Headlines
FCMAT provides links to California K-12 news stories as a service to the industry. However, some stories may not be accessible because of newspapers' subscription policies.
Oct 01, 2020
Gov. Gavin Newsom unexpectedly vetoed a bill Wednesday to mandate a course in ethnic studies as a high school graduation requirement, starting in 2029-30. He announced his decision on the final day for acting on bills passed in the legislative the session ending Aug. 31.
Oct 01, 2020
If the county can remain in the less restrictive Tier 2 level, or the red category, of the state’s COVID-19 Blueprint for a Safer Economy for at least two weeks, the CUSD will reopen its schools for partial in-person instruction, Superintendent Kelly Staley announced in a letter to parents and staff.
Oct 01, 2020
Now, in the midst of a pandemic far deadlier than the swine flu, California is one of 10 states, plus the District of Columbia, without a school nurse leader at the state level, according to the National Association of State School Nurse Consultants.
Oct 01, 2020
Desert Sands Unified School District made the first step toward a return to in-person schooling as superintendent Scott Bailey and other staffers laid out a proposed game plan and timeline for a hybrid in-person option.
Oct 01, 2020
More than five weeks after the first schools in San Diego County were allowed to reopen, most of San Diego County’s school districts have either reopened or have opening dates set for October.
Oct 01, 2020
The school board unanimously approved Julie Synyard as the new superintendent on Monday; she is expected to begin on Oct. 12. She replaces CJ Cammack, who resigned after four years with the district to accept the superintendent position at Fremont Unified.
Oct 01, 2020
A bid to make a one-semester ethnic studies course a high school graduation requirement was vetoed late Wednesday by Gov. Gavin Newsom, who cited the ongoing controversy over the appropriate curriculum in his message on the legislation.
Oct 01, 2020
Stomping through puddles, scrambling over fallen logs and digging in the dirt with sticks may not sound like traditional educational activities, but they are core parts of the curriculum in “forest schools.”
Oct 01, 2020
After much anticipation from parents, San Diego Unified will start bringing back small groups of “vulnerable” students for in-person learning support on Oct. 13, representing the first phase of the district’s reopening.
Oct 01, 2020
Just one week after students in Rocklin Unified School District returned to in-person instruction, three high school students have tested positive for coronavirus.
Oct 01, 2020
Supt. Austin Beutner chose the company of a former business partner to help him put together a plan to carry out the largest district-led testing initiative in the country.
Sep 30, 2020
On Tuesday afternoon, Trustees for the Rosedale Union District School District unanimously granted Superintendent Sue Lemon the authority to open its schools for in-person learning once Kern County meets the criteria.
Sep 30, 2020
The California Department of Health moved Fresno County from the purple to red tier, which means fewer restrictions for businesses, and the county has an average of fewer than seven new cases each day per 100,000 residents.
Sep 30, 2020
A recent parent protest demanding that San Diego Unified reopen has spurred a competing group of parents who agree with the district that it should remain closed for now.
Sep 30, 2020
Palo Alto Unified wants to begin reopening classrooms in a couple of weeks but hundreds of parents and teachers say that’s too soon and dangerous with the coronavirus still spreading.
Sep 30, 2020
California voters will decide on Election Day on amending Proposition 13, the anti-tax initiative that has molded tax policy and school funding since voters passed it by a nearly two-thirds majority in 1978.
Sep 30, 2020
The Legislative Analyst’s Office estimates Proposition 15 would raise between $6.5 billion and $11.5 billion annually by assessing commercial properties every three years; 40% of revenue would go to K-12 schools and community colleges.
Sep 30, 2020
A limited number of elementary schools will be able to apply for waivers to reopen transitional kindergarten through second-grade classrooms under a decision that gives priority to schools serving higher numbers of low-income families.
Sep 29, 2020
The Grenada Elementary School board voted at a special meeting on Friday to resume in-person classes beginning on Monday, Oct. 5.
Sep 29, 2020
Moorpark Unified School District received the green light Monday to reopen school sites for students in transitional kindergarten through fifth grade, officials confirmed.
Sep 29, 2020
Nearly 100 Los Alamitos High School teachers met online Sunday afternoon, Sept. 27, to consider a potential strike over safety concerns with in-person learning, but they put off the vote for at least 10 days from Tuesday, Sept. 29.
Sep 29, 2020
New data show that the great majority of schoolchildren in Southern California’s major metro areas are staring at computer screens issued by their school districts — not at devices belonging to their families.
Sep 29, 2020
The overall attendance rate for first graders in Los Angeles Unified is down 3.7% compared to a year ago — and down by two or three times that rate for some of the highest-needs students — according to the latest data from the district.
Sep 29, 2020
The nightmares, the grief and an all-consuming dread can persist for months or even years. That’s what teachers and school employees have observed among students in California’s fire-ravaged areas.
Sep 29, 2020
Almost 400 parents and teachers have signed a letter urging the school board not to approve the district’s plan to bring elementary school students back to campuses starting Oct. 12.
Sep 29, 2020
A week-long “Zoom Out” protest by families and students frustrated with distance learning began on Monday, Sept. 28, a member of the organizing group Reopen California Schools said.
Sep 28, 2020
There was an eerie silence at Coast Union High School on the afternoon of Sept. 22. “It is kind of depressing to see a school empty with no students interacting, eating or practicing sports,” Coast Union principal Scott Ferguson said.
Sep 28, 2020
Public health experts are concerned about how the coronavirus can spread in Orange County schools as many classrooms around the county are beginning to reopen to mixed reactions from parents and teachers.
Sep 28, 2020
Nearly 100 Los Alamitos High School teachers met online Sunday afternoon, Sept. 27, to consider a potential strike over safety concerns with in-person learning, but they put off the vote for at least 10 days from Tuesday, Sept. 29.
Sep 28, 2020
Whoever gets elected to the one competitive seat will share in the task of digging the district out of its financial deficit, restoring community trust after a state audit found evidence of potential financial fraud, and likely selecting a new superintendent.
Sep 28, 2020
A group of parents is suing the Los Angeles Unified School District, alleging its distance learning plan fails to adequately educate every child and that such violation of students’ Constitutional right to a free and appropriate education.
Sep 28, 2020
More than a dozen Bay Area school districts will have their hands out this election day, asking voters to pay more in property taxes to fund facilities or, in some cases, to keep paying salaries.
Sep 28, 2020
Patterson Joint Unified and Modesto’s Stanislaus Union are the most recent and largest school districts in Stanislaus County to submit applications for limited reopening of in-person education during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sep 28, 2020
Orange County school districts are opening their schoolyard gates this week and next, marking a major, widely watched test of the ability of California school systems to safely resume in-person classes.
Sep 28, 2020
Some charter schools are dedicated to exclusively offering home-school programs. Programs like these and others have seen a surge of interest since campuses closed in the spring.
Sep 28, 2020
While most schools in California remain closed for in-person classes, some districts are welcoming students with special needs back to campus.
Sep 28, 2020
Thousands of students are leaving school districts for independent study charter schools, but state funding isn’t following them, charter leaders say.
Sep 25, 2020
Parents in the San Dieguito Union High School District rallied Thursday to push the district to reopen its schools. They marched to the district office in Encinitas while holding posters calling for the creation of a plan.
Sep 25, 2020
Orange County Health Care Agency officials won’t disclose coronavirus cases at schools and are instead leaving that decision up to school districts as many classrooms are slated to begin reopening.
Sep 25, 2020
Although COVID-19 cases are easing across the region, bringing with it the optimism that schools could soon open again, Fresno Unified Superintendent Bob Nelson offered words of caution on Wednesday night during a town hall meeting: Not so quick.
Sep 25, 2020
Patterson Joint Unified and Modesto’s Stanislaus Union are the most recent and largest school districts in Stanislaus County to submit applications for limited reopening of in-person education during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sep 25, 2020
Some charter schools are dedicated to exclusively offering home-school programs. Programs like these and others have seen a surge of interest since campuses closed in the spring.
