How some students in quarantine are trying to keep up

Vaccination rates are rising in Oregon and that’s good news for K-12 students, back in classrooms. But even with vaccines and masks, it’s impossible to totally prevent infections. Students who test positive for COVID-19 or are exposed to the virus have to quarantine at home. Districts all over the state are trying to provide education to those who have to stay out of classroom until they’re well or test negative. We hear more about what it looks like on the ground from Lauren Struzik, a seventh grade teacher at Ron Russell Middle School and Brian Sica, curriculum director for the Beaverton School District.

This transcript was created by a computer and edited by a volunteer.

Dave Miller: From the Gert Boyle Studio at OPB, this is Think Out Loud. I’m Dave Miller. We’re about two months into the school year right now, a school year marked by a full return to in-person instruction, but one that for many students and families has also included time back at home because of COVID-19 quarantines, both for kids who tested positive, and for those who are deemed to have been in close contact. We wanted to hear how quarantine has actually been working for schools. We’re going to get two perspectives on this today. We start with Lauren Struzik. She’s a 7th grade teacher at Ron Russell Middle School in the David Douglas School District. It’s good to have you on the show.

Lauren Struzik: Thanks for having me.

Miller: How many of your seventh graders have had to quarantine so far this year?

Struzik: In total it’s been about 18 in my teams’  7th-grade classes. The way that we are separated is that we have teams within the 7th grade. We have cohorts that are only within the same classes together. I work with two other teachers and of our classes, we’ve only had 18 students who have been quarantined.

Miller: Of how many students?

Struzik: I have about 80 students.

Miller: So it’s still close to one-in-four has had to have some time back at home this year. Are any students of yours in quarantine right now?

Struzik: Yes they are.

Miller: What’s the process for you as a teacher when some of your kids can’t be in front of you now?

Struzik: One thing that’s really great about it is that, because we had virtual teaching in David Douglas last year, a lot of the students are already familiar with the process that we have. We have everything set up both in person and at home on Google Classroom. So the work that is posted on Google Classroom is the exact same that they’re getting in person. They are used to accessing that information, asking questions through Google Classroom. As much as it is still a struggle to not be able to talk with them one on one about what questions they might have, there are certain systems put in place that they’re already comfortable with. And so it’s been surprisingly not a struggle.

Miller: Is there live streaming of your actual in-class instruction so that the kids at home can see what you’re telling the kids back in class?

Struzik: That is an option that is given to teachers.  The union has not necessarily approved that as a requirement for teachers. That is something that we have been asked to do if we would like to, but for several reasons, teachers have chosen not to do so, and one of them being that it has not, at least for my classes in my teams’ classes, it has not been a significant need. And so we have chosen to continue just using Google Classroom.

Miller: 14 days is a long time. That’s the outer limit for kids to stay away. Have you found that despite your best efforts and your and your kids understanding of hybrid learning from last year, that when the kids come back, they have still fallen behind to some extent?

Struzik: I would say the majority have kept up with the work, but there are of course those students who for various reasons are falling behind. They might have forgotten their Chromebook at school, they might have a charger that breaks, they might not be students who are necessarily proactive and asking questions. We are able to catch them back up whenever they get back to school, but it is for some students, still time lost.

Miller: What goes to your mind then, when you get a notification saying a kid in your class tested positive and we’ve deemed that these other kids have been close to them?

Struzik: It’s definitely a frustration, but it’s part of the current situation that we’re in. And so, we are definitely accepting that that is part of the job. And to be honest, it’s [many fewer] students than we even imagined at the beginning of school. So I definitely take it on a case by case basis. Most of my students, I feel comfortable with them accessing the information and working on their own and asking questions and they need to, but I do have students that I know are not going to work at home. Those students who especially are just being exposed and so they have to quarantine. It’s really frustrating because I know that in two weeks it’s going to be a huge undertaking to catch them back up.

