S.F. havens for 6,000 kids
‘Learning hubs’ opening in spots around the city to help students in need navigate the challenges of virtual school
San Francisco officials are readying an unprecedented educational assistance program for the fall meant to help up to 6,000 children with their distancelearning needs, as parents and students confront the reality of starting the school year without classrooms during the COVID19 pandemic.
Starting in September, dozens of recreation facilities, libraries and community centers across the city will be transformed into “learning hubs,” spaces where young students who may struggle with remote instruction can go each day to access their digital classwork and the social interactions that virtual schooling cannot provide.
The city is planning to open up to 40 hubs by Sept. 14, just under a month after the school year begins on Aug. 17. Registration will begin Aug. 15 and continue through Sept. 4.
Officials are prioritizing lowincome families, children in public housing or the foster care system, homeless youth, and others in living situations that make remote learning particularly challeng
ing. At first, the hubs will serve students in kindergarten through sixth grade, a group that has lower rates of infection, but officials will consider making the hubs available to older students. They will operate five days a week during ordinary school hours and will be staffed by experienced nonprofits and other organizations — many of which already partner with the city to provide afterschool programs.
While there, students will be provided with computers and internet connections necessary to connect with their teachers and classwork remotely, along with some of the elements of ordinary scholastic environments, such as meals, snacks, exercise and, crucially, other students.
“The barriers for distance learning are not just access to WiFi, it’s making sure that children have a quiet place to even connect in to their Zoom calls, and have the support they need to ... submit homework and participate virtually,” said Maria Su, executive director of San Francisco’s Department of Children, Youth and Their Families.
The department is helping to lead the learning hub initiative, along with the Recreation and Park Department, which may contribute up to half of the sites for the program — the full list is still being compiled. The city is planning to place each of the hubs within walking distance of the attending students’ homes.
“The younger they are, the more they need that inperson, peertopeer learning. That’s equally important as academic learning. Those interactions are key to development in a young person,” Su said. The hubs are geared toward ensuring kids “who’ve been the most disconnected during these crazy times can get a little extra support; so they don’t continue to fall behind, not just academically, but emotionally as well.”
In a statement, Mayor London Breed said, “It will take a village to address the wide range of learning needs for our city’s children and youth during the COVID19 pandemic, and the community learning hubs will provide a muchneeded resource for our most vulnerable students.”
Last week, San Francisco Unified School District Superintendent Vincent Matthews issued a statement confirming that the school year would begin with distance learning for all students, starting Aug. 17. School officials plan to announce the details of the district’s longerterm reopening plans next week.
“We hope to provide a gradual hybrid approach (a combination of inperson and distance learning) for some students when science and data suggest it is safe to do so,” Matthews said.
City officials will be in close contact with the school district, Su said, but the hubs will be active “for as long as necessary.”
The city’s parks department is also preparing programming for kids in kindergarten through sixth grade whose parents are frontline health care workers or city employees working on San Francisco’s pandemic response, but who aren’t eligible for a slot in a distancelearning hub.
The parks department will set up child care spaces at the Glen Park, Richmond, Sunset, Hamilton and Potrero Hill recreation centers starting Aug. 31. The program mirrors a similar initiative the department operated in the early days of the pandemic and the city’s shelterinplace mandate — it provided child care to the children of essential workers. In all, the earlier day care programs served more than 500 children from March 16 to June 5.
Slots for the parks department’s child care programs will be by invitation only, said Recreation and Park General Manager Phil Ginsburg. The department will be reaching out to families whose children were previously enrolled during the spring. Ginsburg estimated that up to 200 students will be invited back. While there, children will be able to access recreational activities and get help with their remote learning.
“We know there has been a significant impact on our children throughout all this,” Ginsburg said. “Many of our children need some extra support and mentorship and guidance to navigate this new normal.”