Suit to reopen schools in S.F. moving ahead
A lawsuit against San Francisco’s school district over reopening classrooms is moving forward despite plans to bring some younger and more vulnerable students back starting April 12. At a Monday hearing, an attorney for the city of San Francisco — which filed the lawsuit — asked a judge to force the school district to bring all students in all grades back by the end of April.
A San Francisco Superior Court judge indicated Monday he could issue a ruling within “a week or so” on the city’s request for an emergency court order requiring schools to reopen to all students.
City Attorney Dennis Herrera filed a lawsuit in early February when the district had no clearcut details on a return to inperson learning, arguing the lack of a plan violated state law. Since then, SFUSD announced plans to bring some students back to classrooms, but Deputy City Attorney Sara Eisen
berg argued at a Monday hearing that the current plan still falls short of meeting state mandates.
The school district’s attorney argued that it was working as hard as it could to bring students back, but that there were factors it could not control. “We are working on it,” attorney Suzanne Solomon said.
Currently, the district plans to bring preschool through fifthgraders, special education students and vulnerable older groups starting April 12. Under the agreement between the school district and the teachers union, some students would reenter classrooms for four full days and one partial day each week, while others would go back two full days and spend the remaining three days distance learning.
Officials have said that most older students will likely not return before the end of the school year. The city says that plan falls short of “what children deserve” and what “the law requires,” according to a brief filed ahead of the hearing.
Instead, Herrera is seeking a court order requiring the district to “meet its legal obligations and to prevent further harm to San Francisco and the students and families who live here.” He cites the opinion of public health authorities and other school districts which have fully reopened all grades across the country. Specifically, Los Angeles announced plans to reopen schools for all students by the end of April, and New York City reopened its public high schools on Monday. According to Herrera, this means that the New York City school district “will be offering inperson instruction to nearly a million students before SFUSD offers it to even one.”
“Other districts are in fact moving more quickly towards
reopening at the level required by law than San Francisco is,” Eisenberg said.
The school district says that it is already doing everything it can to begin inperson instruction as soon as possible. According to a brief filed ahead of the hearing, while the district shares the city’s “sense of urgency” to reopen schools, “political grandstanding can
not render inperson learning any more ‘possible’ than it was” before the suit was filed.
In response to arguments from the city that because the district does not have a plan for older students, it is not complying with the law, Solomon said that SFUSD prioritized younger students in accordance with state and local health guidance. She also said a court order at this time would be premature.
Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman on Monday called the situation a mess and acknowledged the learning loss and economic burdens from students being kept out of school for a year.
Herrera first filed the suit in early February with the support of Mayor London Breed, arguing that the school board is violating a state law that mandates districts offer inperson instruction “to the greatest extent possible.” He also said that SFUSD is discriminating against students from lowincome families in violation of the state’s equal protection clause.
After the suit was filed, Superintendent Vincent Matthews called it a “frivolous lawsuit,” saying that “it appears that the city attorney has not read through our plans or joined the hours of open meetings we have had on the topic of safely returning to inperson learning.”