Back to School in 2020

There has been no shortage of mulling and debating and thinking leading up to this back to school time. Our household has been in full vacation mode (for the kids anyways) for the last 4-5 months. Bedtimes are at sunset, mornings include television, relaxed breakfasts, and pyjamas until noon sometimes.

The thought of meal planning, getting dressed and getting back into a big routine has sent me spinning into planning mode. This is where my anxiety thrives. 

I have reviewed the local infection rate, the local school board back to school plans, as well as the Sick Kids document for Recommendations to return to school safely. I will link all these below.

Fast Facts:

• wearing a mask does not cause you to breathe less oxygen, or retain CO2
• mask wearing will decrease droplet spread of viruses
• a face shield is not a substitute for a mask in most circumstances, but does provide additional eye protection
• surgical masks should be reserved for use in health care settings at this time, most children including those with underlying medical conditions, would benefit from return to school for social, educational and mental health reasons, which, with the current low virus burden, outweigh the continued closure of schools
• check your child\’s immunization record and get the seasonal influenza vaccine, to prevent other illnesses

Helping Kids with Transitions:

• practice mask-wearing and focusing on not touching their face/mask for increasing periods of time
• set timers at home, and make a sticker chart to celebrate the sucessful periods of mask wearing in the house
• involve kids in selecting their masks
• decorate washable zippered snack bags or pencil cases as \”mask bags\” for backpacks
• label everything
• talk to kids about what viruses are, why they are both helpful and unhelpful, how to prevent spreading.
• help kids prepare for frequent hand hygeine by starting and modeling the behaviour at home
• discussion around what symptoms of virus look like, typical illness (mild), and return to school after illness to decrease shame and open talk with parents/children to decrease fear of the virus or previous positive children who return to the classroom.

Caregiver Roles for Back to School

• keep up to date with community public health COVID-19 status of active cases
• take an active role in monitoring your children\’s health, if any symptoms concerning for COVID-19 arise, keep your child home from school.
• practice hand hygeine at all times, even without symptoms, as asymptomatic community transmission is occuring.
• if your child takes medications, make sure you have refills ready for the fall/winter season
• Keep handy the school board/public health documentation (when available) on:

What to do if your child is unwell at school?

When does your child need to stay home from school?

When does your child require testing for COVID-19?

When can your child return to school after a negative/positive test?

If you are looking for more coronavirus information, click HERE

Reference:

http://www.sickkids.ca/PDFs/About-SickKids/81407-COVID19-Recommendations-for-School-Reopening-SickKids.pdf

Directly quoting the Sick Kids Recommendations :

\”In Canada, of 114,597 COVID-19 cases reported as of July 27, 2020, 8,747 (7.5%) were in individuals aged 0-19 years.15 While this may, at least in part, be related to testing strategies and test performance in children and youth as well as early school closure, there is some data to suggest children, particularly those under 10 years of age, may be less susceptible to SARS-CoV-2 infection and potentially less likely to transmit the virus to others.16-21 There is also strong evidence that the majority of children and youth who become infected with SARS-CoV-2 are either asymptomatic or have only mild symptoms, such as cough, fever and sore throat.12, 13, 22-24 Severe acute disease requiring intensive care admission has been described in a small minority of paediatric cases, particularly among those with certain underlying medical conditions, but the clinical course is much less severe than in adults, and deaths are extremely rare.13, 14, 25, 26 However, it is important to emphasize that children (especially children with complex medical conditions) have largely been isolated, so it is possible that these data may change over time as children attend school and are interacting more with peers and adults.

The recently described multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C) is a serious condition, potentially attributable to SARS-CoV-2 infection, for which ongoing surveillance is required; current data suggests MIS-C is rare, potentially treatable with immune modulatory therapies and associated with a low mortality rate of 0-2%.27-32.\”