Sep 25, 2020
More than 500 private schools have had waivers approved compared with roughly four dozen public school districts and charters comprising more than 120 campuses.
Sep 25, 2020
As school districts across the county reopen for in-person instruction, they will work with the Orange County Health Care Agency to track and respond to coronavirus cases on campuses.
Sep 25, 2020
As public school districts in Sacramento County develop plans to bring students back to campus as early as next month, the county’s top education official said this week that staying open that will pose the greatest challenge.
Sep 25, 2020
The Los Angeles Unified School District’s distance learning plan has caused “enormous learning losses” and left tens of thousands of Black and Latino students without a basic education, according to a new lawsuit.
Sep 24, 2020
Bakersfield City School District released details about its plan to gradually open up its schools to special education, foster youth and homeless students, and English learners at a board meeting on Tuesday night.
Sep 24, 2020
Teachers in the Novato Unified School District have rejected a hybrid plan to return to in-person classroom instruction, saying it presented too many operating challenges and coronavirus safety risks.
Sep 24, 2020
More than a few teachers are talking about a potential strike or taking other actions if districts keep moving to open without assuring them there are adequate safety measures.
Sep 24, 2020
Coachella Valley Unified School District will receive $1.25 million in funding to replace iPads and purchase more digital hotspots to aid with distance learning amid the ongoing pandemic.
Sep 24, 2020
Upland Unified School District has applied for a waiver from the state that would allow up to 50% of its elementary school students to attend classes in person, school officials said on Tuesday, Sept. 22.
Sep 24, 2020
A draft of the “Safe Schools Re-Opening Plan” for in-person transitional-kindergarten through sixth-grade education during the COVID-19 pandemic was presented to the Turlock Unified School District Board of Trustees.
Sep 24, 2020
Stanislaus County’s largest school district is grappling with questions about reopening schools for young students in a county where coronavirus infections have slowed down but are still considered “widespread.”
Sep 24, 2020
While the board has experienced high turnover with more than 20 trustees in the past 12 years, Superintendent Philip Alfano said this election cycle marks the first time no one ran for openings in that same period.
Sep 24, 2020
Patterson Joint Unified and Modesto’s Stanislaus Union are the most recent and largest school districts in Stanislaus County to submit applications for limited reopening of in-person education during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Sep 24, 2020
Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner and school board member Kelly Gonez to show off the district’s sweeping coronavirus testing program — by taking COVID-19 test themselves on Tuesday, Sept. 22 at Pacoima Middle School.
Sep 24, 2020
West Contra Costa Unified, which faced a debilitating $48 million projected deficit for the 2020-2021 school year, is now estimating a small surplus, said Superintendent Matthew Duffy. But the turnaround has not been without pain.
Sep 23, 2020
Three people who work in the office at Olive Elementary School in Novato are staying home this week as a precaution after an another office worker reported she tested positive for COVID-19 over the weekend.
Sep 23, 2020
So far, only four districts are on the verge of opening classrooms but some teachers and parents are still concerned about the move and warily watching Covid infection numbers.
Sep 23, 2020
State health officials announced on Tuesday that Sacramento County has improved its COVID-19 infection status enough to possibly reopen school campuses for all grades by mid-October.
Sep 23, 2020
Riverside County got the green light Tuesday, Sept. 22, to move from the purple to red tier, when it comes to state coronavirus restrictions, but that doesn’t mean your child will go back to school tomorrow.
Sep 23, 2020
Upland Unified School District has applied for a waiver from the state that would allow up to 50% of its elementary school students to attend classes in person, school officials said on Tuesday, Sept. 22.
Sep 23, 2020
Four school districts in Stanislaus County have bond measures on the Nov. 3 ballot. They ask property owners to pay annual assessments to help finance campus remodeling, technology upgrades and other projects.
Sep 23, 2020
Many low-income Latino and Black students in the Los Angeles Unified School District had to contend with not having access to computers or reliable internet while distance learning last spring.
Sep 23, 2020
Sequoia Union High School District Superintendent Mary Streshly has stepped down several weeks after receiving a no-confidence vote from teachers and amid an investigation of a high school official.
Santa Clara County schools have the green light starting Wednesday to usher in a phased return to real face-to-face lessons. But the vast majority are opting instead to stay the course through the rest of the semester.
Sep 23, 2020
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond announced an “Education to End Hate” initiative Monday that he and others presented as an alternative to President Donald Trump’s call for “patriotic education."
Sep 23, 2020
With teachers no longer seeing students in-person every day in most parts of the state, advocates say thousands of cases of child abuse may be going unreported.
Sep 23, 2020
Weeks into the school year, some 1.2 million students across the state still lack adequate internet access, and in rural California, about a third of families are not connected, according to an EdSource analysis.
Sep 23, 2020
The first San Francisco students will head back to class for in-person learning Wednesday after health officials granted permission for two private schools to reopen with pandemic protocols in place.
Sep 23, 2020
San Diego Unified reported 2,474 fewer students than it expected this year. About two-thirds of that deficit came from kindergarten. District leaders are trying to get a handle on the specific reasons.
Sep 22, 2020
As a host of Orange County schools start welcoming back students today, there are mounting questions from a growing number of teachers and community members about how such reopenings – and potential outbreaks – will be handled.
Sep 22, 2020
At a special meeting Friday night, Sept. 18, half of the four Westminster School District board members voted not to pursue an investigation of their president, Frances Nguyen, for potential voter fraud.
Sep 22, 2020
The Sacramento City Unified School District adopted a distance learning plan Saturday after starting the school year two days before without one. The teachers union says its teachers will not follow the plan.
Sep 22, 2020
Sweetwater Union High School District, the county’s second-largest district, announced Monday it won’t reopen for in-person learning until at least January 2021.
Sep 22, 2020
Starting in the 2024-25 school year, Riverside Unified School District students will be required to complete an ethnic studies class to graduate. The mandate beats an expected state requirement that would begin in 2029.
Sep 22, 2020
Teachers in two Orange County school districts have banded together with bold public protests and petitions, saying they are unwilling to go back to campus in the days and weeks ahead.
Sep 22, 2020
While California school districts and counties confront the learning challenges of the pandemic, education organizations are developing new guides for Spanish-speaking parents to help them navigate distance learning.
Sep 22, 2020
Families in Boyle Heights, South Los Angeles and Watts struggled with access to computers and adequate internet throughout the spring semester while facing job losses and food insecurity.
Sep 22, 2020
The state announced new anti-racism lessons and teacher training for school districts on Monday, days after President Trump decried the notion of teaching slavery as a founding tenet of the U.S.
Sep 22, 2020
Several school districts plan to launch in-person learning on at least a part-time basis within the next few weeks. To achieve social distancing, many will be using a hybrid model.
Sep 22, 2020
A new parent group is demanding that San Diego Unified School District set a reopening date, as several other local school districts move forward with reopening.
Sep 22, 2020
Rocklin Unified School District reopened classrooms Monday, and more than 10,000 students returned to their campuses — the first time since closures were ordered in March.
Sep 21, 2020
Two opposing responses to distance learning have sparked passionate debate among Atascadero Unified School District parents as the district prepares to apply for a waiver from the San Luis Obispo County Public Health Department that would allow elementary school students to go back to in-person classes.
Sep 21, 2020
Voters in the Sausalito Marin City School District will weigh in Nov. 3 on Measure P, a $41.6 million bond to finance repairs and upgrades at the district’s two campuses.
Sep 21, 2020
With 11 weeks left in the fall semester, more than 50 Marin schools have approved coronavirus safety plans that could clear the way for in-person instruction when public health restrictions allow.
Sep 21, 2020
As the date to reopen classrooms in Orange County inches closer, the effort to hold off on resuming in-person instruction during a global pandemic continues in Irvine.
