The budget package will finance contact tracing efforts, school safety measures, and other features of returning to in-person instruction. The rest will go towards motivating children’s possibilities to learn, with one instance being summer school.
To urge districts into reopening faster, schools must give in-person education to grades K-2 and all high-needs students notwithstanding grades by the end of March. If they do not, they will lose 1 percent of eligible funds every day they delay.
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“Single mothers in particular, that are celebrating I imagine this day, compared to many other previous days,” Newsom, a Democrat, told a press conference. “So many of our kids and caregivers are celebrating this day because we all are united around coming back safely into the schools and helping with the social emotional support that our kids so desperately need.”
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Part of the program includes increasing the number of COVID-19 vaccine doses available to teachers, whose unions have struggled for vaccinations to herald a return to in-person teaching.
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But officials do not see vaccinations as a necessity for reopening, Newsom said, citing Dr. Anthony Fauci, a top federal health official, among others.
“That’s not my opinion. That’s the opinion of the CDC, Dr. Fauci, the opinion of educators and experts around the globe, including the opinion of President Joe Biden,” he said.
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Research carried in various countries has shown that a return to in-person instruction did not induce a major increase in community transmission of the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus, which causes COVID-19. Schools in several states reopened last year for in-person instruction, with little influence.
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Roughly 42.6 percent of U.S. primary students were attending in-person, everyday schooling as of Sunday, according to school data aggregator Burbio, including over 54 percent of K-5 students. But few schools in California have renewed such traditional schooling, the organization said in its latest update.
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Newsom announced Franklin Elementary School in the Elk Grove Unified School District, the state’s fifth-largest. The district was among the first to close school doors last year; officials last week announced intentions to reopen grades K-6 in mid-March and the rest of the grades next month.
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Republicans had accused Democrats, who retain the trifecta in the state with control of the governor’s mansion and both state chambers, of not moving faster to reopen schools.
“For months, Republicans have been calling to reopen schools safely, in accordance with CDC guidance,” Assembly Republican Leader Marie Waldron said last week. “Yet, the Governor’s confusing and ineffective tier system is keeping schools closed and is causing hardship for parents and, most importantly, is causing irreparable harm to students.”