To today March 8th, there are 494 confirmed Coronavirus Cases in US, with 109 in California. Orange County has 3 cases, but the testing only started this week and the testing criteria is rather strict. 

Given the rapid worsening situation in areas such as Seattle/Bay Areas, which have heavy traffic/direct flights to OC, and the Grand Princess Cruise one passenger on which died due to coronavirus, but 2000 fellow passengers are already dismissed into the community, it is highly expected the coronavirus case count in OC will rapidly increase in the coming weeks. 

According to CDC, it is not IF, but WHEN coronavirus will start community transmission. It will be the case for OC and Irvine as well. 

Health and safety of our children and family members are our utmost priority.  As we all know, school is a breeding ground for potential virus spread.  Even though kids are said to be less impacted by the coronavirus, they can still get infected and pass it over to elderly family members. 

It is important to note that many IUSD family have grandparents live with the kids, and the potential risk for them is huge, as coronavirus has 15% fatality rate among people over 80 years old 

Therefore, we asked Irvine School District to offer parents options to allow kids to study from home,  if they choose to do so until the coronavirus situation stalized. These options can include:

1. Indepent study that allows students to study from home  with some support/material from teachers
2. Online classes 
3. Excused leave of absence if the parents choose to keep kids at home 

We are not asking to close the schools completely because we know the board has no authority to do so on it's own. And we understand that this is not for all families.  We do not want to force this on anyone, but we believe this to be what is best for our own families and we feel the school district should support us in this matter. 

We also believe this should be done immediately and proactively before persistent community infections and transmissions become prevalent. According to study on the effects of Closing Schools During the 1918-1919 Influenza Pandemic: proactive school closings & intervention had far better mortality rates than reactive closings

Again, we understand school closure may not be a choice many family can deal with, but for the sake of public health, please at least allow IUSD families to have a choice to do independent study or online classes.