Sep 21, 2020
As the Newport-Mesa Unified School District prepares for students to return to classrooms at the end of the month, opposition to its reopening plans is mounting from concerned community members.
Sep 21, 2020
Questions have risen about how schools and the Orange County’s Health Care Agency will respond to a student or school employee getting sick on campus with classroom reopenings set to take place at many districts in the weeks to come.
Sep 21, 2020
Just two days after San Marcos Unified School District approved a plan for in-person learning, San Diego County health officials warned that the region’s lapse into the highest risk tier for COVID-19 could put all such school reopening plans on pause.
Sep 21, 2020
The Knights Ferry Elementary School District on Wednesday became the first public school district in Stanislaus County to have its reopening plan for TK-6 in-person education approved.
Sep 21, 2020
An African-American woman who is being paid by Marin educators to conduct racial equity training for students, teachers and parents has been called out for partisan posts she made on Twitter.
Sep 21, 2020
Two months after a divided Los Angeles Unified school board slashed funding for its police department by more than a third, the contours of a dramatically diminished force emerged this week.
Sep 21, 2020
The San Diego Unified School District announced late Friday that student enrollment numbers have dropped below projections made before the coronavirus pandemic forced schools to close.
Sep 21, 2020
Many schools have reopened, either by outsourcing their facilities to established providers like the Y or by rebranding as day camps, which are license-exempt and virtually unregulated in California.
Sep 21, 2020
As schools throughout California tiptoe toward reopening, decisions about whether to routinely test teachers, staff and even students for the COVID-19 virus are proving controversial – and potentially costly.
Sep 21, 2020
Many San Diego-area school districts and charter schools are staying closed for the near future, though some of them are planning to hold in-person sessions for some special education students.
Sep 21, 2020
Weeks into the new school year, San Diego County school leaders are working to get online access to thousands of students whose families lack reliable internet connections.
Sep 18, 2020
If you close your eyes, Celeste Gonzalez’s kindergarten classroom sounds like a traditional kindergarten class. But Gonzalez’s classroom no longer looks like the traditional kindergarten classroom where students would congregate on the floor for story time or at tables for science.
Sep 18, 2020
Moorpark school leaders indicated they hoped to have some students on campus by Oct. 5. It was too soon for administrators at Conejo Unified to determine when students and teachers could resume in-person learning.
Sep 18, 2020
Monterey County school districts can now apply for waivers allowing in-person instruction for elementary schools after the county’s COVID-19 metrics fell below state limits.
Sep 18, 2020
The district is still in trouble down the road and will likely go insolvent. Mike Fine, chief executive officer at state's Fiscal Crisis and Management Assistance Team, said it’s not a matter of if, but when.
Sep 18, 2020
California public health officials said Thursday that if a county falls to the lowest tier of its state reopening system, schools in the county that have not reopened will lose their chance to reopen.
Sep 18, 2020
One year after the fatal assault on Diego Stolz, the criminal case against the Moreno Valley boy’s assailants, a lawsuit by his family and school district changes to prevent similar incidents continue.
Sep 18, 2020
Stanislaus, along with the majority of the 58 California counties, remains in the “purple tier,” the lowest in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s grading system that will go toward measuring the ability to begin fully reopening schools and businesses.
Sep 18, 2020
Special education in California may face vast challenges — funding shortfalls, teacher shortages and distance learning, to name a few — but Heather Calomese is undeterred.
Sep 17, 2020
Paso Robles Joint Unified School District and Atascadero Unified School District are both in the planning stage for applying for the waivers.
Sep 17, 2020
Camp Maranatha, located high in the mountain town of Idyllwild, is hosting as many as 20 students each weekday for distance learning. There has been another every day visitor to the campgrounds in Riverside County — a school bus.
Sep 17, 2020
Eureka City Schools will continue with distance learning through Jan. 22, a district board of trustees’ decision that prompted a protest Wednesday by around 50 students outside Eureka High School.
Sep 17, 2020
Teacher say the new civil rights movement seeks a fuller and more nuanced view of race in classrooms at a time when Sacramento-area schools are caught between Black Lives Matter protests and institutions struggling to adapt to the issues raised by the protests.
Sep 17, 2020
It’s all hands on deck in this household, where the challenges of teaching amid the COVID-19 era are endless. Amy Jacobsen leads the charge here. She is a career educator, 25 years in, with the last five in the Elk Grove Unified School District at John Reith Elementary.
Sep 17, 2020
The superintendent of the San Marcos Unified School District stepped down from her position Tuesday after two years marked by clashes with parents and teachers. The district announced her departure at its regular school board meeting Tuesday.
Sep 17, 2020
Equipped with Wi-Fi, the Hemet Unified School District has been rolling out two buses each school day to help students who live in remote areas partake in online learning.
Sep 17, 2020
Stanislaus County’s largest school district is grappling with questions about reopening schools for young students in a county where coronavirus infections have slowed down but are still considered “widespread.”
Sep 17, 2020
A draft of the “Safe Schools Re-Opening Plan” for in-person transitional-kindergarten through sixth-grade education during the COVID-19 pandemic was presented to the Turlock Unified School District Board of Trustees on Tuesday night.
Sep 17, 2020
Like thousands of Southern California teachers, Quinones is grappling with this new reality. Distance learning and the COVID-19 pandemic that necessitated it have stretched many educators’ finances and psychological well-being.
Sep 17, 2020
The San Jose Unified School District on Wednesday announced it is extending distance learning through the end of the year, a decision officials say was influenced in part by COVID-19 case counts and inadequate testing and contact tracing.
Sep 17, 2020
In a continuing series, EdSource will be tracking families throughout the state. We’ll find out what’s working, what’s not and how students and their families feel about the state of our K-12 public education system as it adapts to these tumultuous times.
Sep 17, 2020
Orange County’s third largest district announced at its board meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 15, that it will no longer plan on returning students to campuses in October.
Sep 17, 2020
The Rocklin Teachers Professional Association announced Wednesday it was filing the grievance against the Rocklin Unified School District after the district announced plans to reopen its hybrid model next Monday.
Sep 16, 2020
California leads the nation in the installation of solar power systems at local schools. A new report card finds a third of the nation’s solar-powered schools are in the Golden State. The state also has 45% of the solar capacity at the nation’s schools.
Sep 16, 2020
The Cupertino Union School District may have to close a handful of elementary schools starting next academic year and shuffle students to other campuses to make up for $5 million to $7 million in projected revenue losses because of declining enrollment.
Sep 16, 2020
Not satisfied with the $25 million that the Los Angeles Unified school board cut from the district’s police department this summer, students and social justice activists are continuing to press for a full defunding of the program.
Sep 16, 2020
Six months after schools closed amid the coronavirus crisis and with online learning in full swing, tens of thousand of students remain without adequate digital access and school districts in Los Angeles County report they still need nearly 50,000 computers and Wi-Fi hot spots.
Sep 16, 2020
The district confirmed to CapRadio that it faces financial penalties if it does not adequately track attendance and the amount of learning — live or independent study — that takes place among its 42,000 students.
Sep 16, 2020
A different sort of virus — ransomware — has taken down the computer system at the Newhall School District, forcing a shutdown of distance learning for some 6,000 elementary school students, officials said.
Sep 16, 2020
If Gov. Gavin Newsom accepts the recommendation of his advisers at the California Department of Finance and ignores the Legislature’s near-unanimous vote favoring the significant reform, he’ll veto the legislation within the next few weeks.
Sep 16, 2020
San Diego legislators and others are calling for Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill that would require ethnic studies for high school students, a bill that has sat on his desk for two weeks.
Sep 15, 2020
Bayside Martin Luther King Jr. Academy in Marin City opened for in-person classes Monday after a weeklong delay for coronavirus retesting.
Sep 15, 2020
The La Mesa-Spring Valley School District has been awarded $415,000 from a U.S. Department of Justice program aimed at preventing school violence, federal authorities said last week.
