Photo: Kirby Lee/AP

General overall view of Alhambra High School in the wake of coronavirus Covid-xix pandemic outbreak in Alhambra, Calif.

Photo: Kirby Lee/AP

General overall view of Alhambra High School in the wake of coronavirus Covid-19 pandemic outbreak in Alhambra, Calif.

Update, March 29, 2019: Since this commodity was written several more districts accept announced that they will be closed until May 1. 20 out of 30 of the state's largest districts will exist closed for in-form instruction through May 1, another 2 volition exist closed through April xxx. 2 have not set any appointment for possible reopening. I (Elk Grove) will offer online pedagogy through the end of its school year. With new federal guidelines on extending social distancing to Apr 30, presumably remaining districts will as well extend their closure dates.

How long will students be out of school?

That is a question that no i can definitively reply at the moment.

Merely how it is answered has extreme relevance for California's vast public education ecosystem of over six million students, 310,00 teachers, and many more than parents and school employees.

10 days ago, Gov. Newsom caught California's didactics community off guard when he said he doubted that schools will open up earlier the end of the school year.

"Don't anticipate schools are going to open up up in a week, "Newsom said. "Please don't anticipate in a few weeks. I would plan and presume that information technology'south unlikely that many of these schools — few, if any — will open up earlier the summer break."

At the same fourth dimension, he acknowledged that he couldn't predict the summer closure "with certainty," although "I tin can say this quite learnedly."

So far, at least one school commune has publicly adopted Newsom'due south expected timeline he announced on March at 17.  Elk Grove Unified near Sacramento is ending its school year May 29, its normal stop date.  Get-go on April 16, however, the district will provide a structured distance learning program to its students, complete with awarding student grades for their work.

But Elk Grove'southward end-of-school-twelvemonth closing date is far from the norm.  Many California districts are even so  setting dates until when they plan to be closed, usually sometime within the next few weeks — and often also hedging their bets as to when they will open.

The ambiguity about when schools will open is extremely difficult for parents, says Celia Jaffe, president of the California Land PTA.  "Lots of them are making arrangements week by week, or for partial weeks, to get help with caring for their children.  They're also trying to proceed educational activities going, but information technology is a very difficult time."

1 of the most contempo developments is that some districts are reframing the closure message and instead proverb they volition essentially be open — every bit a "distance learning" district.  That is what San Diego Unified, the country's second largest district, did this calendar week when it announced plans "to save the rest of the academic twelvemonth" past a "formal return to grading and instruction" on April 27  but "non a return (of students) to the concrete environment."

San Diego superintendent Cindy Marten rejects the idea of even trying to gear up a date for when or if student would return to school before the summer. "I've decided to stop focusing on the doubtfulness and what nosotros don't know, because what I do know and what I can exist certain about is that we have to serve our students," she said. "Unlike people accept dissimilar ideas about when you're going to open upwardly, when yous're not going to open.  We're going to open when information technology'south safe to open."

Country Superintendent of Public Educational activity Tony Thurmond also was non willing to speculate whether schools would remain closed until the summer. "I wish we accept a way to predict how long it's going to be," he said.  "I remember the governor'southward comments show we are in information technology for the long haul.  Merely to me everything is dependent on what we practice now.  If we heed the guidance nigh social distancing, we can flatten the curve," referring to the public wellness goal of averting a steep spike in coronavirus cases.

Over the by week, more districts are saying that schools volition be airtight until the offset week of May.  "The message is showtime to change, to say 'we will be airtight at least until May, but non to say when schools will reopen,'" said Peter Birdsall, executive director of the California County Superintendents Instruction Services Clan, representing all 58 canton superintendents.  "Superintendents are trying to requite people a sense for operational purposes that they will be closed at to the lowest degree until a certain date, so people can plan their lives."

The PTA's Jaffe said setting a business firm date when closures may end "is a service to families," fifty-fifty if the appointment has to exist revised. "At least they now have a space of fourth dimension to effigy out their kid care arrangements, peculiarly if they are still working.  Knowing that they have a specific period time to take care of their kids is helpful."

At the same time, health factors should be paramount in deciding when students should return to school.  "Yous don't want premature openings, putting children or adults' lives in danger," she said.

Only there are still significant variations in the closure dates depending on the district — typically a month, or even two months, before their  summertime vacations were due to brainstorm.

Ted Lempert, president of Children Now, an Oakland-based advocacy system, said "apparently clarity would be platonic" most when schools will be open, given the multiple pressures on parents. "There is understandable confusion, although that applies to everyone'southward life beyond school too," he said.  He cautioned, nevertheless, that the focus should exist less on when schools should reopen, and more on what kind of instruction students volition receive while they are out, and the bear upon of the closure and isolation on their mental health.

Much of the variability in opening times is the effect of districts who initially had to brand quick decisions — in some cases about overnight — to shut schools in mid-March. They set the dates for closure — and potential reopening — non based on solid health grounds, which weren't available at the time, but to coincide with the finish of their spring breaks. As a result, districts said they would open during a range of dates during the outset, second or even third calendar week of April — dates which are coming upwardly rapidly.

Now districts are kickoff to extend their closure dates, but in that location is still a adept deal of variation. For example,  Fresno Unified will be airtight through April 14, although that is likely to modify when its elected board meets next calendar week.  Long Beach Unified will exist closed until May three.

Los Angeles Unified, the state's largest district, originally told parents and staff to plan for a two week closure, but has now pushed the closure date to at least May 1.  "We volition provide boosted updates well before May onest on what will come up next,"  superintendent Austin Beutner said. The Los Angeles County Office of Pedagogy, which includes Los Angeles Unified and 79 districts with a total enrollment of 1.4 million students, said that the schoolhouse community should count on existence closed until May v.

This week, county superintendents in six Bay Area counties  jointly announced that all schools in their counties would be airtight until May 1, affecting a educatee enrollment of most 850,000.  And on Friday, districts in Sacramento Canton took a similar step.

Arturo Valdez, the deputy superintendent in the Los Angeles County Office of Educational activity, said the May 5 engagement was chosen later on "a lot of thought and conversations" with the California Dept. of Education, the Department of Public Wellness, and consulting with all 80 superintendents in the county. "We idea May five would be the most appropriate day for returning," he said. "This is but our next appointment when we think nosotros will be in a better place."

He said function of the thinking was that it would be all-time for parents and staff to set a date based on when districts were sure they would take to be airtight, rather than shifting the date every calendar week or two.  That would give everyone associated with schools a longer timeline to plan their lives.

Only he best-selling that "with everything changing every day … reopening could well exist across the May 5 date we established."  To that end, he said, the county is working on "multiple strategies to plan for  diverse scenarios," including if schools take to stay closed until the terminate of the school year.

The determination to set a May 1 date in the Bay Area was made also subsequently consulting with public health officers in each of the counties — in part in response to local schoolhouse superintendents  who were asking counties to come up with a "unified" closure date, said Michelle Smith McDonald, a spokesperson for Alameda County Office of Education.  "Districts were coming upwards on their original reopening dates afterwards their spring breaks, and health officers were making information technology articulate that students wouldn't be able to go back to schoolhouse."

In this changing surround, said Birdsall of the canton superintendents' clan, "school administrators are adopting the arroyo that 'we don't know where this is going, merely we can plan for the next five or 6 weeks, and remain flexible and nimble as this evolves.'"

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