Will California students fill classrooms in the fall? Newsom says it depends on the district

The Los Angeles Unified School District is waiting to open schools for in-person learning.

The Orange County Board of Education wants to run forward, preparing to hold a full schedule of classes this fall with no requirements that students wear masks.

Sacramento schools are trying something in between.

Without a definitive statewide decision on whether schools should reopen their physical doors during the coronavirus outbreak this fall, each California district is pursuing its own path. Local officials are left balancing teachers unions concerns over members’ safety with the demands of some parents eager for their children to return to school.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Monday a statewide approach doesn’t work in a state with more than 1,000 districts serving more than six million children.

“Each district is unique and distinctive,” he said.

Newsom noted that the state has published guidance for how schools can safely reopen, and said more is coming on such issues as contact sports, choir, the busing of children and strengthening distance learning. The state also has yet to make a final recommendation on masks in schools.

The new state budget, he said, also allocated $5.3 billion to provide schools with necessary assets to keep students and staff safe and to assist with distance learning if necessary.

Schools also differ, Newsom said, in the degree of virus spread in the surrounding community, a factor he said will also play a role in reopening decisions.

The guidelines laid out by the state Department of Education encourage schools to meet a slew of recommendations like ensuring “adequate tests and tracking/tracing resources are available” and waiting to physically reopen until they see a “sufficient duration” of declining or stable COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths.

With nearly 30 counties now on the state’s COVID-19 watch list due to a skyrocketing number of positive cases in recent weeks, and with California struggling to adequately test its population, the checklist makes in-person instruction more challenging.

Some districts aren’t waiting for a decision from the top to delay a physical return to the classroom.

Los Angeles and San Diego Unified School Districts announced on Monday they were sticking to online-only classes for the start of the 2020-2021 school year, while Stanislaus County said it will delay in-person learning for the first two weeks of August.

The Sacramento City Unified School District has announced it will resume instruction on September 3, but is still developing a plan for how its schools would return physically to classrooms.

“The primary concern has to be to keep students and staff and their families safe,” said David Fisher, president of the Sacramento City Teachers Association. “The pandemic spike makes beginning any in-person instruction on September 3 highly unlikely.

“Last week we urged SCUSD to work with us to focus on creating an equitable, robust distance learning program. When the two largest school districts in California acknowledge the enormous safety concerns of resuming in-person instruction, our district leaders cannot ignore the need to develop and improve our ability to teach remotely.”

Kevin Gordon, president of education lobbying firm Capitol Advisors Group, said districts would feel more comfortable making a decision to delay in-person instruction if they had more support from Newsom’s administration.

Gordon said districts are confused by what he described as contradictory guidance between the education department’s guidelines and the directives included in the state budget bill for K-12 education.

The legislation requires local education agencies to build Learning Continuity and Attendance Plans that urge “classroom-based instruction whenever possible,” an emphasis that Gordon said could make districts feel as though they’re doing something wrong by keeping their doors shut for some extra months.

Though Newsom on Monday praised Los Angeles and San Diego “for leaning in and recognizing their responsibility in this moment,” Gordon said the governor needs to amplify a more widespread message that it’s “okay to do exclusive distance learning instruction” until the threat of COVID-19 dissipates enough to bring students back into the classroom.

“I think (Newsom’s administration) needs to move this up a notch in regards to a health order that gives districts the backing as they decide not to reopen and continue distance learning,” Gordon said. “Right now, (districts) are having to read between the lines to give themselves that authority. It’s not explicit.”

This story was originally published July 14, 2020 at 5:00 AM with the headline "Will California students fill classrooms in the fall? Newsom says it depends on the district."