California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Friday set strict criteria for reopening schools that make it unlikely that the vast majority of districts will have classroom instruction in the fall as the coronavirus pandemic escalates. The rules include a mandate that students older than 2nd grade and all staff wear masks at school.
Newsom’s new guideline requires public schools in counties on a checklist for rising coronavirus infections to be unable to conduct in-person classes and must meet strict criteria for reopening.
“The only thing we have the power to do to get our children back to school? Wear a mask, physical distance, wash your hands,” Newsom said.
The guideline states that all school personnel and all students in grades 3-12 must wear face covers. Younger students will be encouraged, but will not be required to wear masks.
The governor’s stringent new regulations marked a dramatic change from his previous position that it was up to local school districts and boards to decide when and how to reopen. Its announcement came just a few weeks before many of the state’s 1,000 school districts resume instruction in mid-August, and many are still finalizing reopening plans.
With school districts scrambling for the decision, teacher unions, parents and school officials have urged state leaders to provide further instructions on whether it is safe to return to school.
The state reported its second highest total in a day in infection and death rates since the start of the pandemic this week. About 7,400 people have died in California, more than 1,100 of them in the past two weeks.
Several large school districts have already said their schools will begin the new term virtually, including Los Angeles and San Diego, the two largest in the state with a combined enrollment of 720,000 K-12 students. San Francisco, Oakland, Sacramento, Long Beach, Santa Ana, and San Bernardino are among the other districts that choose not to immediately return to classrooms.
Los Angeles is the second largest school district in the country after New York City, where Mayor Bill de Blasio has said that schools are expected to reopen with a hybrid model of in-person instruction and home learning, subject to state approval.
Republican Assemblyman Kevin Kiley accused the governor of listening to “special interests, not science” in setting the rules.
“Instead of taking a balanced approach that gives California families options for learning in the classroom and at home, the governor is closing the vast majority of schools across the state,” said Kiley.
California officials have placed at least 32 of the state’s 58 counties on a watch list due to coronavirus transmission and hospitalization rates. Being on the list imposes restrictions on the ability to reopen various segments of the economy.
If those counties are still on the watch list when the new term begins, the guide means that most California schools would not reopen classrooms but would maintain the school through distance learning.
It presents details when classrooms and schools would have to close if there is an outbreak. If a student or educator tests positive for the virus, a classroom would have to close and the students and teacher would be quarantined for 14 days. An entire school should return to distance learning if it reports multiple cases, or 5 percent of students and staff test positive within 14 days.
The Newsom administration and state Department of Education released guidelines in early June for districts to follow when they reopen, including implementing temperature controls for students, restructuring activities such as lunch and recess, and the recommendation of fabric coverings for students and teachers. But by that time, California had managed to keep its coronavirus case count under control.
“Since we issued our guide, conditions have changed dramatically,” State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said during a press conference on Wednesday.
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