County looking at limited in-person instruction at schools PUSD would prioritize special education students

Tulare County was set to clarify guidelines on Tuesday that could lead schools to begin providing in-person instruction on a limited basis.

That announcement was made by Tulare County Health and Human Services director Tim Lutz during his weekly update on the status of COVID-19 at the Tulare County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday. The health department was working with the Tulare County Office of Education to release the guidelines on Tuesday, Lutz said.

In addition, parents testified for about an hour-and-a-half during the public comment period, calling for the board and health officials to do everything they can to enable all students to return to school for inperson instruction.

Porterville Unified School District Nate Nelson said special education students in the district would be prioritized when it comes to the new guidelines for limited inperson instruction.

Lutz admitted there’s confusion when it comes to cohorts as far as what in-person instruction is allowed and the current school waiver process, which could lead schools to provide in-person instruction for all pre-k-6 students.

Lutz said the county will issue cohort guidelines that will allow “limited or curtailed” in-person instruction for K-12 students at schools for up to 100 students or 25 percent of a school’s enrollment, whichever is greater. Schools with 100 or less students would be able to provide inperson instruction for all of their students.

For bigger schools, the new cohort guidelines are designed for schools to provide in-person instruction for students with greater needs such as special education students, students with disabilities, English as a Second Language learners and possibly students who participate in more individualized, hands-on programs that can’t be served through virtual learning, Lutz said. Students who don’t have access to the necessary technology could also be provided in-person instruction.

The cohort guidelines would still require no more than 14 students to be in a group and not to associate with any other group of students.

“Our first priority is looking at the special education students,” Nelson said. “This group of students is really struggling the most with distance learning.”

He said the district then plans to look at next providing in-person instruction for English as a second language learners. “That would be our second wave,” he said.

The district would also look at providing in- person instruction for its most vulnerable students, Nelson said. He added all staff and educators would have to agree to any plan the district would have for limited in-person instruction.

As far as schools seeking waivers, Lutz said nine schools in Tulare County have applied for a waiver to provide in-person instruction for all students in grades pre-k-6. Lutz has encouraged schools to apply for the pre-k-6 waiver regardless of cohort guidelines.

The criteria for counties to meet in order for waivers to be granted has also been redefined. On Friday, Governor Gavin Newsom announced a new colored-tiered system that replaced the state monitoring list. Purple-tiered counties, including Tulare County, must meet the redefined criteria for waivers to be approved.

Lutz said Tulare County was coming closer to meeting that criteria. He said the criteria now calls for counties to

have no more than 14 COVID-19 cases per 100,000 a day for seven days over a 7-day period for waivers to be granted. As of Tuesday that number was 18.5 in Tulare County, Lutz said.

The other tiers are red which is still considered to have “substantial” virus spread, orange which has “moderate” virus spread and yellow, which has “minimal” virus spread.

But counties in the red tier can still begin to offer in-person instruction to students on a more extensive basis. Lutz reported, though, it looked like it would be November at the earliest before Tulare County could meet the criteria to be in the red tier.

So the majority of Tulare County students still wouldn’t receive in-person instruction for almost half a school year, which wasn’t acceptable for the main parents who testified

on Tuesday.

Among those who testified on Tuesday was Pleasant View School board member Tom Barcellos, who said the school came up with a plan for a little more than 60 percent of its students to receive inperson instruction from 8 a.m. to noon each day. He said in the afternoon those students would continue to focus on their schoolwork in the afternoon.

He added school staff would then switch to providing distance learning to the rest of the student population in the afternoon. He said all staff and everyone in the school community agreed with the plan.

Barcellos also said the school community should also be able to make the decision on what’s best for the school.