Sep 15, 2020
Schools may work with cohorts, or pods, of no more than 14 children and no more than two supervising adults in a supervised environment in which all stay together for all activities including meals and breaks and avoid contact with people outside of their group.
Sep 15, 2020
The family of Diego Stolz, a middle school student who died after being assaulted by two classmates, has sued the Moreno Valley Unified School District, alleging it failed to take their previous report of bullying seriously and is responsible for his death.
Sep 15, 2020
All 80 school districts in Los Angeles County are closed to the general student population until at least November. But when the time comes, a coronavirus test will be a crucial part of the reopening process in the state’s largest school district.
Sep 15, 2020
Many California parents are opting out of kindergarten this year, due to concerns about whether distance learning or attending school for the first time with strangers in masks will be good for children.
Sep 15, 2020
Shashona Holmon couldn’t stop smiling as she dropped off her daughter Brooklynn at the Merced Heights Playground on Monday morning. For the first time in six months, Brooklynn Holmon, 9, left home to learn.
Sep 15, 2020
There were temperature checks for students and desks spread out. Hallways marked so students would only walk in one direction, cutting down on congestion. Everyone was in masks.
Sep 14, 2020
Early this month, the state announced it would allow school districts, even in counties like Kern that are on the most restricted tier for COVID-19, to bring back key groups of students for in-person learning. This week, the boards of two school districts, Arvin Union and Fruitvale, passed plans to bring back some of the students they say have the most to lose in a distance learning environment.
Sep 14, 2020
As the worst wildfire season in decades scorches the West amid a still raging pandemic, families and educators who were already starting the strangest and most challenging school year of their lifetimes have been traumatized all over again.
Sep 14, 2020
Orange County’s Board of Education efforts to sue Gov. Gavin Newsom’s over in person instruction was denied by the state supreme court less than two weeks before classrooms are expected to open up again in the county.
Sep 14, 2020
The pandemic has changed what being a teacher looks like. It means a bigger workload and a greater effort to reach students to keep them engaged in lessons. Each district has its own challenges as well.
Sep 14, 2020
The Coronavirus pandemic has had a great impact on districts since thousands of teachers and students were thrown into virtual classrooms with little to no time to prepare after the pandemic hit Orange County back in March.
Sep 14, 2020
The message included a string of profanity, sexual language, and the phrase “go kill yourself.” District officials couldn’t immediately say whether the message was directed at anyone in particular.
Sep 14, 2020
Board president Frances Nguyen is under scrutiny for changing precincts to run in the upcoming election. Twice, she listed residencies with the Orange County Registrar of Voters that differed from her longtime home.
Sep 14, 2020
Orange County’s second smallest district has applied for the state’s elementary school waiver for in-person instruction in hopes of having another option if coronavirus cases in the county begin to trend upward again.
Sep 14, 2020
North County school districts are moving toward reopening campuses, with phased plans for in-person instruction that focus on the youngest and most vulnerable students first. Special-education students and English learners will return on campus for extra help.
Sep 14, 2020
Public schools in several states, including California, are dropping a controversial online learning program called Acellus after parents say they have found racist, sexist and other offensive content in the curriculum.
Sep 14, 2020
In 2007, San Bernardino County prosecutors indicted the Hesperia mayor and California Charter Academy founder on suspicion of misappropriating $5.5 million in state and federal funds. Thirteen years later, they have never been tried.
Sep 14, 2020
In sprawling and diverse Orange and San Diego counties school district leaders face disparate situations and complicated decisions that must take into account neighborhood COVID-19 rates, the size of the district, parent opinions and negotiations with employee unions.
Sep 14, 2020
As the dispute between the Sacramento City Teachers’ Association and the school district wages on, parents of students with disabilities are concerned that the ongoing argument is causing harm to the district’s most vulnerable.
Sep 14, 2020
But this week, the Slater fire devastated Happy Camp Elementary School, destroying 150 homes and killing two people. Half of the elementary school staff lost their homes, and administrators estimate that half of the 109 students are now homeless.
Sep 14, 2020
As California’s summer surge of coronavirus cases fades and more schools transition from online distance learning to in-class instruction, it’s likely some students and teachers will be infected. And there’s no guarantee the public will find out about it.
Sep 14, 2020
An Inspire-affiliated charter school is suing its parent corporation, alleging it stole millions of state education dollars from the school’s accounts and that it transferred the school’s money to other entities without the school’s knowledge or permission.
Sep 11, 2020
Days after opening for in-person learning, two Yreka Union School District staff members have tested positive for COVID-19, the district announced Thursday. They were asymptomatic, said superintendent Chris Harris, and their names will not be released.
Sep 11, 2020
The Long Beach Unified School District will continue with online classes through Jan. 28 because of the coronavirus pandemic, the district’s superintendent announced Thursday, Sept. 10.
Sep 11, 2020
The Rialto Unified School District expects distance learning for high school students to resume next week, spokeswoman Syeda Jafri said Thursday afternoon, Sept. 10. Rialto Unified’s system was the target of a malware attack in late August, which forced the district’s Bridge Academy online distance learning program offline for several days.
Sep 11, 2020
Within the California Department of Public Health’s COVID-19 reopening guidelines, schools are able to start in-person instruction if they are located in a county that has been off on the monitoring list for 14 days.
Sep 11, 2020
Santa Ana Unified School District leaders have yet to set a day for when students might be returning to its campuses for in-person learning. The Santa Ana school board met Tuesday and discussed the updates, but no timetable has been established.
Sep 11, 2020
Trustees voted 3-to-2 to censure Ellie Householder for commenting on Aug. 14 that student demonstrators had a “visible effect on school board members,” specifically Trustee Mary Rocha.
Sep 11, 2020
Gov. Gavin Newsom has named Brooks Allen, a former civil rights attorney and staff counsel for the State Board of Education, to the dual role of the state board’s next executive director and education policy adviser to the governor.
Sep 11, 2020
Palo Alto Unified School District Superintendent Don Austin said the program called PAUSDPlus is designed to support students that struggled to adapt to an online learning environment and need the in-person supervision of tutors and adults to “stay engaged and logged in.”
Sep 11, 2020
Children in the Sacramento City Unified School District started the school year with no clear plan for distance learning during the pandemic, following an impasse between the teachers union and administrators over a contract.
Sep 11, 2020
No campus in Los Angeles County will be allowed to reopen to all K-12 students until at least November, although schools can begin to offer small in-person classes for children with special needs at no more than 10% of capacity at one time.
Sep 10, 2020
Tamalpais Union High School District officials unanimously adopted an anti-racism resolution this week, showing what they said was a commitment to changing the culture in the educational system and school community.
Sep 10, 2020
Most Bay Area schools plan to test staff, per state and county guidance that says schools should periodically test adults but not students, as part of their plans to restart in-person instruction.
Sep 10, 2020
Stanislaus County’s largest school district is grappling with questions about reopening schools for young students in a county where coronavirus infections have slowed down but are still considered “widespread.”
Sep 10, 2020
The Orange County Board of Education’s bid to force California to re-open school campuses for in-person learning ended Wednesday when the California Supreme Court refused to hear the case.
Sep 10, 2020
Nearly every Orange County elementary school that sought a waiver to hold in-person instruction got the OK to proceed with campus learning as of Tuesday, Sept. 8.
Sep 10, 2020
Just as students and teachers across California are adjusting to distance learning, many districts are bracing for a new challenge, one that may be even more daunting: How — and when — to re-open campuses safely.
Sep 09, 2020
The valley's three public school districts are back in session, starting the school year with distance learning until state and county health officials allow classrooms to reopen. To date, none have applied for waivers to reopen.
Sep 09, 2020
Fresno Unified employed 3,626 teachers in 2017-18, and 165, or 4.6%, were Black. Out of about 73,000 students that year, 8% were Black, and just under 10% were white. Yet about 57% of the district’s teachers were white.
Sep 09, 2020
Wearing backpacks and face masks, students at Ocean Air Elementary School arrived Tuesday for their first back-to-school session since campuses shut their doors in March.
