Please sign in to post.

Any update on COVID re-entry testing requirements?

We are about to cancel our Europe trip in August.

Kid has to be back by Aug 3rd week for start of HS ( the school just announced the dates) and if we test positive the quarantine period will cause missing the 1st week of school.

Really disappointed!

Posted by
403 posts

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

Posted by
3181 posts

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.

Posted by
604 posts

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.

Posted by
1894 posts

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.

Posted by
6813 posts

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.

Posted by
1230 posts

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

Posted by
2622 posts

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

Posted by
2768 posts

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?

Posted by
457 posts

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

Nice Maggie May reference!

Posted by
8913 posts

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.

Posted by
11948 posts

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.

Posted by
2768 posts

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.

Posted by
1334 posts

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.

Posted by
299 posts

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?

Posted by
1019 posts

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

Posted by
2622 posts

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

Posted by
3181 posts

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

Posted by
1019 posts

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.

Posted by
133 posts

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!

Posted by
121 posts

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?

Posted by
133 posts

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