Miller: So in other words, without naming names or, or feeling like you’re blaming people, there is some frustration if the sense you get is a kid who’s not going to thrive at home has been exposed, you can’t help but be a little bit frustrated because they’re the ones are going to suffer most for not being in person?

Struzik: Yes, correct.

Miller: Overall, how would you say the school year is going so far?

Struzik: It’s going surprisingly well. I was very nervous at the beginning of the year of how students would kind of react in terms of behavior, and in terms of  just what they are able to show. They certainly are still relearning behaviors  that they have lost from being at home for a year. They are showing that they definitely have gaps, but for what we’re working with, there are things that as a school and as a district, we are addressing that we didn’t know that we would have to address. But there are certainly things that we did know. And in general, I do feel like we are working towards those things in some capacity and the capacity that we do have.

Miller: When you say relearning things, I imagine you’re talking about behavioral problems?

Struzik: I would say both, in terms of behavior and academics. Obviously some students who access the information from last year virtually, are able to show that they learn something, that they are generally on grade level. But for students who did not access that, they have significant gaps. And for some of them – essentially I teach 7th grade – so I have students who are at 5th grade level. I have to reach them in a way that’s going to keep in mind that they are at that level. But there are certainly behavior problems,  and that’s something that  we’re seeing more and more, a lot of our students were home alone, or watching siblings, and so now having to be back interacting with others, it’s just  you know, as with any middle school student, it takes a lot of practice to learn certain social skills. They’re not anything new, I would say it’s just more heightened because they did not have that practice last year.

Miller: Lauren Struzik, thanks for your time today, I really appreciate it.

Struzik: Thank you so much.

Miller: Lauren Struzik teaches 7th grade at Ron Russell Middle School in the David Douglas School District. For another perspective on school quarantines, I’m joined now by Brian Sica. He is the curriculum director for the Beaverton School District. Brian Sica, welcome to TOL.

Brian Sica: Hi Dave. Thanks for having me.

Miller: Thanks for joining us. How many students in Beaverton are in quarantine right now?

Sica: We’re averaging between, I guess with both isolation and quarantine, we’re between 300 and 400 students on a given day, between grades K through 12.

Miller: How does that compare to what you’re seeing in the first few weeks of the school year?

Sica: Quite a bit lower.  At our top, at our max, probably early October, we were pushing closer to that 1000 mark for probably a week or so, maybe 10 days. And for the past few weeks we’ve been seeing that go considerably down. It does look like we’ve leveled off, like I said, right around that 300-400 mark.

Miller: It seems like what you’re talking about really mirrors the state as a whole, or Washington County as a whole, as the Delta Variant has receded to some extent, but then held steadier, so have quarantines and isolations in the district.

Sica: I think there’s a little bit more to it.  I’m certainly not an epidemiologist, but when I know what our practices are, as we came back at the start of the school year and we had our procedures, we had our mitigation strategies in place. We realized that through contact tracing the number of students that we’re needing to quarantine, that we needed to put in some additional strategies and we did that. And so I think it’s a combination both of less community spread and also our mitigation strategies. I guess it’s increasing.

Miller: Can you walk us through what happens now when a student tests positive?

Sica: Sure. That might even be more simple if a student tests positive, the most likely it’s going to be the county or sometimes the family, depending on exactly where they took the test, but the school and school nurses will be notified. And then depending on that situation, the student will be asked to isolate, obviously at home outside of the school, for a period of 10 and then in certain circumstances up to 14 day.

Miller: That simple, you said. So what’s more complicated?

Sica: I think what’s a little bit more complicated is determining – you were speaking with your last caller – determining who those close contacts are, and then therefore who’s going to be required to quarantine. So the definition when we’re talking student to student of a close contact, if we’re, you know, not to get too in the weeds here for your listeners, but if we’re inside of a classroom, we’re all students, we’re all wearing our masks than if you are at least three ft away ... Well, let me go the other direction: if you’re within 3 ft for more than 15 minutes of that student that tested positive, then you’re considered a close contact. And then you would have to quarantine again working with county health, but usually for a period of 10 days. And then sometimes it could go up to 14 days.

