State have been preparing for a more robust Online Education program than they could offer in the spring when the pandemic for struck. At that time teacrs and parents struggled with Distance Learning from simply getting online to getting assignments done. Tonight we consider the challenges and opportunities the new school year brings, when instruction shifts online. Joining me now via skype is our Senior Editor of education julia mcavoy. Also joining us his doctor alicia smith the executive director of E Education Trust west. Thank you both for joining us. It to be here. Julia lets start with you. Most of californias schoolchildren are going back to school this month but online only. There is a process to get a waiver for Elementary School ds. Can you teus about the criteria . Schools and districts which are in counties where the caseload is under 200 per 100,000 residents, they can apply. Than they have to meet all sorts of safety crittsia, plere Distance Learning, small cohorts of kids, a Clear Communication plan with parents. What they will do if a case services, there are a lot of things they had to plan for including the labor if their Public Schools before they can get approved by their local Public Health authority. A leash i want to lk to you about a poll you conducted with the Advocacy Organization you conducted a couple of surveys, one parents of School Aged Children through th grade another from zero through age 5 , what concerns did you hear from parents particularly when it comes to Distance Learning . We are coerned with parents across the state about their students and returning to school and whether or not they e would really that academic they needed to be able to get through this year. 90 of parents in that poll expressed concerns about Distance Learning and almost 40 of parents across california in the home noted they had issues with connecting to the internet or a lack of devices. We also heard a lot from parents about the inabity to actually provide food and other support systems as well. Isnt food being handled food is being handled at school sites across the state and one of the issues with that is it is reallyimportant and it has been a Great Service the schools have been providing come many schools did not budg to provide those services. Many of the fiscal issues we are all concerned arabout nd covid19 are really being set up to disproportionately impact schools next fall. If we dont get more assistance from the federal government directedtowards schools. There was also a National Poll released with results this week and it surveyed teachers, d specifically arois question of reopening schools. What are some key findings from that . I think what we are hearing from parents, there are a lot e of concerns and poll which queried a 500 teachers across the state, both private and publ, found that 82 of teachers are reallyouconcerned going back and really one in three of them really prefer to teach primarily remotely. E teachers ncerned about safety both of themselves, their families, and their students and i just dont think thofe is a lot stress right their counties can verify that would be a safe environment to return to at this po dt. Tance learning has also ig revealedgaps when it comes to equity for low income households and students of color. Could you share with us some of to these honorable communities, and if any of the problems that cropped up inthe spring seeming like they will be ddressed and adjusted th fall. Great question. In the spring the big problem r was this scramble digital devices and Internet Connections for i think it was over 1 million across the state. At this point the superintendent of schools Tony Thurmond the state superintendent has said 700,000 california students selectce deand about 300,000 lack internet hotspots. The Digital Divide remains a will be left out of the ents starting gate when it comes to online learning. I cant think ofa more fundamental equity issue than that aside wevgot kids at home with their parents might be at work, they cant monitor what they are doing online, they cant help them ordo work even understand what the teacher is asking for. Some of those children of front line workers are watching inthe si. Then you have kids in in a onem apartment with ow is five children and her parents are out working. To having ofquiet to r car just participate in a zoom lesson with her schools. She was embarrassed and didnt want to put the video onand as you can see for some kids especially when i think of kids of frontline workers you have a a lot of iers to participate including affluent families and their parents are help them figure things out. Alicia lets turn to the role of the state in all of this. Do you feel the state has been doing the wothey need to to provide guidance and help schools, teachers and students and parents succeed during this time . What should they be doing if you noel they are doing what they should. We believe there is a lot more the state can be doing. There is a lot oflanguage in the bill nothat doesprovide some guidance around instructional minutes and whether a student should get live instruction versus instruction. However there is a lot of room e for retation and what is currently there. We know that when there are no guardrails and we are getting a lot ofs disparity in teof what one School District is providing versus another, that is something that definitely leads to inequities. There really a greater role the state can play in terms of outlining some much more consistency across distthcts and schools instate. Despite these enormous allenges around Distance Learning you see this as an opportunity for a reboot to happen within the educational e stem . We really at a crossroads moment between the recent murder of george lloyd, Breanna Taylor and 70 others and the coronavirus. We have cometo a moment where we can really continue to re create the inequities in our Education System that were already there,rkor we can to create something new. To create something new there are so schools that are doing things like really thinking about how do th assess students when they come back and nonpunitive ways but raise ways that really helped them understand where students are to take them from where they are to where they need to go over the courof the year. They are having a lot more interaction onersone between teacnd students, all the things we know students really need and in some ways we could use this an opportunity to recreate education in ways we have needed to for far too long. Thank you. Julia we put out a call on facebook to our viewers and of them asks, how ours they making this available to staff the state guidelines have said schools are supposed to regularly test staff, how are they supposed to do that and who pays r it . At the moment they are saying staff should be done by testing sites and as we know there has