RE: closing schools, I have a question

[Ferrets are Cool]

What is safer? A child going to school or a child going to daycare?

My belief is that they are equally "unsafe". Keeping children home is the "safe" alternative, but it not viable for most homes. Most cannot just stay home with their kids and not go to work.

The people with children have a almost impossible choice to make. I truly feel badly for them.

[apcalc]

1. UNSAFE-both

[Thomas Hurt]

2. The company I work for is going all out to disperse employees...

working from home and breaking up our cube farm.

[evertonfc]

3. Closing school for two weeks is probably

not sufficient. It also creates economic issues for parents and guess what- if your waiting on the govt to offer significant assistance, your foolish. Hell close em down until 2021.

[Ferrets are Cool]

6. You are correct...closing for two weeks is a fantasy.

Two weeks from now the U.S. will be in the center of a maelstrom.

[ProfessorGAC]

9. At The Risk Of Being Simply Contarian...

...that's what many said 2 weeks ago.
I don't think predicting is wise with the limited data at hand.
IMO, everything we can do helps, and rejecting a 2 week hiatus out of hand seems unwise.

[Ferrets are Cool]

10. Maybe I was not clear. For a hiatus to be effective in THIS instance

being ONLY two weeks will prove to be ineffective. Two months is probably closer to the truth.

[ProfessorGAC]

14. Could Be

I'm not willing to predict that 2 weeks will be ineffective. We simply don't know that.
I'm not predicting against you. I'm refusing to accept any certainty right now.
Not a lack of belief or concern. Geez, my wife & I are marking our 40th anniversary today, & we're passing on the going out thing.
Can I predict this means we won't get sick, or that staying home is a firm solution to reducing impact? Nope. The dataset is too small.
I do get your meaning. We're just disagreeing on the details.

[Ferrets are Cool]

15. +1

[uponit7771]

11. +1, Fauci recommended 8 minimum 8 weeks

[BusyBeingBest]

8. Closing the schools for a couple weeks buys the school districts

time to figure out how to deliver remote lessons for the ensuing weeks, or other such planning, and keeps them from having to disinfect entire school buildings if they've had no corona-positive students or staff. I think it's the right thing to do.

[frazzled]

12. They are disinfecting them anyway in our district

Chicago Public Schools, with 361,000 students and many teachers and staff, is sending in professional environmental cleaners to deep clean the schools. At least according to the email I received from my alderman.

Family members, neighbors, and others will be stepping up, or rather should be stepping up, to address caring for younger kids (high schoolers, and perhaps even junior higher can fend for themselves, or better yet, volunteer to watch the younger kids).

[ReformedGOPer]

22. I'm a teacher in PA

Although we were 99% sure it was coming, we weren't officially told about the closure until 2:50 pm on Friday.

On Saturday morning, we received an email telling us we must come in on Monday, from 8-11 am, to "clean out our personal items"

They likened it to "cleaning out our classrooms for the summer break".

I don't think it'll be a two week leave.

[underpants]

4. Did a quick search. Doesn't look like daycares are closing at least here

Really it's a crap shoot. If the proper cleaning is done it's still just a matter of if someone has it or not.

It's still not good to be around a lot of people but some people really don't have a choice. They have to go to work.

[Ohiogal]

16. In Ohio

DeWine has put out the message that he would indeed close daycares if necessary, but not right now, but parents should start looking for alternate arrangements.

For a Republican, he's done a decent job here, dealing with this.

[ok_cpu]

18. Ohio here too

I expect him to give that order early this week. His pattern has been to signal a couple of days ahead and then act. Plus, as the OP wrote, closing school doesn't seem as effective if the kids just gather somewhere else.

There's still a lot to disagree with DeWine on, but I sent his office an email this morning. He's definitely leading and being transparent.

[underpants]

23. His ban on indoor sports events really got the ball rolling IMHO

Te First Four games in Daytona being crowd free lead to all the other basketball cancellations. When the NBA called it that meant all the other major sports would have to follow or risk liability.

I will give DeWine credit on this. He's been all over CNN too.

[defacto7]

5. Tough decisions.

We are making safe havens between close friends who have the same mind set about safety and quarentine.. We are 3 families with 2 kids each. We're trading off the kids, activities and study plans that give us all some breathing room and time to work. Our advantage that some may not have is that our adults can work at home. It wouldn't work if a parent was working out of the home. Maybe it would be best if the whole system went down and the government would support citizens. Don't hold your breath.

[Ferrets are Cool]

7. +1

[MissB]

13. Some employers have telecommute policies that prohibit kids

being around when the parent is working from home.

Not many good choices.

[Tucker08087]

17. Daycares, at least in this area...

....house about 30 children. If one child is a carrier, the child could possible infect the other 29, who will infect family members who will then spread it into the community. Our regional high school houses over 1,200 students. Again 1 infected student, through several steps, could soon infect a large part of the community. Unless people begin staying home, the only difference here is time. The daycare will slowly infect the community. The high school will infect more rapidly. The outcome, unfortunately, will be the same.

[crickets]

21. +1

[WhiskeyGrinder]

19. Childcares are smaller than schools and keep kids in smaller groups. It's a risk-reduction tactic.

[Alex4Martinez]

20. Provide the parent/guardian two weeks paid leave.

Neither day care nor classrooms are safe at this time.

[Ferrets are Cool]

24. I do not believe this will be over in two weeks...

If I am correct, what then?