Child at high risk for COVID complications- school next year

amother

Wheat

Thu, Jul 16 2020, 11:57 am

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Oy, I'm sorry. That is so so hard. I will daven for your daughter (and you) too.

Thank you so much! You are very special! I will B"H have your daughter in mind too!

I have a list of the children who share my daughter's condition (The doctors give them my name and number, with permission, when they first get diagnosed so that they do not feel all alone in this). I daven for them regularly, and speak with their mothers from time to time to offer support when I can.

amother

Ivory

Thu, Jul 16 2020, 12:18 pm

amother [ Wheat ] wrote:

That’s so beautiful
And so nice for you to give them the support. My child’s condition is extremely rare. Don’t know a/o frum with this situation.

amother

Lime

Thu, Jul 16 2020, 12:45 pm

If you are willing to commit to an entire year of fully remote learning, it may be feasible to enroll at a school in a completely different part of the country that is doing a better online education with Zoom or other video conferences. Just for this year, and then return to your current school the following academic year when it will hopefully be safe to do so.

amother

Wine

Thu, Jul 16 2020, 12:50 pm

Did you ask her doctors what they think? Even high risk children are generally doing well with covid.

I recommend joining a Facebook group for kids with your child's condition. By now a few will have caught covid and you'll have an idea how they actually do.

My children were considered very high risk, but as more kids with their condition do well, the doctors are not as worried at this point.

amother

Wheat

Thu, Jul 16 2020, 12:51 pm

amother [ Ivory ] wrote:

That’s so beautiful
And so nice for you to give them the support. My child’s condition is extremely rare. Don’t know a/o frum with this situation.

Thank you! And that must be very hard not to know anyone else in the community dealing with this. I am so sorry.

We were told that our daughter's condition is very rare (one in 20,000 kids) but I know quite a few children in the community with the same diagnosis, so either the doctors were wrong about how rare it is or possibly it is becoming more prevalent.

amother

Thu, Jul 16 2020, 1:25 pm

amother [ Lime ] wrote:

Yes, we may have to do that.

amother

Ivory

Thu, Jul 16 2020, 6:39 pm

amother [ Wine ] wrote:

So FYI, I’m on a fb group for my kids diagnosis and another one for the treatment. I think it boils down to having a very open talk with your medical team to work things out best for the child’s emotional & physical health.

Every other day there’s a post about “Covid & going back to school & what are you doing?”. Hopefully ops Childs condition group has a better response than mine LOL

The answers are like this: “my docs are all for it with masks. My kid rarely flares & never gets sick bla bla bla”

“My daughter is on ——-so her —— said absolutely no but her —— said they haven’t seen it negatively impact. To be safe she’s staying home. It’s one of those things docs will have varying opinions on”

“Staying home till there’s a vaccine”

And so on & so forth. It’s so individual because even with the same diagnosis kids present so differently. My kid is immunocompromised and has a very complex medical history, whereas other kids with the same diagnosis deal with so much less & are rarely ever sick.

So the thing is that those of us that their kids react very badly to a respiratory virus took extreme caution and most didn’t get it. There’s a global survey running for this & similar dx and the reports were very scattered.

My kid did have corona and didn’t do so well.

amother

Smokey

Thu, Jul 16 2020, 7:44 pm

If you are willing to homeschool it will be easier to do so next year. Things will be more open so you’ll be able to go on family field trips. Quite possibly you’ll find other families homeschooling as well and you can socialize together. IMO it would be easier to create your own normal rather than have your kids watch and listen to everyone else back in school.

There are plenty of families that homeschool and love it. It’s just not the norm in our community.

amother

Apricot

Thu, Jul 16 2020, 8:11 pm

I can offer you some insights from a friend who cares for an elderly parent. The parent has a separate unit with an aide, so for now the children go in only for essential matters, with PPE. They did make the decision, with guidance of their Rov and doctors, to allow the children to go back to school.

Of course it's different than children who will be together. However, the principle that the Rov told them seems applicable to many situations. (I, for example, am only doing the most essential outing for my own safety.)