Sep 09, 2020
More than 42,000 students in the Sacramento City Unified School District began their first full day of instruction on Tuesday, but some families began the morning confused with which schedule to follow.
Sep 09, 2020
Bayside Martin Luther King Jr. Academy was supposed to be one of the first Bay Area public campuses to reopen to in-person learning this fall, but not after a staff member’s coronavirus test result came back questionable Monday.
Sep 08, 2020
Brian Biedermann, interim superintendent for the Stockton Unified School District, said his district has dead spots east of Franklin High School, where the landscape is more rural and there are fewer towers. He also said there are coverage gaps in areas of south Stockton, including the public housing complexes of Conway Homes and Sierra Vista Homes.
Sep 08, 2020
Some of the work will be completed this fall, some in 2021, while other parts of the project are in the planning and design stages.
Sep 08, 2020
Voters in the Tamalpais Union High School District will decide on Nov. 3 whether to approve Measure M and renew the parcel tax.
Sep 08, 2020
President Donald Trump threatened to cut off funding to California schools for their use of the New York Times' 1619 Project, an initiative that aims to reframe the nation's history with a focus on the consequences of slavery and the contributions of Black Americans.
Sep 08, 2020
Orange County’s largest school district has set plans for reopening schools for in-person instruction, and for joining the quest for an elementary school waiver.
Sep 08, 2020
If the school is closed, or more likely, offers online instruction only — and the parent has to miss work to attend to child care — they could qualify for payments, according to California’s Employment Development Department.
Sep 08, 2020
We asked readers how they were making distance learning work. What clever ideas had they created to make learning from home — often alongside parents working from home — more successful?
Sep 08, 2020
Citing safety concerns, the leader of the Los Angeles teachers union said Friday it opposes reopening campuses for small in-person classes or one-on-one services for students who are disabled or learning English.
Sep 08, 2020
Many high school seniors are scrambling to schedule SAT and ACT tests this fall even though most private and public colleges, including both of California’s massive state university systems, say they are not required during the pandemic.
Sep 08, 2020
Sacramento City Unified School District administrators say they’re moving forward with a COVID-19 distance learning plan on Tuesday, Sept. 8, and have filed a cease-and-desist order to compel cooperation from the district’s 2,500 teachers.
Sep 08, 2020
Tens of thousands of families in Sacramento are dealing with a new layer of uncertainty one day before Sacramento City Unified schools are set to begin their first full days of online instruction.
Sep 04, 2020
An academic year in which public education will intersect with public health has created back-to-school shopping lists unlike any other for California’s schools as they attempt to transition toward in-person instruction once they have the state’s blessing.
Sep 04, 2020
Even as school districts across Sonoma County are readying to open, some education leaders are raising the alarm about another risk related to the pandemic: lawsuits.
Sep 04, 2020
Two private schools in Kings County got the approval last week to reopen campuses despite the state requiring schools in the central San Joaquin Valley remain closed.
Sep 04, 2020
With Stanislaus County health officials now reviewing waiver applications submitted by schools seeking to reopen in-person learning for transitional-kindergarten through sixth-grade students, several districts are readying plans.
At Lucerne Valley Elementary in Southern California’s high desert, hundreds of students have returned to in-person learning and a dramatically different school day.
Sep 04, 2020
San Diego school and congressional leaders are calling on the Senate to pass the HEROES Act coronavirus aid package because it contains billions in school aid they say is needed for schools to safely reopen.
Sep 04, 2020
School districts will manage themselves in the event of a coronavirus outbreak on a campus once they are able to return to in-person instruction, which for most public districts is on track to be allowed as of Sept. 22, Orange County officials said Thursday, Sept. 3.
Sep 04, 2020
There is little normal about the start of this academic year amid the coronavirus pandemic that has closed school campuses and heaped on challenges for administrators, teachers, counselors and students.
Sep 04, 2020
Twin Rivers Unified is embarking on an ambitious plan, inching closer to the day its campuses will reopen by ordering thousands of saliva-based COVID-19 testing kits.
Sep 03, 2020
A North County charter school is asking the county Office of Education to approve its transfer to the Paso Robles Unified School District after that district rejected the request earlier this year.
Sep 03, 2020
Marin education officials are referring details about Ross Valley Charter’s $270,000 federal coronavirus relief loan to the state for review.
Sep 03, 2020
Bob Marcucci, principal at Davidson Middle School in San Rafael, has been selected as assistant superintendent of business services for San Rafael City Schools.
Sep 03, 2020
A petition urging for Edgenuity to be removed from Chico USD schools began earlier this week and has since accumulated over 1,500 signatures. Though it’s the third week of school, Edgenuity has been used for two weeks at the high school level and for three days within the junior high schools.
Sep 03, 2020
More than $130,000 has been raised for a family in California after a photo of two young girls using the free WiFi in a Taco Bell parking lot to complete their school work went viral last week.
Sep 03, 2020
Fourteen elementary schools in San Mateo County and two schools and three public districts in Santa Clara County have been approved to reopen for in-person instruction, some as soon as next week.
Sep 03, 2020
A complaint lodged this week accuses Clovis High School teachers and staff of creating “racially hostile environments” by repeatedly traumatizing a Black student over several years.
Sep 03, 2020
Some younger students could be returning to campuses in Stanislaus County as early as this month after the area’s COVID-19 infection rate continued to drop, officials said on Wednesday.
Sep 03, 2020
Modesto City Schools, Ceres Unified and perhaps other districts are responding to incidents of students being exposed to or directed to inappropriate content.
Sep 02, 2020
Most Ventura County schools are still closed to in-person learning, but on-campus supervision, like the one in the Camarillo district, allows some students to participate in remote learning from school sites.
Sep 02, 2020
From preschool to high school, teachers had to find creative ways to keep students engaged while learning through a screen.
Sep 02, 2020
Just two days before the school year is scheduled to begin, the Sacramento City Unified School District and its teachers union have reached an impasse and will need a state mediator to help reach an agreement on how to proceed with their district learning plan.
Sep 02, 2020
The Sweetwater Union High School Board has fired its superintendent, Karen Janney, two months after a state audit found evidence of potential financial fraud in the district. The board voted 4-1 during a closed session Monday afternoon to terminate Janney.
Sep 02, 2020
The district gave the family a hotspot so the students could access classroom instructions from their home. The district is in full distance learning mode and said they’ve distributed 8,245 Chromebooks, 1,500 hotspots and are awaiting 2,500 additional hotspots.
Sep 02, 2020
Since Modesto City Schools started its academic year Aug. 10, groups of staff at four facilities have been quarantined because of exposure to COVID-19, the district reported Tuesday.
Sep 02, 2020
Kindergarten enrollment is down sharply in Los Angeles public schools and elsewhere, signaling that many parents of the state’s youngest students face heavy burdens with online learning.
Sep 02, 2020
San Francisco health officials will require schools to apply for permission to reopen, despite the state’s blessing to reopen classrooms for in-person learning, city officials said Tuesday.
Sep 02, 2020
The end of the legislative session Monday meant the demise of three bills that would have allowed teachers to take fewer tests to prove they are ready to teach.
Sep 02, 2020
Anticipating that the coronavirus would create a turbulent and financially unstable year, the Legislature agreed in June to fund schools at the same levels of student attendance in 2020-21 as in 2019-20.
Sep 02, 2020
In the five months since most Californians were ordered to shelter in place, parents and caretakers of preschool students have largely been left to fill the learning gap that began to widen when schools closed in the spring.
Sep 02, 2020
As San Diego County reached the threshold for reopening schools in person Tuesday, teachers representatives from South County districts said their area is still a hotspot for COVID-19 infections, and schools haven’t ironed out the details of reopening safely.
Sep 02, 2020
The first day of school is set to start this Thursday for Sacramento City schools’ nearly 47,000 students, but the school district and the teachers’ union have reached an impasse on how distance learning can best be done.
