Many people are asking us about school. School starts soon, but what will it look like? This is a big question, and I know that what I see now may look totally different in two weeks’ time based on how many cases of Covid-19 there are in the area.
Many of the schools in the DFW area are providing an online option to school, and an in-person option. These options aren’t really hybrids, you have to pick one or the other. Some of our families are opting to stay home, some are opting to go back to school.
What’s Best For Your Family
It’s important you evaluate your family’s situation, to see what works best for your life and your family. The families who are talking about staying home generally have immunosuppressed children or immunosuppressed family members in the home, and they want to err on the side of caution with these family members. Keep in mind that if you stay home you will have a teacher, but it will be like homeschooling (which you’re all familiar with now). At-home learning will be a continuation of that. We don’t know if it will look like a Zoom classroom where the kids will be online with an instructor, or some other instructional method. But it’s always good to err on the side of safety, so if you’re concerned, at-home learning may be a good option for you.
What To Consider
Some of you are able to stay home and augment learning for your student. Some of you are not able to do that and you really need to get your kiddo back in school. Or maybe your kids just do better with the hands-on, live versions, and screens have not worked well for them. If you choose to have your child go back to school we recommend that you do some mask training and social distancing training with them. You also want to address hand-washing and face-touching. If you’re a client here, you know that we work on these skills all the time. Please talk to your therapist—they will continue to work on these skills with your child until they’re second nature. You’d be amazed at how quickly this has become second nature for many of our kiddos!
IEP Tip
If your child has an IEP, I highly recommend that you meet with the school to ask how that IEP is going to be implemented. My biggest concern is for our kiddos who are not traditional learners and are not in a traditional classroom. Since we’ve been doing telehealth therapy, we can see that online learning is a huge learning curve for your teachers, and it’s very time-consuming. It takes probably twice as much planning time as it does for a regular in-class lesson. I know there’s going to be some resistance from your teachers, and some burnout. Please be patient with them! You are always welcome to augment your child’s education yourself, perhaps with materials from our homeschooling community. You can network with people who have been doing home-based learning to see how they do things and what they use.
I don’t think they’re going to make anyone stay with an option that’s not working for them. I think there’s going to have to be some flexibility.
Our Office
We will be open, of course! Many of our homeschoolers use Cutting Edge for their PE time. And if you’re not going to school, you can come here in the mornings! Our mornings are great, because it’s quieter, and everything is freshly cleaned!
About 70% of our current clients are coming into the clinic for therapy. That’s why we’re being so diligent with our PPE process and the protocols that we’ve developed. Although telehealth has been great for us, many of our kiddos can get a little more intensity in the clinic. We are certainly open to either option here, and we will continue telehealth as long as your insurance will pay for it. (And FYI, sometimes when insurance has told us no, parents have been able to go to their employers who have then gone to the insurance company and fought this based on their family situation, and they’ve won! Be diligent, and don’t accept a no!)
