Nearly a dozen parent organizations have teamed up with the American Civil Liberties Union to urge Fresno Unified schools to “do more” to help students and families struggling with online education amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The ACLU and the parent groups this week sent a wide-ranging letter to the district, demanding schools improve access to online tools. In the letter, the groups also urge the district to improve communication with students and parent groups. Additionally, the ACLU requested a variety of records covering everything from device and web access to school lunches.

“The district has not been very thoughtful about ways of meeting parents and students where they are at,” ACLU Foundation of Northern California staff attorney Abre’ Conner told The Bee. “We’re hoping to get answers, and some information about what’s actually happening.”

Fresno Unified officials this week declined to comment on the ACLU letter.

Online learning challenges

Fresno-area parent groups like Familias Empoderadas have said they’ve been pushing for months to get more resources and better communication with district leaders.

They say those issues existed well before campuses closed and have only intensified since the outbreak. And while Fresno Unified has been working to ensure each student has a device and web access, parents have said the process has been too slow and fraught issues.

The ACLU this week said many families still don’t have a device and haven’t been told how to get one. Others who spoke with The Bee said their children haven’t been able to get help making the devices work properly.

“I am upset because my children can’t do their work and I’ve told the school, and they tell us ‘don’t worry, we will take into account that your child has connectivity issues and that is all,” FUSD parent and a member of Familias Empoderadas Maria Padron said in a recent online community meeting.

Teachers are expected to contact students weekly at a minimum, Superintendent Bob Nelson told The Bee during an interview in March.

School officials, however, also have acknowledged some students have not heard from a teacher since campuses closed in March.

Communication issues

The letter also criticizes the district’s communication with parents, issues officials have acknowledged in recent weeks as “one of our big challenges.”

In an interview with The Bee, Conner pointed to a recent online meeting as an example of problems parent groups have had with the district.

Parents at the meeting were signed into the Zoom link organized by Familias Empoderadas.

District officials, the day before the meeting, emailed the group a separate meeting link they said they wanted to use for the meeting, a district spokesperson said Wednesday. After the meeting was supposed to begin, district officials contacted the group and said they wanted parents to log in on the second meeting channel controlled by the school officials.

In the end, the parents did not meet with school leaders that day.

“It seems as though the district was not ensuring authentic community input and transparency. The Zoom link the organization wanted to use was something they were comfortable with,” Conner said.

Parents told The Bee they were frustrated with the district’s handling of that meeting.

“They complain that parents don’t participate, but they do participate,” one parent said during the Zoom session.

Conner said Fresno schools need to be “creative to work with community members to ensure they are meeting their needs.”

“I think that overall what we would like is for the district to include parents from the groups in the conversation,” Conner said.

Demands from parents, ACLU

The ACLU listed 14 recommendations for the district to consider. They also urged Fresno Unified to prioritize students of color, English learners, homeless and foster youth, LGBTQ+, and children with disabilities.

The letter asked the district to develop a plan for students to recover lost instructional time and create specialized learning strategies for English learners and students with disabilities.

The ACLU recommends making nurses, school counselors, psychologists, social workers available throughout the closure, providing childcare options to families who need it most, and “to promote transparency” by publicly sharing all distance learning plans.

Parents who spoke with The Bee said their children need more assistance from teachers and better programs to monitor learning progress.

“Those of us who are lower-income are always affected, so this situation is very sad for me,” parent Estela Ortega said. “It breaks my heart because I’ve invested my time for the education of our children. (Education) is the main road they have so they can be somebody in life, so they are not (poor) like us later.”

The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab on our website.

This story was originally published May 13, 2020 at 1:54 PM.