Sep 01, 2020
BCSD’s Superintendent Doc Ervin announced in a letter sent to BCSD employees on Friday that he will be taking a medical leave of absence after receiving a cancer diagnosis.
Sep 01, 2020
The school year got underway at Yreka High School last week, with students returning to campus and adjusting to school life during a pandemic.
Sep 01, 2020
After a summer of negotiations between the district and the Teachers Association of Long Beach, which ultimately provided most faculty with the option to work either from home or at school, the first day of the academic year has arrived.
Sep 01, 2020
After Labor Day weekend, school districts in Orange County may have the green light to open up classrooms once again and allow students to return to in-person instruction during a global pandemic.
Sep 01, 2020
With the fall semester in full swing, schools across the nation continue to struggle with the new technology issues that distance learning brings, including ransomware attacks and downed fiber lines.
Sep 01, 2020
Teachers around the Sacramento region are returning to the virtual classroom once again. But just out of their students’ view, often sitting at the same table or within earshot, are more children – their own children.
Sep 01, 2020
On Tuesday all of San Diego County’s 861 public and private schools will get the green light to reopen, provided the county’s COVID-19 rate stays below 100 cases per 100,000 people.
Sep 01, 2020
The Vista Unified School District has hired 30 new teachers to help students who fell behind during spring school closures to stay on track for the coming academic year, while making up lost ground.
Sep 01, 2020
Average daily attendance and overall enrollment in Los Angeles Unified School District were down slightly in the first week of distance-learning compared to years past, the district reported Monday, Aug. 31.
Sep 01, 2020
The US Department of Agriculture announced Monday that it is extending the federal waivers that allow schools to offer free grab-and-go meals to any student, regardless of eligibility.
Sep 01, 2020
Gov. Newsom released the “Blueprint for a Safer Economy” on Aug. 28 that changed the way the state monitors counties to determine when schools can open for in-person instruction although its principal impact will be on when businesses can reopen.
Sep 01, 2020
The Legislature adjourned Monday without having resolved what school districts say is a huge barrier to returning to in-school instruction: legal protection from Covid-19-related lawsuits.
Sep 01, 2020
Orange County’s schools may be able to open in-person on Sept. 22 – not Sept. 8 – the Orange County Health Care Agency announced late Monday night via Twitter.
Sep 01, 2020
AB 1350 would authorize districts to retroactively grant a high school diploma to a student who was in their senior year of high school during the 2019–2020 school year, but did not graduate because of the pandemic.
Sep 01, 2020
Brian Cooper sat in front of his computer at Santa Cruz High School on Monday morning, getting ready to teach integrated math to an empty classroom. His first lesson wasn’t about equations. It was about resilience and empathy.
Sep 01, 2020
Every high school student in California would be required to take a course on the contributions of racial and ethnic groups that have been oppressed and exploited through U.S. history, under a bill now on Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk.
Aug 31, 2020
Kern County music teachers are doing what might have seemed unthinkable a year ago: teaching thousands of students to sing and play instruments over an internet connection.
Aug 31, 2020
Momentum is growing to reopen schools amid the coronavirus pandemic in Sacramento and around the state, but in a limited way that Gov. Gavin Newsom and health officials say will be safe and controllable.
Aug 31, 2020
A probe into an alarming, racist social media chat in 2015 among then-students of Vista Murrieta High School has concluded without finding that teachers, coaches or other employees knew about the hateful exchange and covered it up.
Pleasanton is the latest city to take a hard look at the role of police in the community and schools — and how to respond to mental health calls. The city agreed to revise its police use of force policies and possibly remove school resource officers.
Aug 31, 2020
San Francisco students could start heading back to classrooms in two weeks after the city gained a new state coronavirus classification allowing more businesses and community activities to resume.
Aug 31, 2020
A video circulating on social media depicts individuals making racial slurs directed at a Buhach Colony High teacher, the latest in a string of similar incidents at that school and another in Merced County.
Aug 31, 2020
As coronavirus caseloads drop, the prospect of reopening schools improves, although new state guidelines will not lead to a quicker return to campus. In most counties, including Los Angeles, the new rules have no immediate effect on schools because disease rates remain too high.
Aug 31, 2020
Beginning Monday, California school leaders will be closely watching the color their counties are assigned in the weeks or months ahead on a new ranking system that will determine when schools can open for in-person instruction and what businesses can reopen.
Aug 31, 2020
The Saddleback Valley Unified School District has sent layoff notices to 174 of its employees. The notices were made because out of concern those employees won’t be needed if in-class instruction doesn’t resume in coming weeks.
Aug 31, 2020
More employees at local school districts have tested positive for coronavirus, according to officials. Sacramento City Unified confirmed two different employee infections across the district, and an Elk Grove Unified School District employee tested positive earlier this month.
Aug 28, 2020
The Chico Unified School District will be dropping the online curriculum Acellus after complaints from parents stated that the content featured offensive material.
Aug 28, 2020
School classes may be held virtually in Fresno County, but kids are still being held to the same standards. Jane Banks, a Registered Nurse who serves as the Director of Health Services for the Fresno Unified School District, says the immunization schedule is a state requirement.
Aug 28, 2020
In a policy that has raised flags among some teachers and principals, but appears to be permitted by state law, students in the nation’s second-largest school district have several relatively easy ways to be counted as present for a day of school:
Aug 28, 2020
Fremont’s school board this week approved using nearly half of its remaining contingency funds from its last bond measure to cover additional costs to modernize Thornton Junior High School and convert it to a middle school.
Aug 28, 2020
Instead of the small learning groups and private tutors some wealthy parents are arranging for their children this school year, many low-income parents are turning to family members, neighbors and friends for child care and help navigating distance learning.
Aug 28, 2020
The superintendent of the San Leandro Unified School District is stepping up online security after the latest incident of Zoombombing this week — intruders invading a teacher’s classroom video feed to post lewd material or shout obscenities or insults.
Aug 28, 2020
Orange County is expected to receive the green light for in-person learning at all schools just before Labor Day if it continues to remain off the state’s watchlist. The county met the state’s six safety thresholds for case counts and hospitalizations last week.
Aug 28, 2020
School districts in Stanislaus County are working toward providing in-person instruction and other services to small groups of children including at-risk students, those with disabilities and other special needs, and English language learners.
Aug 28, 2020
San Diego Unified elementary students who are struggling academically or who are not meeting special education goals could go to school for in-person help as soon as late September, the district announced Thursday.
Aug 27, 2020
This school year, an increased number of Ventura County families opted to take on home schooling through local public school districts.
Aug 27, 2020
California is slowly allowing more children back into classrooms, some because of disabilities and special needs that can’t be met through distance learning and others in areas reporting success in keeping coronavirus numbers down.
Aug 27, 2020
Tension was high and tempers boiled over at times during Tuesday’s regularly scheduled meeting of the Stockton Unified School District Board of Education.
Aug 27, 2020
The nation’s most populous state will grapple with more schools beginning their academic years, as well as the start of flu season, as the calendar flips to the fall months.
Aug 27, 2020
A parent at Wilson Elementary School in Dinuba wrote about the omission in a now-deleted social media post. One of the school's teacher reportedly left out, “One nation, under God,” while leading the pledge.
Aug 27, 2020
The intense debate to return to the classrooms is months old and when the Orange County Board of Education recommended a reopening without masks or social distancing it drew reactions from across the country.
Aug 27, 2020
Several schools in Riverside and San Bernardino counties are preparing for the arrival of elementary students, but during the coronavirus pandemic, the brightly colored motivational posters and book shelves share the walls with reminders to wear masks.
Aug 27, 2020
After a conservative media personality reposted a screenshot of the teacher, threats poured in on social media, frightening her enough that she fled her home with her daughter and sought restraining orders against the parent and the media commentator.
