School COVID-19 outbreaks have stranded some students at home with minimal learning

students need to wear masks uh, that first and foremost students need to be masked as as well as teachers. We still need to remember hand hygiene and doing all the things that we did during the beginning of the pandemic to help prevent the spread of infection. I would suggest parents select the mask that the child's gonna wear. And while if, if it was a perfect world, we would all have a high efficiency mask. Um that's not always realistic. So use the mask that the child is gonna wear, make sure that there is a proper fit, uh make sure that the child is going to have it on their face more than they're going to have it off their face. And I think that's one of the strategies that we can employee right now. The other part is ventilation within the school system. And I encourage every parent to ask the school administration, what is the ventilation uh in the classrooms, what are the plans to make sure that the air exchange is considered good? And it's been checked by engineering. These are important things, especially because we know now that covid is airborne. We need to make sure that we have the proper uh filters in place and that we're minimising the airborne transmission of the infection. People, Children and adults should stay home if they feel sick uh and we need to be really careful to make sure that we're preventing the spread of all infection. Uh but particularly covid uh, in in these times. So yes, people should if they're not feeling well. Certainly if there's fevers, if there's cough, if there's runny nose, these are hallmark symptoms of covid, they should stay home and they should, um sort of just isolate unto themselves until they're feeling better.

Video above: How to keep children safe at schoolWithin his first week back at school after a year and a half, 7-year-old Ben Medlin was exposed to a classmate with COVID-19, and he was sent home, along with 7,000 other students in the district, for 14 days of quarantine.Not much learning went on in Ben's home.On some days last week, the second-grader was given no work by his teachers. On others, he was done by 9:30 a.m., his daily assignments consisting of solving 10 math problems or punctuating four sentences, according to his mother."It was very much just thrown together and very, very, very easy work," Kenan Medlin said.As coronavirus outbreaks driven by the delta variant lead districts around the U.S. to abruptly shut down or send large numbers of children into quarantine at home, some students are getting minimal schooling.Despite billions of dollars in federal money at their disposal to prepare for new outbreaks and develop contingency plans, some governors, education departments and local school boards have been caught flat-footed. Also, some school systems have been handcuffed by state laws or policies aimed at keeping students in classrooms and strongly discouraging or restricting a return to remote learning.The disruptions — and the risk that youngsters will fall further behind academically — have been unsettling for parents and educators alike. The school board in Ben's district in Union County, outside Charlotte, relented on Monday and voted to allow most of its quarantining students to return to the classroom as long as they aren't known to be infected or have no symptoms.Union County school officials said they are not offering virtual instruction but are contacting parents of affected children to help them line up tutors or other help for their youngsters. One in 6 students in the mask-optional district were quarantined last week.In the rural district of Wellington, Kansas, students got a week off from schoolwork when a COVID-19 outbreak struck. Instead of going online, the district decided to add 10 minutes to each day to make up for the lost time when it reopened on Tuesday. Masks also are required now. Districts in Kansas risk losing funding if they offer online or hybrid learning for more than 40 hours per student per year. In Georgia, Ware County's 6,000-student district halted schooling altogether for three weeks in mid-August. The district said it was unreasonable for teachers to have to offer virtual and in-person instruction at the same time. It also cited a lack of internet service in some rural areas.In Missouri, the Board of Education rescinded a rule in July that allowed school districts to offer hybrid and remote instruction for months at a time. Districts that close entirely because of COVID-19 outbreaks, as eight small rural school systems have done this year, now are limited to 36 hours of alternative instruction, such as Zoom classes. After that, they have to make up the time later. The U.S. Education Department said Tuesday that states and school districts should have policies to ensure continued access to "high-quality and rigorous learning" in the event COVID-19 cases keep students from attending school. The Illinois State Board of Education recently passed a resolution forcing districts to make remote instruction available to quarantined students.Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said laws restricting virtual instruction are short-sighted. She noted that some of these states have no mask or vaccine requirements either."It is just crazy because this is a pandemic still, and as much as we had all hoped that it would be over, delta has made clear that it is not over," she said. In North Carolina, state health officials in July eliminated the requirement that districts provide remote learning for quarantining students, saying virtual options are "not supported by current evidence or are no longer needed due to the lower rates of community transmission and increased rates of vaccination."Dr. Mandy Cohen, the state's top public health official, said the focus is on keeping children in classrooms. In the meantime, parents are left with some difficult decisions to make.Medlin said she is leaning toward pulling her two children out and home-schooling them as she did last year. Emily Goss, another Union County parent, said she likewise is planning to home-school her 5-year-old kindergartener after he was put under quarantine six days into the school year with no remote learning option in place."He's supposed to be playing outside, riding bikes and learning how to make new friends, and he's wondering what's going to happen to him. That's not how childhood is supposed to be, and it's just heartbreaking," she said. "We can't do this all year."___ Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Associated Press writers Jeff Amy in Atlanta and Collin Binkley in Boston also contributed.

