Thread by @karenvaites

Was last week the peak week for school closures?

I have to wonder, reading the latest @BurbioCalendar update.

It’s a reminder of how out-of-touch the schools conversation has been:

96% of schools were open last week, even accounting for staffing-induced closures.

So allllll that hand-wringing about whether or not they should stay open… which implied that most districts were even having this debate… feels like the latest round of Twitter Is Not Real Life, coastal elite hand-wringing.

Most districts just stayed open and got it done.

On point: this week, planned closures affect less than 1% of schools.

There will be unplanned/forced closures for staffing, but this is still a good indication that preemptive closures are an edge case.

We need to avoid normalizing something that isn’t a norm.

Mind you, even if it is 1%, I am not glib about the fates of 500,000 children.

And as I’ve said before, I definitely think the outcry about the preemptive closures probably helped avoid other preemptive closures; I’ve had enough emails from teachers in closure regions to know+

… that a LOT of superintendents were under massive pressure to go remote from their unions, and they broadly held the line.

Thank you, superintendents. 🙏

Thank you to everyone who set the “kids should be in school” expectation, in support of those superintendents. 🙏

Back to wondering aloud…

NYC appears to be peaking. I see murmurings that other parts of the East Coast are, too.

I don’t have a crystal ball, and I’m not following the regional trends closely.

Curious to know what @AstorAaron and others are seeing in regional peaks.

https://twitter.com/astoraaron/status/1479969968812871681