test for H5N1 before over 30% absent or someone dead?
I do not foresee there being a univeral approach to the schools open/close and timing issues any more than I see a universal approach in the school system now. There are large differences between each state’s approach to its educational system. Even within states you will find that from district to district there are big differences.
What I would suggest is … regardless of whether you homeschool or not … that you get very familiar with your district’s current practices and administration. Why I say that you should keep in touch even if you homeschool is because there are groups within the public system that still put things into effect which will indirectly, if not directly, effect a family’s homeschool plan.
This will include any pandemic planning on the part of the district. Homeschoolers don’t live in bubbles. Our kids regularly interact with kids in the public and private school sectors … even if it is only passing them on the street. It behooves everyone, including families without children, to see that this issue get addressed as effectively as possible.
How many days does it take to get results from H5N1 tests? Is the test reliable? How many will be infected in the meantime?
Think of it as evolution in action. Those parents who abdicate their responsibilities to the state are at the mercy of the decisions that state makes. Note that the state may have different goals and values than a private citizen has- case in point above. Ex- Orange County CA appears to be initiating a policy to correct the current SoCal overpopulation problem in a very effective manner. Not only are they embarking on a policy apparently designed to significantly reduce the population but also the number of education administrators there, as the parents of the hundreds of thousands of children who could die as a result of this institutional idiocy are likely to be looking for scapegoats.
I am very glad that I don’t live there…..