Governor Gavin Newsom at a daily briefing. The | AP Photo / Rich Pedroncelli
SACRAMENTO – California Governor Gavin Newsom on Friday set new rules that will require schools in counties with high rates of coronavirus infections to keep campus closed until they can meet certain public health standards, the most comprehensive measure yet in the US To demand virtual learning by the fall.
Schools located in counties that are on the state’s coronavirus watch list must not physically open for instruction until they have passed multiple public health benchmarks for 14 consecutive days. As of Friday, 32 of California’s 58 counties were on the state’s watch list, including most of Southern California, the Central Valley, the Sacramento region, and the Bay Area.
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About 80 percent of California’s population lives on a county watch list. The order applies to all schools, including charter and private programs that may have planned to teach in person.
“The virus will be with us for a year or more, and school districts must provide meaningful instruction in the midst of this pandemic,” Newsom said in a statement on Friday. “In California, health data will determine when a school can be physically open – and when it must be closed – but learning must never stop. Students, staff, and parents prefer classroom instruction, but only if it can be done in a safe way “.
The move challenges President Donald Trump’s efforts to reopen campuses by fall and comes amid growing concerns voiced by teachers and families. It also nullifies efforts in areas like Orange County, where this week’s board of education recommended that students return to classrooms without masks.
California’s big districts had already made plans to start the school year with distance learning, starting with the state’s two largest in Los Angeles and San Diego. That sparked a cascade of other campus closure announcements, including all Sacramento County districts. Trump later criticized the decision to close Los Angeles Unified, the country’s second-largest district, as a “terrible decision.”
For schools that reopen, third graders and above must wear a face mask. A Newsom administration official told POLITICO on Friday that California is the first state to go beyond applying the school mask and will exclude students from schools if they refuse to wear a mask and force them to participate in distance learning.
Teachers in schools that can reopen will receive routine tests for coronavirus in their districts.
The news comes as the California Teachers Association has increased demands to extend distance learning as the state is affected by an increase in Covid-19 cases and hospitalizations. It marks a significant shift from Newsom’s deference to local control, though he is allowing county health officials to provide exemptions to elementary schools if requested by a superintendent, unions, and other community members.
California was an early model for the nation to control the spread of Covid-19. But the state has seen an increase in cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in the past month after a broad reopening effort that allowed everything from bars to movie theaters to operate. Newsom closed some of the riskiest domestic sectors on new closing orders on Monday.
