School board orders child-care plan

Aiming to help working parents, LAUSD leaders seek proposal by Sept. 15.

Alarmed by the city’s child-care crisis, the Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday called for an emergency plan to help parents navigate the challenge of working while supervising their children who are learning from home because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The board called on L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner to deliver a plan by Sept. 15.

In a separate action, the board voted to make ethnic studies a graduation requirement and also to incorporate ethnic studies into the work at all grade levels — a repeat of a 2014 effort that was not fully implemented.

For parents already struggling with child-care problems, help would be arriving later than needed, as the school year started Aug. 18.

The availability of child care has become severely strained since campuses closed in mid-March.

Since then, financial losses, concerns about exposure to the virus and navigating a maze of new safety guidelines have forced some 9,300 licensed child-care providers — almost 1 in 4 in the state — to close, according to data from the California Department of Social Services that show closures through July 31.

In bringing forward the motion, board member Nick Melvoin wants to expand the child care that L.A. Unified has begun to provide for school staff working from schools.

He called on the district to explore offering as much child care as feasible to families of students, based on a priority ranking. This ranking should take into account factors such as whether the parents are essential workers, whether the students are in foster care or their families are homeless, and whether students have special needs, including those with disabilities who face particular struggles with distance learning.

Melvoin also envisions the child care including academic support.

Katie Pace, a parent leader at Gardner Street Elementary in Hollywood, said in an interview that the need is acute.

One single mother, she said, has to leave her firstgrader home alone to avoid losing her job, relying on a neighbor to check on the child from time to time.

Such situations make academic inequities worse for families with few resources, said Elisha Smith Arrillaga, executive director of the research and advocacy group Ed Trust—West in Oakland.

“Young children need adults to help navigate logging in and out of Zoom, Google classroom, and other platforms used by schools and districts,” Smith Arrillaga said.

Beutner said the district is fully aware of the problem and has been trying to develop solutions.

“This is the work we do every day,” Beutner said, and the board’s resolution would not change that. He warned against unrealistic expectations.

“We’re still under a severe burden from COVID in the community,” Beutner said. “We can’t leave the science behind...”

County officials on Tuesday said a drop in coronavirus infections — if sustained for two more weeks — would allow health officials to approve waivers for the reopening of elementary schools, a step beyond child care.

In its unanimous vote on ethnic studies, the board sidestepped a contentious debate at the state level over what should be included in California’s official “model curriculum.”

The resolution will make ethnic studies a graduation requirement starting with the class of 2024.