Some teachers unions, districts at odds over live distance learning instruction
At issue is a pre-internet law giving teachers control over classroom recordings.
In negotiations with school districts around the state, the California Teachers Association has argued, with some success, that school districts lack the authority to force teachers to do live online instruction or to record lessons for later use. Some districts have accepted that assertion.
But some attorneys for school districts are challenging the CTA’s position. They point out that the Legislature encourages distance learning in legislation that accompanied the state budget Gov. Gavin Newsom signed into law last week.
At stake is whether school districts will be able to make live instruction a universal component of distance learning this fall. Many individual teachers across the state have been teaching online on their own since schools closed in March. A number of education experts say that online instruction should be a key strategy to counter the loss of learning that students experienced partly because school districts were unable to transition to remote instruction quickly and effectively.
A coalition of California civil rights and student advocacy groups, including Children Now and the Families in Schools, is among those that argue that online instruction should try to mirror instruction in a physical classroom. They are encouraging the state to set a minimum of 3 hours of virtual instruction daily.
However, the CTA points to a 1976 law, passed decades before the arrival of the internet, that provides privacy protections for teachers. It prevents unauthorized recording in a classroom and requires a teacher’s and a principal’s consent for the use of any “listening or recording device.” The CTA claims that the law, Education Code 51512, also applies to distance learning, both “asynchronous” instruction — recording and uploading lessons online for students to use at home — and CONTINUE READING: Some teachers unions, districts at odds over live distance learning instruction | EdSource
