Newsom order to keep most students at home
Bay Area: Only one county gets OK to reopen its classrooms
SACRAMENTO — Millions of public and private school students across California will be barred from going back to class until their counties can slow the spread of the coronavirus, under an order Gov. Gavin Newsom issued Friday.
The order all but ensures the vast majority of districts across the state will start the academic year virtually and remain that way until their counties meet specific requirements in case counts, hospitalizations and other criteria.
When schools do reopen, staff as well as students in grades 312 must wear masks, and younger students will be encouraged to do so. Older students who refuse to wear masks will be required to participate in distance learning.
California is the first state in the U.S. to explicitly prohibit
students who don’t comply with a mask mandate from attending school in person, according to the Newsom administration.
The governor’s order also requires districts that reopen to test every staff member for COVID19 every other month, including the state’s 300,000 teachers, a costly and burdensome condition that could overload the state’s already stressed testing system. The governor said an overhauled state testing plan that officials unveiled this week will prioritize getting quick results for school staffers and require health plans to pick up the costs.
Still, the testing requirement and other conditions outlined in the order could prevent schools from reopening for months, officials said.
“Learning remains nonnegotiable, but neither is safety,” Newsom said at a news conference at the California Office of Emergency Services in Sacramento County. “Students, teachers, staff and parents prefer inclassroom instruction ... but only if we can do it safely.”
The order against reopening classrooms applies to schools in counties that are on California’s monitoring list because of surging coronavirus infections and hospitalizations. As of Friday, more than 30 of the state’s 58 counties were on the list, including every county in the Bay Area except San Mateo. Statewide, more than 80% of the population lives in watchlist counties.
Under the rules Newsom announced Friday, schools in such counties cannot hold inperson classes unless the counties have been off the monitoring list for 14 days.
The state mandate means millions of public and private school students will start the academic year in distance learning, reversing local decisions to bring students and teachers back to classrooms full or parttime.
In Marin County, several districts were planning to provide inperson instruction at the urging of county education and health officials. Newsom’s announcement largely takes that off the table, given Marin’s recent case spikes.
While the new state order means every school in Marin will probably be online when they open, it also provides muchneeded clarity, said Mary Jane Burke, the county superintendent of schools.
“Someone is saying, ‘This is what safe looks like,’ ” she said. “I feel like it would have been great if this information had been issued earlier.”
Schools in counties that get off the state’s watch list for two weeks will not automatically reopen inperson classes. Those decisions will be left up to individual districts and public health officers.
Under the new rules, local health officers will be allowed to grant a waiver for inperson classes for elementary schools if a district superintendent asks for one, in consultation with labor, parents and unspecified communitybased organizations.
Many school districts across the state, including large districts in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Diego, have already signaled they’ll start the school year mostly with remote learning. District officials have said they don’t have the resources to meet state guidelines for reopening inperson classes.
Newsom also stressed that districts must provide highquality distance learning, including daily live interaction between teachers and students.
That worried Berkeley parent Caroline Francis, whose son struggled in large kindergarten Zoom classes in the spring. Newsom’s announcement was better late than never, she said, but it was definitely late.
“It would have been nice if this had been worked out earlier in the summer,” Francis said.
In Alameda, incoming high school junior Henry Mills had been holding out hope that he would be able to go back to school at least part time. The governor’s announcement eliminated that possibility, given the county’s status on the monitoring list.
“Of course I’m pretty disappointed,” he said. “I can’t help but blame others, people who just won’t wear a mask.”
Newsom said the guidelines are necessary as the state confronts soaring infection rates, though the growth of new cases has slowed in recent days. The state reported 9,986 new cases Friday, and hospitalizations have increased 22% over the past two weeks.
The mandate for students in third grade and above to wear masks is an addition to guidelines that Newsom set in May for schools to reopen. His administration said students should have their temperature taken every morning, that school meals should be served in classrooms, and that classes should be confined to separate areas of the schoolyard for recess.
The state also suggested that desks be spaced 6 feet apart, separated by partitions or staggered to avoid facetoface contact.
The rules put in place Friday require that teachers and staff stay 6 feet away from one another and any students. They also suggest that students keep 6 feet apart as much “as practicable.”
The state also released rules for when reopened schools must close following an outbreak. Any school where 5% of the students and staff test positive for the coronavirus must close, and any district where a quarter of the schools have closed must shutter entirely.
Newsom’s order comes as
President Trump has pushed to reopen schools nationwide more rapidly, arguing that children are at low risk of catching the virus or suffering severe consequences if they do. He has threatened to cut federal funding to schools that don’t open classrooms.
“The Dems think it would be bad for them politically if U.S. schools open before the November Election, but is important for the children & families,” Trump tweeted last week. “May cut off funding if not open!”
Asked about Trump’s stance at Friday’s news conference, Newsom said he has to take into account the health of school staffers as well as students.
“I recognize the president’s insistence from an economic paradigm. I get that,” Newsom said. “I’m not looking to score cheap political points with people that have different points of view.”