Aug 27, 2020
California health officials have granted more than 100 waivers to allow districts and schools — mostly in Southern California — to reopen for in-class instruction in counties where only remote online instruction is allowed due to coronavirus outbreaks.
Aug 27, 2020
The California Department of Public Health on Tuesday published rules for opening school campuses to small numbers of students with disabilities and other students who need in-person support and services that can’t be met through distance learning.
Aug 27, 2020
In California, dozens of schools are grappling with massive wildfires that have wreaked disruption on the lives and education of tens of thousands of students that had already been disrupted by a global pandemic.
Aug 27, 2020
Millions of students and families in California and nationwide who have come to rely on free grab-and-go meals during the past five months of the pandemic may no longer qualify for the food service.
Aug 27, 2020
The California Supreme Court has taken the rare step of quickly taking up two lawsuits – one of them filed on behalf of the Orange County Board of Education – to reopen schools for in-class learning.
Aug 26, 2020
The Rialto Unified School District hopes to resume its distance learning program for pre-kindergarten to eighth grade early next week, spokeswoman Syeda Jafri said Tuesday, Aug. 25.
Aug 26, 2020
More California children with specialized needs, such as students with disabilities or those who are homeless, will be allowed back in classrooms even as most schools remain shut for in-person learning under new state guidance released Tuesday.
Aug 26, 2020
An investigation by the Department of Justice determined that the Oroville City Elementary School District and the Oroville Union High School District had discriminated against Black and Native American students and students with disabilities, according to a press release issued from the office of California Attorney General Xavier Bacerra on Tuesday.
Aug 26, 2020
San Diego County closed its school reopening waiver application process Monday night, anticipating all schools in the county will be allowed to reopen effective next Tuesday if the county keeps its COVID-19 rate down.
Aug 26, 2020
Amid a nationwide campaign calling for the removal of officers from schools, top San Jose Unified School District administrators say that keeping cops on campus will help their schools “maintain a sense of community.”
Aug 26, 2020
Third-grade teacher Janet Udomratsak teaches her Lancaster elementary school class remotely from her room at Providence Holy Cross Hospital in Mission Hills, where she has found a way to bond with her students at a Lancaster school district.
Aug 26, 2020
As school districts across California move forward with distance learning, many are navigating the complicated realities of this year’s essential back-to-school item: webcams.
Aug 26, 2020
Five elementary schools received a waiver from San Bernardino County that allows them to reopen while the county remains on a state coronavirus watch list.
Aug 26, 2020
The Los Angeles Unified School District’s board approved plans on Tuesday afternoon, Aug. 25, to make completion of an Ethnic Studies class a high school graduation requirement by the 2023-24 school year.
Aug 25, 2020
During remote learning, what rules apply? Some in Ventura County say not many – yet.
Aug 25, 2020
Students in the Bonny Doon school district had been back in class — virtually — for two days before the wildfires forced them to evacuate, many fleeing for their lives in the middle of the night Wednesday.
Aug 25, 2020
Even the experts are struggling at teaching their kids from home during the coronavirus pandemic.
Aug 25, 2020
First, an adjusted rate of infection in the county has to fall to a level where districts are eligible for waivers to reopen elementary schools for kindergarten to sixth grade students while the county remains on the state’s COVID-19 watch list.
Aug 25, 2020
Marin students and teachers pivoted to alternative online platforms after a widespread outage at the video conferencing company Zoom early Monday.
Aug 25, 2020
While the vast majority of California students are starting the academic year online, something extraordinary happened in this public school district in rural Northern California: Students sat in classrooms.
Aug 25, 2020
About 12 desks and chairs were spread out six feet apart around the classroom, but they were empty. Along one wall, 20 more desks and chairs were stacked up and out of the way.
Aug 25, 2020
While at least a dozen schools or school districts have applied for a waiver that would allow them to conduct in-person classes in Riverside County, none of those schools are in the Coachella Valley.
Aug 25, 2020
Compared to the previous year, thousands of more Fresno Unified School District students missed class during the first week of distance learning.
Aug 25, 2020
As county coronavirus case loads drop, the prospect of reopening schools improves. Last week health officials granted school reopening waivers to 30 elementary schools in Orange County. L.A. County’s chief medical officer said local coronavirus numbers may soon drop enough to consider elementary school waivers as well.
Aug 25, 2020
One week after opening its classrooms to in-person instruction, Rescue Union School District informed the public that a student tested positive for COVID-19.
Aug 25, 2020
The launch of the ambitious program was pushed back due to the recent record-breaking heat, Beutner said during his weekly update via video message on the LAUSD webpage. The testing materials are not stable in high temperatures, he said.
Aug 25, 2020
The Rialto Unified School District has suspended high school classes indefinitely under its Bridge Academy online distance learning program while the district’s information technology department investigates a malware attack on its systems.
Aug 24, 2020
The Panama-Buena Vista Union School District has announced its plans for providing breakfast and lunch to enrolled students beginning Monday.
Aug 24, 2020
With cases, deaths and the rate of positive tests from coronavirus spiking locally, Sonoma County school districts are being directed by public health and education leaders to immediately begin planning to continue distance learning through December.
Aug 24, 2020
The new school year is utterly exasperating for parents and school officials in the new coronavirus world as they struggle to make plans amid ever-changing state rules – rules that can differ by the week and by the county, depending how well each county is doing in efforts to suppress COVID-19.
Aug 24, 2020
Sacramento City Unified School District could run out of cash as soon as February 2021, which would prompt the state to take over.
Aug 24, 2020
Many Orange County school districts have opened the new school year with students at home, and more have start dates coming up next week with children distance learning. But school officials say they are encouraged that in-person instruction could resume in the not-so-distant future based on the county’s anticipated exit Sunday, Aug. 23, from the state watch list for coronavirus-troubled counties.
Aug 24, 2020
Patterson Joint Unified School District, which this summer pushed back the starting date of its school year to Sept. 8 in hopes the COVID-19 outbreak would be under control and it could provide in-person instruction, will launch with distance learning and provide free internet service for all students.
Aug 24, 2020
Stanislaus County is inviting school districts to apply for waivers so that elementary schools can reopen for classroom instruction even as the county remains under state monitoring as a coronavirus hot spot in California.
Aug 24, 2020
A recent report about how to safely reopen schools, written by nine health and science experts at UC San Diego to aid in San Diego Unified’s reopening plans, raises some questions about the way California is allowing schools to reopen.
Aug 24, 2020
An email sent Thursday morning to Fortuna Elementary School District personnel warned of 10 positive cases of COVID-19 in the area.
Aug 24, 2020
The Orange County Health Care Agency has announced that state waivers have been approved for in-person classes to begin at about 24 private elementary schools and one public school district serving kindergarten through sixth grade.
Aug 24, 2020
Fifteen public and private Marin elementary schools applied for waivers to open for in-person classroom instruction, Marin public health officials said Friday.
Aug 24, 2020
The major school districts in the South Bay — including Redondo Beach, Manhattan Beach, Palos Verdes Peninsula and Torrance unified school districts — all begin their academic years next week. And they will all conduct classes virtually, at least to start.
Aug 24, 2020
Online classes planned by the Rialto Unified School District were canceled for Monday, Aug. 24, after some district technology was crippled by a malware attack, officials said over the weekend.
Aug 24, 2020
More than half of California school districts don’t have a nurse on staff to help them implement their plans to reopen safely. In many other districts, a single nurse is responsible for multiple schools and thousands of students.
Aug 21, 2020
While the “Do The Math” program has been a boon for parents of Kern County schools students seeking extra help for their children, it could prove to be even more valuable during the COVID-19 pandemic and with distance learning in place.
Aug 21, 2020
Using lessons learned from spring, administrators and technology leaders at school districts across Ventura County are realizing that getting computers into students' hands is just the first step.
Aug 21, 2020
Eighteen elementary schools or districts in San Bernardino County have applied for a waiver to reopen even though the county remains on a state watch list because of the number of new coronavirus cases.