The Rov told them you will do only what's essential, and that doesn't give you a heter to go everywhere and anywhere.

So, says my friend, we went to our son's Chumash party, because that's essential.
I shop for groceries once a week, because that's essential. If we run out of bread, we eat matza.

One child needed shoes. My friend told her, "You are welcome to choose any pair in this store. But if you don't like anything here, we are not going to three other stores as we might normally (!) do."

I think under this paradigm, some might allow children to go to school if it's essential for them. For some children (less social etc) for whom it's not essential, homeschooling may be the way to go.

And of course each person needs to get guidance from their own doctors, rabbonim etc.

amother

Gray

Thu, Jul 16 2020, 8:22 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

Yes, it's public knowledge.

I'm not sure- I will reach out towards the end of the summer and find out.

I'm worried the schools won't though because they were pretty anti-zoom at the end of last year (there were a some in-person days at the very end of the year and I asked if there could be zoom set up for my children, and they said no). But maybe if it's a long term problem than they'll be willing to be more accommodating...

But a set up in the framework of school really isn't the same as zoom in the home.
Our school felt that zoom would open up access to kids to which there is no going back.
But this is really not the same, and you should make that case.
This doesn't even have to be zoom, this is setting up a remote access for your child.

amother

Chartreuse

Fri, Jul 17 2020, 2:01 am

amother [ Fuchsia ] wrote:

I teach in the Jewish Online School and there are students joining exactly for that reason next year - temporarily and then they'll rejoin their school when it's safe

Can you post a link for that program? My child has medical issues that make it unlikely he will go back when his special needs program restarts. His program has been sending home assignment sheets and doing zoom sessions, but I'd love to have other options if this keeps going on.

Even if he couldn't handle all the coursework, I would maybe try to have him at least participate on a limited basis.

Thanks!

amother

Chartreuse

Fri, Jul 17 2020, 2:15 am

It's the siblings that are the biggest problem. You don't want to restrict them just because another child in the house is sick, but at the same time, what else are you supposed to do?!

The only thing we've been doing is making sure everyone in the house does masks, gloves (in certain situations) with hand sanitizers and soap and water when gloves aren't being used. Plus distancing. Plus no going into anyone else's house or anyone else coming into ours.

But the kids still manage to socialize with friends (though it took till May to work out a system) by going for walks or shopping at a distance, talking in a yard or park (again, at a distance), and one child realized that they could play battleship and similar games by each child having their own game to use and the friends sitting far apart.

Which is separate from the boys on my block who have been busy with HORSE (the basketball version of shooting hoops individually) and water gun fights at a distance. And, yes, some kids have been dropping water balloons from balconies as well.

The one thing I wish I hadn't done was let one sibling work in camp this year. This child had checked with the camp on their rules for this summer, we had talked to our doctor based on those rules...and then it turned out that not all the rules are being followed...which makes me feel like this child is bringing tons of germs home with them daily. Banging head

For now we are letting said child work there, but my husband and I have agreed that if Covid is still a huge issue for us next year this child is not going back to this camp (I see no reason to bring it up now, but will do so once the question of next summer's plans come up in the winter).

It's a balancing act, but this "here are the rules, oops, sorry, only sort of" makes it much harder and much more worrisome Sad

amother

Fuchsia

Fri, Jul 17 2020, 11:53 am

amother [ Chartreuse ] wrote:

http://www.nigrijewishonlinesc.....40901
This is for the day school/yeshiva track

mra01385

Sun, Jul 19 2020, 11:25 pm

I know this is a thread about children who are high risk to COVID, but I have similar dilemma. I’m a young mother who is high risk to the virus due a serious physical disability, and work in a school as an assistant. My doctor said really I should work from home if possible or do a job that doesn’t involve being around the students so much. My principal is trying to figure something out for me.
On the other hand, I do have elementary age children that are currently in Daycamp And I do plan on sending them to school next year as I cannot physically have them home with me all day everyday. It will be too physically taxing for me. Anybody can offer any suggestions about what I should do about going back to work? I already signed the contract that I’m coming back. I’ve been there a few years already too.