Any update on COVID re-entry testing requirements?

How does your kid feel about this - mine wouldn’t have had any problem with the possibility of missing the first week!

Can you wait longer to cancel? It’s possible the rules might change by August. I leave next week for Switzerland and am still holding out hope the rules will change before I return. 😊 But I'll pack my covid tests just in case.

I missed the first three months of my sixth grade as we were travelling in Europe. My mom tells me that our school principal was fully supportive of our trip. Of course that was in a different era. I would think that school officials would understand your situation and support the idea of one of their students having such a great opportunity to learn about other countries and cultures, regardless of any end of trip complications.

Start of school...August 3rd!!!!

Whatever happened to:

"Its late September and I really should be back at school."

Sorry, I couldn't resist. Missing a week won't setback anyone and a trip to Europe could get him/her a pretty nice bump in a history class. If he is high school age and tests positive, you wouldn't send him/her to school anyway. What's the difference where the quarantine happens.

I've always been an advocate for giving kids the priceless opportunity to experience an unfamiliar bit of the world. If that means missing a week or two of school (even in non-pandemic times), that seems to me like a perfectly reasonable tradeoff.

If you really feel you have to cancel your trip for a valid reason, then maybe that's the right choice for you. But I wouldn't let the (relatively low) chance that your kids might miss a week of school keep them from a great travel experience. Losing the first week, when a lot of school time may be dedicated to reconnecting socially and "ramping up" tasks rather than a rigorous academic effort, seems worth considering. As a side benefit, your kids will be the coolest ones in school ("Hey, why weren't you here last week?"..."Oh, I was stranded in Europe...with COVID. It was awesome!")

Your call of course, but I wouldn't cancel in haste.

Im a teacher and have 3 teens, and I would be fine if my kid missed the first week or two. If they are ok with it. There is so much hybrid potential these days for missed days and illness that I bet, IF your kiddo needed to miss, they could contact classmate[s] and/or teachers and get the essentials. If you have knowledge of who the teachers might be you could check in with them as well

Think of how much more they would learn in one week in Europe compared to a US classroom. :)

Right now I think 4% of travelers on RS Tours are testing positive (correct me if there are new numbers). I know you aren’t doing a tour, but just to put a number on it. I believe a group tour is higher risk than individual travel with reasonably safe choices. Like masks in indoor crowds and mostly outdoor meals. Tours are together in busses a lot (masked but still a lot of time), mostly eat indoors, and generally have lots of exposure to each other. Meanwhile you only have prolonged exposure to your family (sure, you meet people, but you don’t hang out with them for days) and can eat outdoors. So your odds are better than a tour member in my opinion. So…is it worth the 3% or whatever chance?

Also get an ANTIGEN test, not a PCR. PCRs can pick up old infections and very low levels of virus, so you are more likely to be positive. An antigen test mainly picks up current, contagious infections which is what matters. Both are allowed.

So I say go…but if you are concerned can you move it to July?

"Its late September and I really should be back at school."

Nice Maggie May reference!

Retired High School Math teacher.
I rarely saw students that missed "one or two weeks" of the school year fully recover. Expect that there will be learning loss and impacts on grades. If you still choose to have your student miss school, that is your choice but do not do the following:
1. Don't ask the teacher to make a separate packet or get all of the student's assignments together for while they are gone. This takes significant time and has about a 10% completion rate. I have spent hours on this only to have the student not complete one assignment.
2. Don't ask the teacher to spend his/her lunch time tutoring your child so he/she can learn what was missed. (you may be laughing, but I can't tell you the number of times I have been asked to do this)

It will be your student's responsibility to learn any missing concepts. I am sure the teacher will help as much as he/she can, but it is not their responsibility to cover for your vacation.

Edited to add: If a student has to miss one week, the first week is probably not as crucial for content as other weeks. It is important for setting class protocols.

1. Don't ask the teacher to make a separate packet or get all of the student's assignments together for while they are gone. This takes significant time and has about a 10% completion rate. I have spent hours on this only to have the student not complete one assignment.
2. Don't ask the teacher to spend his/her lunch time tutoring your child so he/she can learn what was missed. (you may be laughing, but I can't tell you the number of times I have been asked to do this)

Carol, I am married to a retired teacher, so concur with your assessment, but found it needed more emphasis.

As for OP, I would delay cancellation as much as possible, in case the 'test to return' requirement goes away.

I completely agree with Carol during pre-covid days. But covid has thrown a wrench in the education system. With each wave, kids are routinely out for a good week. Unless covid is treated as endemic, I don't see that changing. There's a very good chance the kid is going to miss a week of school at some point anyways. But I understand canceling the trip. My girls would not have cared to miss the 1st week of school, especially high school.

This is the first week of school, which is much less academically important than the ending. Often the first week is icebreakers, orientation, and review. Socially maybe useful but much less likely to have an academic impact than the middle or end of the year when there’s new material, big assignments due, exams.

Plus kids are missing school for covid fairly often now so schools are adjusting to that unfortunate reality. Your kid wouldn’t be the only one quarantined for the first week of school.

That said…your chances of testing negative and coming home on time are excellent anyway.

How tight is your schedule? Covid or no Covid, I’d still want a couple days back home to get readjusted before starting school.

Missing the first week isn’t fatal, but not ideal either. Is your high schooler involved in any extra curricular activities that start before school starts? Also, they could be missing quizzes during the first week, maybe there’s a makeup or maybe the teacher just drops the worst quiz grade to avoid makeups.

Sometimes you have to roll with unforeseen challenges. Testing positive would be a drag but a good lesson for your kids in adaptability.

People who always wait for the ideal time or conditions to travel rarely ever do. Canceling the trip for a remote chance of having a positive test seems a bit draconian. Who knows if there is another virus next year?

I would wait to cancel until the next announcements. Can you postpone your decision until after the 4th?

Ohh, there's an update on the 4th? Fingers crossed.

Lulu348, do you mind sharing what announcements you are referring to? I haven’t heard of any expected updates on Saturday.

I didn’t mean to suggest there would be an update at a particular time, sorry for the confusion. I just meant wait until July, maybe after the holiday. Her trip is in August, wait until the last possible moment, Sorry everyone.

OP here.

Thanks all for the feedback.

We decided to still do this trip.

But curtailing it to just Paris ( 3 nights) and Gimmelwald (4 nights). We fly into Paris and out of Zurich. We plan to take the train from Paris to Interlaken ( a train trip is must for a kid going to Europe!) . Budgeted 3 days for travel between cities. So a total of 10 days.

This gives us a buffer of an additional 10-12 days in case we need to quarantine.

As someone said above - travel is the best teacher and we just need to do this.

Will update!

Just so you are aware, you do not need to quarantine in Switzerland. So, it would just be a matter of waiting for negative tests or waiting out the time to get a recovery letter to return to the US.

Here is the link to the Swiss Gov. site that has the covid info.

https://www.bag.admin.ch/bag/en/home/krankheiten/ausbrueche-epidemien-pandemien/aktuelle-ausbrueche-epidemien/novel-cov/so-schuetzen-wir-uns.html#883350429

It is good to know Switzerland does not require quarantining upon testing positive for Covid.

Is the same true for France? Or is quarantining currently required in France upon testing positive?

A very pertinent article in WSJ:

https://www.wsj.com/articles/positive-covid-test-international-travel-flights-11654031367

“The Extra Time in Europe No Traveler Wants but Everyone Should Prep For”

Anyone testing positive for Covid before boarding an international flight to the U.S. can find themselves stuck for days—and out thousands of dollars

@Carrie - TY for that information. Thats a big deal! Makes it much less stressful.