The school district where my brother is a bus driver is starting the school year totally remote

[Siwsan]

The start of school is delayed until Sept 8. Students have two options: Remote learning or Virtual learning. The virtual option involves self paced learning with minimal guidance but teachers will be monitoring to check progress. They will revisit the situation in October. Meanwhile the school board is looking into a way to retain the bus drivers on the payroll. They have an awful time finding and retaining good drivers so hopefully this can happen. Otherwise bro will have to apply for unemployment while he looks for a job to carry him through to when students start returning to the buildings.

[cannabis_flower]

1. Why didn't

He apply in March when the schools closed? I'm a substitute teacher and I've been getting Unemployment since April

[Siwsan]

2. They paid the bus drivers through what would have been the end of the school year

And he found out that he isn't eligible for unemployment during the summer break because (he was told) it wasn't considered a 'lay off' since he has a job to go back to, in the autumn. I don't know if that's a Michigan thing, or what. And, if they don't pick up his pay, again, although he will be able to apply for unemployment, it won't be retroactive.

They have a meeting next week, were they will be updated and questions can be answered. I know the school system is really worried about losing drivers.

[cannabis_flower]

3. Well that's good..

My daughter had the same thing. She's a lunch room monitor at an elementary school and they paid her also. The regular employees at our district were also paid, but the substitutes weren't. I'm actually glad because I made more with the $600 extra than I would have made with them paying me. I made almost as much as I made with both the school and Uber put together. Now that the $600 is gone, I'm only making $128 a week. I hope they extend it for a while because I'm in the group that could die if I got Covid-19. I'm talking to a lawyer about getting early Social Security Disability, I'm 61 and I don't want to chose between starving and dying.

[ProfessorGAC]

5. Subs Are Mostly Not Eligible In Illinois

One has to have averaged 28 hours a week, for all the weeks of the school year.
That's 35 weeks at 3.73 days per week, or a projection of 131 days minimum.
I only work rainy days in the warmer months & 3 days a week in the winter.
So, I wouldn't qualify.
I'm not sure I would have filed even if I could have. I would be worried about straining the system when we don't need the money. (Subbing is just extra pot & golf money)
At the same time, since I graduated college at 19, I never was unemployed. Not for a single day.
So, maybe I would have. But, it's moot because Illinois wouldn't let me.

[cannabis_flower]

8. In Texas

Subs are not eligible for Unemployment if you are filing during a school break or summer. I was just lucky that this happened in March and not near Christmas or in the summer. Apparently since I filed in March I continue to get Unemployment in the summer. I most of the time substitute aren't eligible but since the school closed I was. Plus I was working an average of 4 days a week.

[ProfessorGAC]

4. Mixed Bag Here

We live 16 miles from 15 different school districts.
They're ranging from 100% online to business as usual (but 100% masks, no cafeteria, no fall sports).
There are 5 to 8 different hybrids in between.
Even the BAU districts are offering online opt out as an option.
It's hard to keep track of which district is doing what.

[Hortensis]

6. "CDC Director Warns This Fall Could Be The Worst Ever For Public Health."

NPR: "Robert Redfield said in an interview Wednesday with WebMD that if Americans don't follow public health guidance, the country could be facing "the worst fall, from a public health perspective, we've ever had."

"We're going to have COVID in the fall, and we're going to have flu in the fall," he told John Whyte, chief medical officer at WebMD. "And either one of those by themselves can stress certain hospital systems."

Trump and those loyal to him won't allow effective measures. The prognosis is not at all good for schools in most areas to be able to stay open. Maybe some communities here and there, but out of thousands. Roughly speaking, America has over 100,000 public schools and another 50,000 or so private.