RALEIGH, N.C. —

Video above: How to keep children safe at school

Within his first week back at school after a year and a half, 7-year-old Ben Medlin was exposed to a classmate with COVID-19, and he was sent home, along with 7,000 other students in the district, for 14 days of quarantine.

Not much learning went on in Ben's home.

On some days last week, the second-grader was given no work by his teachers. On others, he was done by 9:30 a.m., his daily assignments consisting of solving 10 math problems or punctuating four sentences, according to his mother.

"It was very much just thrown together and very, very, very easy work," Kenan Medlin said.

As coronavirus outbreaks driven by the delta variant lead districts around the U.S. to abruptly shut down or send large numbers of children into quarantine at home, some students are getting minimal schooling.

Despite billions of dollars in federal money at their disposal to prepare for new outbreaks and develop contingency plans, some governors, education departments and local school boards have been caught flat-footed.

Also, some school systems have been handcuffed by state laws or policies aimed at keeping students in classrooms and strongly discouraging or restricting a return to remote learning.

The disruptions — and the risk that youngsters will fall further behind academically — have been unsettling for parents and educators alike.

The school board in Ben's district in Union County, outside Charlotte, relented on Monday and voted to allow most of its quarantining students to return to the classroom as long as they aren't known to be infected or have no symptoms.

Union County school officials said they are not offering virtual instruction but are contacting parents of affected children to help them line up tutors or other help for their youngsters. One in 6 students in the mask-optional district were quarantined last week.

In the rural district of Wellington, Kansas, students got a week off from schoolwork when a COVID-19 outbreak struck. Instead of going online, the district decided to add 10 minutes to each day to make up for the lost time when it reopened on Tuesday. Masks also are required now.

Districts in Kansas risk losing funding if they offer online or hybrid learning for more than 40 hours per student per year.

In Georgia, Ware County's 6,000-student district halted schooling altogether for three weeks in mid-August. The district said it was unreasonable for teachers to have to offer virtual and in-person instruction at the same time. It also cited a lack of internet service in some rural areas.

In Missouri, the Board of Education rescinded a rule in July that allowed school districts to offer hybrid and remote instruction for months at a time. Districts that close entirely because of COVID-19 outbreaks, as eight small rural school systems have done this year, now are limited to 36 hours of alternative instruction, such as Zoom classes. After that, they have to make up the time later.

The U.S. Education Department said Tuesday that states and school districts should have policies to ensure continued access to "high-quality and rigorous learning" in the event COVID-19 cases keep students from attending school.

The Illinois State Board of Education recently passed a resolution forcing districts to make remote instruction available to quarantined students.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said laws restricting virtual instruction are short-sighted. She noted that some of these states have no mask or vaccine requirements either.

"It is just crazy because this is a pandemic still, and as much as we had all hoped that it would be over, delta has made clear that it is not over," she said.

In North Carolina, state health officials in July eliminated the requirement that districts provide remote learning for quarantining students, saying virtual options are "not supported by current evidence or are no longer needed due to the lower rates of community transmission and increased rates of vaccination."

Dr. Mandy Cohen, the state's top public health official, said the focus is on keeping children in classrooms.

In the meantime, parents are left with some difficult decisions to make.

Medlin said she is leaning toward pulling her two children out and home-schooling them as she did last year.

Emily Goss, another Union County parent, said she likewise is planning to home-school her 5-year-old kindergartener after he was put under quarantine six days into the school year with no remote learning option in place.

"He's supposed to be playing outside, riding bikes and learning how to make new friends, and he's wondering what's going to happen to him. That's not how childhood is supposed to be, and it's just heartbreaking," she said. "We can't do this all year."

___

Hollingsworth reported from Mission, Kansas. Associated Press writers Jeff Amy in Atlanta and Collin Binkley in Boston also contributed.

��vlog