Miller: And my understanding is that the Oregon Department of Education or Oregon Health Authority, say that students shouldn’t be within 3 ft of each other. So how is it that teachers would just write it down in their books and then if it turns out two days later that one of those kids has tested positive, then they’d be a close contact? How do you even ascertain after the fact that somebody was a close contact, meaning that they went against state protocols?

Sica: I think it’s important to remember [that] it’s a little the state protocols are 3 ft to the greatest extent possible. And so for envisioning, and right now, most of our quarantines are happening at the younger grades for six and below, because I didn’t mention before, if anyone were vaccinated, in that case they would not have to quarantine. But that aside, what would happen... envision a group of 2nd graders who are going through their day, maybe picking up supplies and going into transition. It doesn’t take many small points of time throughout a full day of class to get to that 15 minutes of time. So it is in spots where because of the activities that they’re going through, it just wasn’t possible to have them remain 3 ft apart. And then again, it gets to that 15 minute cumulative threshold. And that’s where contact tracing comes in and deems that close contact.

Miller: I want to play you a voicemail we got with one teacher’s experience: “My name is Brandon. I’m a high school science teacher in Eastern Oregon. My experience last year, and this year, is that a lot of students, I’d say the majority of students that are at home, are not getting their work done. They just don’t do anything when they’re home, even when the option is available online. I see it as a real problem. There’s just a momentum or inertia when the kids are in the classroom, to get their work done.” What’s the system now in Beaverton for making sure that quarantined or isolated students don’t fall behind?

Sica: When I think about it, I think about three different blocks of supports, if you will. Your caller [and] the message you played with the high school, was a high school teacher. The majority of ours are elementary, but this applies K-12. We need them to have access, what we call it is ‘access to a continuity of learning’. And what we mean by that is access to the materials that are being used inside the class that they’re actually in. So if their assignments, and their videos, whatever it may be, have access to those materials for the class they’re in. But then, and I think it was similar to Lauren, the caller you had before, one of the positives that came out of distance learning is we have quite a bit of what we call supplemental materials. So if you think of maybe 7th grader, a 2nd grader, or in 11th grade or whatever it may be, we have a lot of materials that would apply to roughly what the student is doing in their class at the time. So if the student wants to engage in more work then they’re able to access from from their classroom teacher, we have that available to them.

Miller: The sense I got from that voicemail is that it’s not a question of having access to materials or curriculum. It’s that, as he was saying, kids aren’t doing the work.

Sica: I want to say that’s my direct experience. I’m not in the classroom right now, and the best voice of that would be our teachers. I know that the majority of the students that we work with, that we talked to, they’re glad to be back in school. They’re not wanting to be in a situation like they were in last year, and they’re doing everything they can to continue to meet their academic goals. I’m quite certain [it would be] naive to say that there are students who we are not able to engage while they’re at home, for whatever reason that is. But I think that leads into that third kind of leg I was talking about, and that is access to an educator. [What] we’re working on at Beaverton now is we’re actually hiring a group of substitute teachers who will be able to check in live with these students every day.  It will look a little different elementary to high school and secondary, but essentially they will be able to check in with those students in isolation and quarantine, just to make sure they have the resources they need, and then certainly at the younger levels, making sure that they’re able to kind of help them progress through their assignments. I think that added piece will really help bridge, making sure that of course students have the materials, but then like the message you played for me, if we have students that aren’t engaging, we’ll have that adult that [will] be able to check in with them for a longer period of time, than we’re able to with our resources now.

Miller: Brian Sica, thanks.

Sica: Thank you so much.

Miller: Brian Sica is the Curriculum Director for the Beaverton School District.

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