been a movement to get Insurance Companies to pay for any testing of frontline or rssential workers and teac are considered essential workers. If you are a teacher in a paying for this, they are sending in the tecenter and also sending them to their Health Service and have that pickup. Hat do you think will make the key districts betweethis school year and the school year. We know one of the st be filled bill . Is is is going make sure they are providing materials to parents in native languages. We also know itwill be super important to really communicate with educators and make sure they have the ofessional developmental they need to be able to he students. We also know funding for all of this will be crucial. We know it will be more funds from the federal government and wether already propositions on the ballot which could really help infuse more funding into to the students that need it most. I am really hopeful we will be able to push those three things in more School Districts across the state. Thank you both so ch for joining us. Counties that are on californias coronavirus monitoring list hoy only provide services online. When a county has been off the watch list for two weeks a total School District could choose to provide in persons instruction again but teache unions say that regulation does not go far enough. They argue using countywide averages will lead to inequitable and unsafe situations and that more ne detailed simco datas to be used instead. With me now ismarissa th president of the united teachers of richmond and a former Elementary School teacher. Also joining the is shakira runnels and cofounder of the Parent Leadership Council thank you both so much for joining us. Thank you for having us. Marissa what is your concern about using countywide data to reopen the ho districts . I think countywide data is into painting the real story of what is going on in our counties. For exame i teach and Contra Costa County and san pablo is three times the number of cases as the countywide average. That means when students go back tschool it is likely they will go back with a greater likelihood of passing the virus to the students. We ed to being zip code data and making sure every zip code meets the requirements before going back school. Your position is no school should reopen until all schools can reopen within the county yes . Isnt that punitive to the n studentsthose districts that have lower infection rates . I think the bottom line is we want kids back in school. Classrooms are meant to be physical and we are meant to be working with our students but it is not safe to return until v it is safer y students. If you look at the countywide data, the places where there is a biggest discrepancy between the cases is where there are most essential and they are more likely to have relative so his case count is higher. We are actual putting them in a really unsafe situation and i really believe we all needed to come together and put pressure on our county and local governnts to make sure putting Contact Tracing and testing in this communities so we can all be safe to go backto ork together. You have two boys who are young and in school. What has your experience with distancelearning been like an a wh you expecting for the fall . Quite honestly has been quite inconsistent. One child had a great experience, a great teacher who really jumped in th the distancelearning program and my other son had a teacher that struggled. Luckily i feel lithe teachers and the district have really put a lot of effort into making sure the fall willbe a different experience. In im expethings will go better but it will still be difficult. I have two Young Children who both n d my constant assistance in ord participate in the program. Are there any steps that could make distancelearning a e better expe for you and your children . I think some of the steps we are taking increased parent training is really important in making sure we have policies in place to make sure thour neediest students, those who havedifficulty accessing distancelearning in the past who dont have wiconsistentfi and things like that, we will have a better experience t we had in the spring during what was really an emergent the. It wasannot a di learning program. Earlier today your union, the united teachers reached a deal with the School District for distance to learning. Can you tell me about any specific pieces related equity in that deal and what a typical day will look like . I think the focus they have been making this deal was equity and to dothat we worked directly with our parents and with the Leadership Council to make sure they were involved. It was crisis learning. Figure it out how do i take what i learned in the classroom and years of learning and do it online . This new really reallows for training for our teachers so they will be really prepared to do this with a special training on race and equity. Every friday of the month our lf of professional n hourand development which will really help make sure we are bringing all of our learning back when they come back to the classroom physically aoswell. Of this conversation around equity has been framed in terms of race. Do you think it should be broader . Can you tell us about that . I am both a black parent obviously but i also have children with special needs. There are concerns of equity for childrenlike mine. How are their needs being met program and in a physical ing classroom setting. As a parent we have so many balls to juggle here. There are therapies in ieps and Different Things like that so in i ery conversation always want those needs to also be centeth race and class and income and all of these things have to be part of the ti convers we are having. Do you feel you are getting the support you need from your School District . Ke i feel we are on the road to getting the support that we need. El i do like my voice was heard when i had problems during the spring and i am cautiously optimistic. I read all 20 pages and i see special education mentioned ic explitly and as i said my older son had an amazing teacher. She used to zoom with special Needs Children so i expect to have a pebetter ence than i had in the spring. We received a question on facebook from one of our viewers. They are wondering if schools will be equipped with ghen counselors is your School District requiring this is such an in great and e important question and answer is no. I dont know of any districts doing this right now. And the problem is we dont have enough funding to make this possible. It is so clear ring this crisis learning that schools had teachers handing outhe. Free reduced lunch, we had teachers dropping off supplies. We had teachers were getting the Mental Health Health Support and we need to fund schools like they arthe Community Centers they really have been serving in our community. No we are not doing that, i