As of now nearly 98% of California schools have been shut down due to the novel Coronavirus. Schools could remain shut down longterm in an effort to prevent the spread of the virus, Governor Gavin Newsom said today. While educators and students may have been under the assumption that sessions will resume in a couple weeks to a month, it seems that school may be out of session for the rest of the school year.
“I would plan and assume it is unlikely that many of these schools, few if any, will open before the summer break,” Newsom said in a during a news conference.
“I don’t want to mislead you, to six-plus million kids in our system and their families, they need to make some plans at a time when a lot of plans are already being curtailed,” he added. “But planning with kids is some of the most challenging planning.”
Many employers have also authorize their employees to work from home. It seems those parents will now need to take on the double task of homeschooling their children.
“We want to make sure that learning is still occurring online, but we are diving deep into curating the capacity to deliver what we’re promoting, which is home-schooling your children,” Newsom said.
California has also requested a federal waiver which would allow for the government to not require standardized testing this year.
“We think it is totally inappropriate for kids to worry about coming back and being tested,” he said.
Newsom said during the press conference that on Monday he returned home where he found one of his four children crying about schools being closed down.
“I told her, ‘Honey, I don’t think the schools are going to open again,’ ” Newsom said. “If I can tell my daughter that and not tell your daughter … then I’m not being honest and true to the people of the state of California. Boy I hope I’m wrong, but I believe that to be the case.”
“We believe we will repurpose not just our operating rooms to potential ICU rooms, which was our conversation today to meet this pandemic, but we’ll repurpose a lot of our school sites not only for congregate meals and food to go but also to potentially address these child care needs,” he said.
Newsom is aware that childcare will be increasingly tough bringing about it on challenges as caregivers want to practice safety and social distancing.
Caregivers “will want to have personally protective gear, make sure social distancing is practiced, make sure that we not just secure the sites but make sure that they’re healthy,” he said.
He is hoping that funding approved by state lawmakers will assist.
On Tuesday Newsroom signed a bill allowing any public school that is closed down due to the virus to keep their state funding what are they use that funding for personal protective gear or cleaning.