On Friday, the Cullman County School System announced the Child Development Center will join five other county schools in going to remote learning. The change from in-person to has caused some families to express their frustrations with student quarantines and transitions to virtual learning with little to no warning. 

Good Hope Primary, Good Hope Elementary, Good Hope Middle, Good Hope High and Parkside began remote learning on Friday, and several of the county’s parents and guardians responded to a question from The Times on Facebook about how they are being affected by current and previous school closures.

Sandy Thompson said she and her family were already at home because of the system’s quarantine procedures, but she is willing to keep her children at home to protect other families. 

“We are in quarantine already so just an extra week,” she said. “My husband tested positive for the delta variant so I’d much rather be ‘inconvenienced’ by having to keep my kids home, rather than to send them back and them possibly spread it to classmates or anyone else.”

Tammy Barney also said the transition to remote learning is challenging, but is necessary. 

“It sucks the daycares won’t let them come there and we still have to work. However I don’t want my child sick so we will do what we have to,” she said. 

Alicia Graveman said her family is getting by with the help of family, but the disruption is still difficult. 

“If it wasn’t for my kids’ step mom, I don’t know what I would do. However, it’s still not easy as she will be handling school work for 4 kids. She will have hectic days. Some days may be productive and others may not,” she said. “However, in this world, you have to have a great support system. Parents, step parents, and grandparents stepping up to teach the kids. We also have some amazing teachers. We have kids who struggle in school. It’s hard but we are all working towards the same goal.”

Celeste Weaver said she was traveling to Cullman County to help her family manage the shift to remote learning. 

“I am flying in from Texas to help,” she said. “My grandchild is in elementary and her mother has clinicals for college that she can’t miss. I am thankful the schools care enough about our kids to close it down while Covid is raging. It might be inconvenient and no one wants this to disrupt their lives, but love for our children is greater than any annoyance to our ‘normal.’”

Jaz Celeste Bryant said she decided to keep her children out of schools this year because she anticipated the schools moving to remote learning. 

“We decided to homeschool our daughter this year. With how everything has been going, I knew this was coming sooner than later,” she said. “Plus with kids not having a vaccine, we don’t want to risk her, her brother, or her cousins getting sick.”

In a briefing Friday morning, Alabama State Health Officer Scott Harris said cases of COVID-19 in the state’s schools are rising sharply. 

“This has been a particularly bad week for Alabama schools,” he said. “We’ve seen an increase in the number of cases in school-aged children this week. There were a total of 5,571 school aged children who experienced illness in the week ending Aug. 21.”

Compared to the same week last year, that’s a 700% increase in the number of kids who are infected, he said. 

Harris said classroom instruction is important for the state’s children, but also said children over 12 need to be vaccinated, schools need to require universal masking and schools should maintain social distancing of at least three feet. 

“We really want to keep kids in school for face to face instruction, yet it has to be done safely as well,” he said. 

Universal mask mandates also mean fewer children being sent home, as any student who is wearing a mask and was near another person who tested positive for the virus does not count as a close contact and can stay in the classroom, he said. 

Harris said any student who has the virus, has been a close contact with someone who has the virus or has someone at home who has COVID-19 should not be coming to school, and the state’s instructions have been clear about that. 

“We have been told somehow that our guidance is confusing on this. Our guidance is not confusing on this,” he said. “Our guidance is crystal clear: we do not need cases or close contacts in the classroom setting or we will continue to see these thousands of cases each week like we’ve seen in the past week.”

Harris said there were more than 5,000 COVID-19 cases of all ages reported in Alabama just on Thursday, with the state’s positivity rate of 23 percent among the highest in the country and hospitalizations continuing to increase.

He said hospitalizations were at 2,887 Friday, right under the record 3,087 set in January, and the state currently has 45 children hospitalized with COVID-19, with at least five of those children on ventilators.

The Alabama Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 dashboard went live on Friday, but not all school systems are included in the first batch of data. There were more than 4,000 cases reported across the state, with the Cullman County School System reporting 198 cases among the system’s 9,425 students, and the Cullman City School System’s information was not yet available as of Friday afternoon. 

The Cullman County Board of Education said another 820 students are out because they were close contacts with confirmed cases. In a statement, the CCBOE strongly recommended students wear masks.

“While masks are not popular, we strongly advise everyone to wear one. If your child attends a school where COVID percentages are over 15 percent, masks are required… and that has been communicated from each individual school principal,” the statement said.

Cullman County schools reported that the Child Development Center as of Friday had three students test positive and 43 students identified as close contacts. In addition, a total of 12 CDC staff members are out due to COVID (8 positive, 4 close contacts).

The system changed its criteria for determining the absentee rate among the schools. “Previously, we were also including unexcused absences in our calculation because we know many (but not all) of those absences are students who are pending a test or are having symptoms. A lot of these instances are an example of a parent doing what they are supposed to do… keeping a child at home if they have symptoms,” the statement said.

Cullman County schools reported that the Child Development Center as of Friday had three students test positive and 43 students identified as close contacts. In addition, a total of 12 CDC staff members are out due to COVID (8 positive, 4 close contacts).

With increasing numbers of students being absent for either having tested positive for covid or being a close contact, the system said it’s possible additional schools will be switching to remote learning.

The system also said it can’t legally require students to quarantine, but it can keep them off school campuses.

“In a letter this week to superintendents, State Superintendent Dr. Eric Mackey said, ‘The ADPH has received reports that some school systems are identifying and then notifying close contacts but not excluding those persons from campus. If a close contact is identified, school systems are required to exclude them from campus.’ Cullman County Schools is following the state policy and will continue to identify close contacts and require a student or staff member to be off campus for 10 days from the date of exposure.”