Teacher here...In Michigan at that. Where we are STILL grounded in SOOOOOO many aspects. In Jan our governor said we needed to get back to school. So starting 1/25 I started 4 days in the classroom, 1 day (Friday) fully remote. I have to do both in person and online at the same time as I'm the only Engineering/Architecture teacher. We did A/B hybrid days for the students. They were supposed to work asycnh at home (I know they didn't). I had classes with 1 student in person. 54% of our students chose to stay online.
Then they decided that wasn't enough and tied our funding to AT LEAST 20 hours in person. So starting THIS WEEK....THE WEEK BEFORE SPRING BREAK, we moved to 4 days a week in person (all students everyday) and Friday still remote. We (teachers) were upset they didn't allow us to make this switch AFTER spring break. My own kids have been 1/2 in person since October. I get emails daily about positive tests. Neither have had to quarantine (I'm not sure how). Right now where I teach, we had 4 positive students and 1 positive staff yesterday alone! Just my HS. Where again, we have maybe 600 of our students.
So I love that all these states that are way more open than MI is, has still had students remote, but our governor threw us all back into the schools. She's actually keeping all other jobs remote until probably May/June at the earliest. We have an 11pm curfew. 50% at restaurants, etc. And she's forcing kids playing sports to wear masks while they play AND now get tested weekly! She's trying to blame the increase in kids (I think it's up like 500%) on sports, and NOT the fact we're in school. My kids have played sports on and off since summer (she fully shut them down for a bit in Nov-Jan, but my son's team skated illegally or just went to Ohio). Many kids have played sports throughout all of this. The change is almost all schools are "fully" in person now.
I'm the most NON-political person in the WORLD! But our governor has made NO sense! She wouldn't allow boating last spring. Didn't allow haircuts till nearly JULY. She allowed outdoor dining in the winter which just had people huddled together around space heaters or in igloos where condensation dropped all over you and your food. She allowed gyms to be open, but sports had to be closed. Schools were forced open before she allowed restaurants to open indoors.
And what NO ONE wants to admit is that all this CHANGE is what is affecting the kids more than anything! Just when they get into a routine w/ school, hey....let's change it again! Not sure why everyone seems to think 9 weeks is going to make THAT much impact on the school year. Just finish the year out and start fresh in September. BTW, going back in MI isn't affording proms or graduations, etc. We're still too locked down for any of that!
Okay rant over, LOL.