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Are California schools prepared for virtual learning?
The start of the school year is a time of anticipation, anxiety and energy. This year, as 97% percent of school California’s school districts begin the fall semester online, that anticipation has been multiplied exponentially, California school chief Tony Thurmond said today.
Thurmond joined governor Gavin Newsom and education expert Linda Darling-Hammond at today’s presser to give a rundown of how educators across the start are preparing for a new school year after having months to reflect on the shortcomings of the virtual learning rollout last spring.
Chief among concerns is how to close the digital divide that’s meant even access to computers and devices — a gap that remains, despite ongoing efforts of school districts and nonprofits to get tech into the hands of every student. Thurmond faulted a worldwide run on technology for backlogs that have stalled efforts to deliver devices to students.
Roughly 7,000 students in Oakland this week lacked equipment and hotspots when the school year began earlier this week. Education advocates across the state continue to worry that low-income students will be left behind as the pandemic continues.
Darling-Hammond said plans are afoot to deliver instruction to students with disabilities and others who aren’t well-served by online teaching. Even though school districts that find themselves on the state’s watchlist — areas that face troubling rates of infections — are typically not allowed to hold in-person classes, they may still be able to offer in-person services for vulnerable students assuming they move in accordance with county health guidelines and work in very small groups.
The announcements come as infections and hospitalizations appear to have ticked down after a month of record-setting case numbers and death tolls. But school districts also move forward as Covid cases among children surges, challenging the assumption that children are unlikely to catch and spread the virus.
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Updated
at 6.16pm EDT