think that mething we need to step up and do. As a state we need to invest in the services for our students. Many parenve been scrambling and they have often been creating these socalled pandemic pods where a few me people will together with their kids to share childcare, potentially hire a tutor or teacher to educate their children in a smaller oup setting in a private setting. There has been a lot of present criticism about this specifically in terms of equity. I amyocurious what think about pandemic pods and if you know anyone doing this. Actually i do know someone that is rticipating but from a very different standpoint than what you just mentioned. She is in n jose and is doing te this because thhers there are being required to be in their classrooms during this learning she is creating a pod with classmates of her son and also because there are some essential workers who need that level of support. I think the need fochildcare and essential workers is getting lost in the discussion of pandemic pods and that is onai something ble to people of a certain means. I still, it is just talking about people who have the monies to take people out of the Teaching Force anask them to work in their homes, then i feel like we are misdirecting nor resources and really looking toward the county and state muto state to all that we can to get this virus under control and to reduce the infections and make our Public Schools safe for everyone. Thank you both so much. Thank you. W that school is coming back many parents may find it difficult to keep up with the dr demands of their chs distancelearning and their own work schedule. This pressure has had a negative impact on the Mental Health of parents and their kids, struggling with uncertainty and up and did routines. Joining me now is esthe prr of psychiatry doctor william martinez. Thank you for joining us. Thank you for ving me. As a psychologist can you briefly describe for us what Mental Health challenges you are seeing in your parents patients, particularly around distance education . Yes that is a great question. We are seeing a lot of rdship with our families as well and we primarily serve folks on public insurance and what we are seeing is a lot of struggling on figuring out how to provie kids education if these parents are working from home how they are able to both work from homeand do a second job of being the educator for their kids. For folks who are frontline essential workers we are seeing a lot of stress to figure out how to to provide childcare or have childcare provided kir thei at home and their education provided while they are out working. I am curious how much higher a level of Mental Health struggle that you are seeing these days through e pandemic and going into the school year . I can safely say and i have been talking with colleagues all around the country who were in similar clinics working with similar populations that we are seeing a lot of Mental Health symptoms go through the roof right now. Right now we are having a lot of folks who are highly stressed and anxious social isolate for just a couple hours , the Mental Health system is under stress right now. That is not there inmany parks especially here in san francisco. Folks are rely starting to see an uptick and we are starting to see a lot more , symptoildren its of great concern right now. What advice do you have . Numbone parents need to be mindful of their own stress, selfcare is so important. If you cant take care of yourself you will not be able to take care of your own child. Children feed off their parents stress and anxiety. Second is to have faith in a yourself, yourlies ability to handle and we think every family has been to hardship before. Every familyhas their way of dealing with things what g e you hearfrom schoolaged children about their struggles during this time . A lot of it wihis inability to social distance right, especially in our adolescent popus tion. Thistime for independence, a time where they are building their own identities and with not having school and having abilities to socialize or less abilities to do that they are struggling. A lot of times we still have zoom and other forms of social media to interact with these in arperson interactionso important and being able to do things tyoether. For thger kids it is a lot of anxiety and a lot of younger kids dont understand the gr d scale ofthis. They are just seeing that people are anxious and there is a scary virus, and my potentially gointo die . We see they are experiencing a lot of anxiety. Lettalk about masks, Public Health officialis requiring a mask wearing in public. With our adolescence i will start there. Adolescents just bynature of that stage of Development Just by that very nature we see some of them who maybe dont want to wear a mask keor feel they think it is important to ng treat them as adults, talk to them about the importance and wh and how important it is what their role could be is just yeah, its hot, its scratchy and its hard for them to k with that, esarcially masks. Thermasks made for younger kids but they are not the most comfortable. We do see but with the younger kids they are likely to wear why they should. Eally explain this is a ti in which kids sh ld be learnil the rules of socialization are being forced to stay apart and social distance. Can you tell us y how this impact their growth and development in the years to come . That is a t grquestion. These is a part of a larger question about how we think about recory from covid19. They tested and now they are coming out of the illness but in socieif we dont think about these larger kind of Public Health issues and think about how we can provide this in the interim, thinking about a how to get ve about spaces with these kids is creating specific spacious for socialization. We dos hand stand to see what issues are down the line. This lack of socialization rit now i think it is importanour Public Health folks, the planning folks, all think about this and think about how we can deal with this manner. Nterim in a safe doctoiam martinez thank you so much for your time. Thank you. You can find more of our coverage online. You can reach me onok twitter, faceand instagram from all us here at kqed thanks for watching. Night. Robert c. the virus surges, Congress Stalls and the ection heats up. And it is what it is. Ats true robert c. President Trump pushes ahead, clashing with perts, as the white house is locked in a standoff over virus relief. The republins and the president do not understand the gravity of the situation and every time we meet with them it is reinforced. Robert c. 1k389 Campaign Turns vicious. President trump hes against god, helps against guns. Robert c. as the former Vice President readi his own v. P. Pick. Next. Announcer this is washington ek. Corporate sfunled funding is
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