Most California schools won't open with new coronavirus rules - Los Angeles Times

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Most California public and private school campuses will not reopen when the academic year begins under statewide rules announced Friday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, shifting instead toward full-time distance learning in response to the summer surge in coronavirus cases.

Schools will remain closed in 32 counties on the state’s COVID-19 monitoring list. Public health conditions in those communities led state officials last week to require a variety of facilities to close, including gyms, shopping malls, hair and nail salons and places of worship. The counties are home to 35.5 million Californians.

At schools that can open, state officials will require all staff and students in grades 3-12 to wear masks. Younger students will be encouraged to wear masks and school officials said they have been told they can ask students who are unwilling or unable to comply to switch to remote learning.

“We all prefer in-classroom instructions for all the obvious reasons — social, and emotional foundationally. But only, only if it can be done safely,” Newsom said.

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The new directives represent state government’s most far-reaching effort to direct the operations of more than 10,500 schools across California during the pandemic. But for as many as one-quarter of the state’s 6 million schoolchildren, the mandate only reinforces plans already announced by local officials.

On Monday, leaders of the Los Angeles Unified School District and the San Diego Unified School District announced distance learning for all students returning for the coming year. Other large districts in Southern California, the San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento also voluntarily agreed to forgo classroom learning due to current health conditions.

While the practical effect of the Newsom administration’s new mandate is simple, some of the policy’s details are complex. Schools in the counties being monitored for coronavirus spread would not be able to reopen until those counties see at least 14 consecutive days of declining coronavirus cases and are therefore removed from the state’s watch list.

The threshold for closing additional schools is dependent on testing for COVID-19. If a teacher or student in a classroom tests positive, the state will suggest that the class be sent home to self-quarantine. If multiple classrooms are closed, the state will instruct school officials to work with local public health agencies and consider closing the campus. School districts will be asked to close all campuses if 25% of their locations had enough coronavirus cases to require a shutdown.

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Newsom said schools that are allowed to open must, in addition to requiring masks, maintain six feet of physical distancing between students and adults as well as other health precautions.

“We believe that school days should start with symptom checks, meaning temperature checks,” the governor said. “We have robust expectations around hand-washing stations, sanitation, deep sanitation. Deep disinfection efforts.”

Some education leaders briefed on the proposal questioned whether it is realistic to impose rules that depend on testing when many communities are already facing a shortage of test kits. The new guidelines also ask for periodic COVID-19 testing at schools, though the rules are flexible given limits on testing capacity across the state.

Newsom’s decision to impose a strict statewide standard comes four days after he suggested the state had already provided ample guidance for schools — a stance that even some of his longtime allies suggested would put students, teachers and school employees at risk while leaving parents and families unsure of what would happen and when.

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Last week, the powerful California Teachers Assn. wrote Newsom to say that many schools could not safely reopen under current conditions, including the lack of sufficient coronavirus testing and personal protective equipment.

Low-income communities, many disproportionately comprising Black and Latino students, are still facing major challenges with distance learning that state and local education officials need to address, community advocates said.

“Things are harder than they were March 16 for our communities ... with the ongoing economic impact of the pandemic and the increase of the spread,” said Maria Brenes, executive director of the East L.A. community organizing nonprofit InnerCity Struggle, and an L.A. Unified parent.

“We’re talking about the essential, the frontline workers that keep our economy going and this is their children and we’re doing such a grave injustice to them,” she said, noting there are still students without access to devices, reliable internet service or a quiet space to study.

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Students with disabilities are also facing challenges with distance learning, said Elmer Roldan, executive director of the nonprofit Communities in Schools of Los Angeles, which provides support and case management for about 1,000 L.A. families. Schools need to engage to provide services for students with special needs through distance learning and must address the existing needs of families who are at a disadvantage with at-home schooling, such as those with parents who speak a different language.

“What do we do to address connectivity issues? Whether it’s the students having a device or having internet that works or having the space where they can do homework? And then what happens when a student needs support that a parent is unable to provide because a parent may need to work or the parent may be unable to comprehend the lessons that the students are learning?” Roldan said.

The state also updated its guidance Friday for daycare centers, which will be allowed to remain open but must investigate whether work-related factors could have contributed to any outbreaks and implement preventative measures accordingly. The Friday guidance requires daycare centers to provide training for staff and families on personal hygiene and the “proper use, removal and washing of face coverings.”

The rules are similar to the previous June 5 guidance, which called for face coverings for staff and for children 2 and older, and health screenings of children and staff before they enter a facility.

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Whether school districts are able to fully cover the costs of expanded distance learning — much of that related to the technology needed for students with limited or no access to computers and broadband service — remains unclear. The state budget signed by Newsom last month commits $5.3 billion for school needs linked to the pandemic, most of that from the federal relief package enacted in the spring. More than half the money will be allocated to schools based on the number of children who are English learners or come from low-income families.

Even so, K-12 schools will find their resources stretched in the coming year. The state budget spreads out the payment of some $13 billion in school funding obligations, to be covered in the short term by local cash reserves or by the school districts borrowing money. Districts have also worried about language tucked into the final budget that seems to require some level of in-person schooling, though lawmakers later insisted that would not prevent public health requirements from completely closing campuses.

Prior to Friday’s announcement, the new school year seemed to be starting much as the last one had ended — with local officials making their own decisions, on their own timetables, about how to respond to the coronavirus crisis. Despite calls for statewide action, Newsom and state education officials avoided a blanket policy dictating when to close schools as the virus spread throughout the state in the early spring.

The governor, who has four young children, chose instead to approach the issue as a parent, telling reporters in mid-March that he told his daughter that schools probably wouldn’t reopen at the time — framing the comment as a reality check, not a directive from his office.

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