Since most parents are understandably finding it extremely difficult to decide whether to keep their children at home or send them to school in September, I'm going to share what IMN House has decided and our reasoning in the hopes that it will help others. /1 #onted

We've elected to keep our kids at home at least for the month of September, for the following reasons:

1) @imgrund's outstanding Rt data! The Rt number has not come even close to 0.5 across Ontario, and over the last few days in Hamilton it has been over 1.0. /2

2) The lack of school cleaning and testing protocols in comparison to non-school organizations. Goodlife requires 2m distancing and masks, and has at least one staff member that walks around and sanitizes unused equipment. The boy's therapy centre has temperature checks. /3

2) (cont'd) When comparing education protocols against those two benchmarks, said protocols fall well short, and that's not good enough for our kids.

3) We have both the option and the responsibility to keep our kids at home to help protect those who can't. /4

3) (cont'd) Not only do we protect our kids by keeping them at home, but we protect other students and staff by removing our children as possible vectors. The latter is something we're not discussing often enough, particularly as it pertains to asymptomatic transmission. /5

4) Guilt. We at IMN House don't want the death of another child on our conscience because one of our kids inadvertently transmitted COVID-19 to that child, particularly in the boy's case; we not only have to consider kids at school, but kids in his therapy centre as well. /6

5) Face-to-face educational gains. The girl improved in several areas and was able to work independently on a laptop by the end of the 2019-2020 school year. The boy has made several significant gains in the last few months as well. /7

5) (cont'd) We asked ourselves this question, and all parents who can do so should ask the same question as well: will children attending school be able to develop both to a greater degree than they would at home and that would mitigate the risks of in-person education? /8

5) (cont'd) Before you answer that question, bear in mind that the school environment will be compromised for at least the early stages of the 2020-2021 school year. Masks will be (sort of) mandatory. Kids will have to learn sanitation protocols. Socialization will be minimal. /9

5) (cont'd) Staff and students alike will be anxious and will have to adapt to the "new" environment. Kids won't even be allowed to sing, for crying out loud!

Is school a better place for them in September? Mrs. IMN and I don't think so. /10

So those are our reasons for keeping the kids home. We have the option, and we're going to exercise it both for their benefit and the benefit of others. Is it going to be a struggle? Sure it is, but it's nothing that we can't handle. We've been doing it for five months. /11

Hopefully this helps other parents think about the decision and consider some of the ramifications a bit more clearly.

If you have no choice but to send your kids to school, that's okay as well. No one should judge you. /12 /END