The State has just issued further guidance to schools, particularly focused on providing school meals, creating distance learning opportunities, and continuing to provide student supervision and child care. The information was developed through a collaboration among the Governor’s Office, State Superintendent of Public Instruction (SPI), State Board and the Health and Human Services Agency. You can review all the guidance documents here.
Please note: As we have mentioned before, our firm has been in contact with leadership in the Governor’s Office and California Department of Education (CDE) on a daily basis, and we continue to be reassured that the State is not mandating specific activity in exchange for their promise to continue funding local educational agencies (LEAs). They understand that local school officials are on the front lines of this crisis and in the best position to make difficult decisions regarding students, staff and the community. The Governor’s Executive Order, implementing legislation, and this latest guidance are all intended to encourage school officials, to the extent possible and practicable, to continue to provide critical services to students.
This guidance is unlikely to answer all of your questions, and we are already in the process of exploring clarification on some issues. Please let us know if you have questions or comments and we will get those directly to the point people for the Governor and SPI. The current plan is for the CDE to update the guidance on a weekly basis, every Friday, in addition to other times when the need arises.
In a bit of a surprise, in the Governor's press conference this evening, he suggested that it is likely that schools will be shut down until the Summer break. We will provide further information about this possibility as soon as we have it.
Finally, there will be a webinar hosted by the SPI tomorrow at 10 am to go over the guidance issued so far. To RSVP, please click here. A link to the Zoom conference will be sent to you prior to the webinar.
We know these are challenging times, and greatly appreciate the efforts you all are making on behalf of your students and staff. Let us know how we can help.
Thanks,
Abe
Abe Hajela
Partner
Capitol Advisors Group
925 L Street, Suite 1200
Sacramento, CA 95814
916.719.9438 mobile
916.557.9745 office