Our district has talked about the hybrid model, which would require staff to be at school full-time but students at school half-time in smaller classes (probably like 10 kids). This obviously creates enormous childcare hurdles for staff families. One proposed solution is that we get classified as essential workers so we can get childcare slots at local facilities.
This is absurd, for several reasons. First, there’s already a childcare crisis in our community, with very few programs having empty seats. Adding hundreds of staff children into the system would overwhelm it under normal circumstances, and a hybrid model will not be normal circumstances. Second, even if there’s room for staff children, the payments are going to be overwhelming. Putting two children in a program half-time is almost certain to run in the neighborhood of $1,000 a month or more. That’s very close to the 33% of salary that would be lost by taking FMLA and being home full-time.
But most importantly, even if the district can find space for staff children, and even if the cost can be subsidized to the point where it’s not untenable, it adds a whole extra cohort that meets and plays together.
Abby, Braun, Carla, Devonte, Eddie, Felicia, Galecia, Harriet, Igby, and Justin are ten staff kids in ten different classes. On week A, they’re apart. On week B, they’re together. If Abby was in a class with an exposure, now the other nine are exposed, too. On Week C, they’re back to their original classes, and now all ten classes are exposed.
But Abby has Kayla in her class, who’s in a whole different childcare setting for week B, and Braun’s in the same situation with Lily, and so on.
The attempt to limit spread by isolating kids is completely undermined if kids are in a separate multi-child setting in off-weeks.