Aug 21, 2020
The Klamath-Trinity Joint Unified School District began its new academic year Thursday under remote instruction, a format that may pose unique challenges for schools in a rural region of Humboldt County, the district’s new superintendent said.
Aug 21, 2020
Thursday marks the first day of school for students who attend the sole elementary school within the Lucerne Valley Unified School District and unlike most California students, they were given state approval to start the 2020-21 academic year on campus using a hybrid model.
Aug 21, 2020
Despite disturbing numbers of young people dying of COVID-19, Los Angeles County’s chief medical officer said Thursday that new coronavirus cases may soon drop enough to allow officials to apply for waivers to reopen elementary schools.
Aug 21, 2020
Scores of Orange County elementary schools are trying to reopen their classrooms through waivers that have been sent to state officials that would allow reopenings as the county’s virus trends have relaxed this month.
Aug 21, 2020
Santa Ana Unified School District students are experiencing smoother routes to their online classes after hitting a technical roadblock on the first day of the new school year, officials said.
Aug 21, 2020
Placer County was removed off the state’s monitoring list. While county residents can breathe a sigh of relief, what that means for students and their shuttered schools is even more significant.
Aug 21, 2020
The Families First act guarantees that parents and guardians of school-aged children can take up to 12 weeks of leave at two-thirds of their regular pay, capped at $200 a day, if local schools and daycares are physically closed due to the pandemic.
Aug 21, 2020
The incidents took place Monday, Aug. 17, and Tuesday, Aug. 18, and included inappropriate language and content of a graphic nature, district spokeswoman Francinni Zabata said.
Aug 21, 2020
In addition to teachers and principals working to welcome kids to a richer distance-learning environment, tech staffs are getting devices into student hands and making sure families can use them and get online.
Aug 21, 2020
Formal instruction began Thursday in Los Angeles public schools as students, parents and teachers attempted to project a positive face on the difficult work of distance-learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Aug 21, 2020
Dozens of parents rallied outside the headquarters for United Teachers Los Angeles on Wednesday, Aug. 19, to demand the union representing 35,000 teachers in L.A. Unified switch positions and support reopening campuses for those students who want to attend.
Aug 21, 2020
Many of our readers have sent us questions seeking clarification on numerous key issues. Scroll down to see the answers to your most frequently asked questions, or use the links to the right to jump to a specific topic.
Aug 21, 2020
Some small schools in Northern California, which had already opened for in-person instruction, were plunged into confusion this week when their county was placed on the state’s Covid-19 monitoring list.
Aug 20, 2020
Two of Marin’s largest school districts — San Rafael City Schools and Novato Unified School District — begin classes Thursday for the 2020-21 school year. Schools in both districts are starting all classes in distance learning mode until at least later this fall, depending on public health guidance and whether Marin is able to get off the state watch list for numbers of coronavirus cases.
Aug 20, 2020
Several parents on Tuesday called for the San Joaquin County Public Health Officer to disregard orders from Gov. Gavin Newsom to keep schools closed during the COVID-19 pandemic, stating their children will benefit more from in-person instruction.
Aug 20, 2020
Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, every school in Butte County must operate with distance or online learning. Insufficient internet connectivity in rural and remote areas is making it challenging for students to attend school.
Aug 20, 2020
The Chico Unified School District will take the first steps to apply for the elementary school coronavirus waiver after the Chico Unified School Board unanimously voted to begin the application process.
Aug 20, 2020
The county can proceed with on-campus learning at colleges and universities if it stays off the watchlist for three straight days. But it would need to have “good data” for 14 consecutive days to reopen K-12 campuses.
Aug 20, 2020
This week in the nation’s second-largest school district, parents and students powered up computers for some 1,400 Zoom assemblies. They met their teachers in online introductions Wednesday.
Aug 20, 2020
Dozens of parents rallied outside the headquarters for United Teachers Los Angeles on Wednesday, Aug. 19, to demand the union representing 35,000 teachers in L.A. Unified switch positions and support reopening campuses for those students who want to attend.
Aug 20, 2020
Nineteen San Diego-area schools are the first to get county approval to reopen, having obtained waivers from the state’s school closure mandate. They are all private schools except for one school district, the small Rancho Santa Fe district.
Aug 19, 2020
LBUSD and its teachers union have struck a deal at last to allow faculty some flexibility on where they teach during the upcoming semester, which will be entirely virtual because of the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The new academic year begins Sept. 1.
Aug 19, 2020
Ferndale High, Ferndale Elementary and Rio Dell Elementary schools will begin in-person instruction at the end of the month.
Aug 19, 2020
Distance learning got off to a rough start in the Fresno area after students at one school turned an email into a 1,000+ reply chain, which included memes, and a student mooning the camera.
Aug 19, 2020
All of the drama comes ahead of an election this November where two seats on the Westminster School District’s Board of Trustees are up for grabs. The newly vacant seat could either be filled by special election or appointment.
Aug 19, 2020
Learning pods are a popular substitute for in-person learning as schools remain closed for the pandemic, but they have garnered a reputation among many for costing money and not being equally accessible to low-income families.
Aug 19, 2020
While schools can’t provide in-person classes, there are no state rules prohibiting schools from offering other in-person support programs for students, County Superintendent Paul Gothold said recently.
Aug 19, 2020
With roughly 35,000 students about to start classes again on Aug. 26, Fremont educators say they’re confident their distance learning plans will be a success but some parents are fretting that there might not be enough live instruction.
Aug 19, 2020
Because of the resurgent coronavirus pandemic, everything about the new school year has changed. Instead of attending classes, students were logging onto their computers.
Aug 19, 2020
Six students walked into their Indian Diggings Elementary School classroom on Monday for the first time since March when Covid-19 shut down all classes statewide.
Aug 18, 2020
As it stands now, some students will receive meals for free and some will have to pay, which makes it more difficult to distribute thousands of meals in school parking lots in 100-degree heat while trying to maintain social distancing.
Aug 18, 2020
Corona Elementary School in Ontario has been closed and placed on lockdown after a staff member tested positive for the coronavirus, the school district reported on Monday, Aug.17.
Aug 18, 2020
The first day of school in Chico on Monday was unlike anything parents might imagine before 2020 — teachers in empty classrooms, students on laptops at home, and lightning in the skies.
Aug 18, 2020
Most schools in California will not be reopening for in-person education this month -- but one superintendent in the Los Angeles area has come up with a plan to welcome some students back to class. And it doesn't involve their teachers.
Aug 18, 2020
Kristina Moore’s daughter attends a distance learning camp where city staff supervise 50 students in kindergarten through sixth grade through a schedule of remote class time, activities and food breaks.
Aug 18, 2020
With its biggest tech fires put out by the third day of school last week, Modesto City Schools leaders said Monday that teachers now can really get down to the business of education.
Aug 18, 2020
California’s largest school district plans to provide coronavirus testing and contact tracing to hundreds of thousands of teachers and staff as part of an ambitious initiative being launched Monday.
Aug 18, 2020
Just as many schools are reopening virtually, a heat wave prompting rolling blackout power outages in some areas of California could throw new obstacles in the way of distance learning and back-to-school virtual events.
Aug 18, 2020
As more than 6 million California students head back to school this fall, this year isn’t about fresh notebooks, sharpened pencils and new backpacks.
Aug 18, 2020
Rescue Elementary opened its doors on Monday, inviting about 400 students back into the classroom for the fall, and bringing some scenes of normalcy to a new school year.
Rescue Union School District, home to 3,700 students at its five elementary schools and two middle schools, is able to open since the county has remained off of the state’s monitoring list and complied with the long list of requirements to reopen.
Masks will be required at every level. In elementary schools, half of students will end their day at lunchtime, before the other half arrives. Middle and high school kids will trade off and spend two days a week on campus.
At the June 23 Oceanside Unified School Board meeting, Trustee Mike Blessing asked staff to present an option for “100 percent return” in the fall, District Communications Director Matthew Jennings said.