NANCY BAILEY: Seeking SOLUTIONS to Help With Schooling During Covid-19: Here’s 18!

Seeking SOLUTIONS to Help With Schooling During Covid-19: Here’s 18!

Seeking SOLUTIONS to Help With Schooling During Covid-19: Here’s 18!

How can we help students learn at home during this school crisis? Many parents and teachers are still uncomfortable with plans to reopen schools. Some school districts are postponing school re-openings.

Remote learning and Internet connection should be available to all children, but how can we help students learn without relying on screens?

Everyone’s struggling to find answers, so your ideas are welcome here. Here are some thoughts.

1. Weekly Learning Packets *

Teachers have been providing students with learning packets filled with instructional activities, assignments, worksheets, and informal assessments.

Each week elementary students get an envelope in the mail. Middle and high school students get several packets for each subject, or one large packet with assignments and activities for each subject. Teachers can get as creative as they want with these packets. They should include a return self-addressed envelope.

School staff like bus drivers, and those who aren’t working, might work with teachers to collect packet material and prepare it for mailing.

Sending learning packets by mail, have the added benefit of giving the post office more business!

2. “Educational Toys” Drive 

Think Toys for Tots, only Educational Toys and books for kids at home during Covid-19.

Determine games and materials for learning to take place at home. PTA’s might request help from big chain community stores and others who wish to donate.

Getting age appropriate learning games (don’t forget dolls and cuddle toys) into the hands of children, will brighten their days and keep students busy.

Think building blocks, Legos, Little People, puzzles, and board games that work on counting, reading, and more. See:  MindWare,     Fat Brain Toys,     Discovery Toys.

What free household items safely help children learn?

3. Hire More Teachers CONTINUE READING: Seeking SOLUTIONS to Help With Schooling During Covid-19: Here’s 18!

Mike Pence: We Don’t Want CDC Guidelines Determining When We Open Schools

Mike Pence: We Don’t Want CDC Guidelines Determining When We Open Schools

Mike Pence: We Don’t Want CDC Guidelines Determining When We Open Schools. (This Is Not an Onion Headline)

There are times when the news is so outrageous it almost seems satirical and then there is the Trump administration, which has skirted the line between truth and fiction so much that there is no line anymore.

On Tuesday, the vice president, who may or may not be a sexless robot or a piece of sheet cake, spoke at a press conference in Baton Rouge, La., in which he toed the company line and downplayed the coronavirus, aka the NeNe Leakes of viruses, and pushed for schools reopening despite the coronavirus running throughout the country like the Kardashians at an NBA All-Star game.

Pence claimed “our ability to respond to this pandemic is substantially better than two or three months ago,” WWLTV reports. And, Pence is correct. The response two or three months ago was shit, and the improvement has been slightly better than shit.

Pence also carried the White House message that despite the hellfire and brimstone and the raging waters, children should still be in school.

“We believe it’s in the best interests of students...to get students back on CONTINUE READING: Mike Pence: We Don’t Want CDC Guidelines Determining When We Open Schools

'I'm scared': In Detroit, a city hit hard by COVID-19, reopening classrooms sparks protests

'I'm scared': In Detroit, a city hit hard by COVID-19, reopening classrooms sparks protests

'I'm scared': In Detroit, a city hit hard by COVID-19, reopening classrooms sparks protests
As school leaders agonize over whether and how to reopen, fights like the one in Detroit this week could soon play out across the country.

DETROIT — The fury surrounding the start of summer school in Detroit this week offers a preview of the emotional battles that could hit many more communities this fall.

The city’s main public school district made the unusual decision to open classrooms for in-person summer learning starting Monday in hopes of helping children catch up four months after the coronavirus forced schools to close.

While the district says it took safety precautions to prevent the spread of the virus and stressed that no students or teachers were forced to participate in face-to-face instruction, the first two days of classes were met with protests. Activists blocked school buses from leaving a bus depot. A civil rights lawyer, who used the word “genocide” to describe the effect of the district’s decision because the student population is 96 percent Black or Latino, says she plans to seek an injunction to close the schools. The head of the city teachers union called in-person summer school a “mind-boggling decision.” And some parents expressed grave reservations about whether their children would be safe.

“I’m scared,” said Kim Martin, 50, who was picking up her son, Allyn, an eighth grader, from his summer school classes at the Brenda Scott Academy on Detroit’s east side Monday. “I don’t want my son to get sick. He’s an asthmatic.”

Full coverage of the coronavirus outbreak

Across the country, many districts are embroiled in what has become a highly politicized debate about school reopenings, with President Donald Trump threatening to withhold funding from schools that don’t offer in-person instruction. On Monday, two of the nation’s largest districts — Los Angeles and San Diego — said they will not offer in-person instruction when they reopen for the new school year because of rising COVID-19 case numbers in California.

Detroit, where roughly 500 students attended classes at 23 schools Monday, isn’t the only city to hold in-person summer school. Some districts, though, including in Connecticut and Iowa, have already CONTINUE READING: 'I'm scared': In Detroit, a city hit hard by COVID-19, reopening classrooms sparks protests

Most Big School Districts Aren’t Ready to Reopen. Here’s Why. - The New York Times

Most Big School Districts Aren’t Ready to Reopen. Here’s Why. - The New York Times

Most Big School Districts Aren’t Ready to Reopen. Here’s Why.
All but two of the nation’s 10 largest districts exceed a key public health threshold, according to a New York Times analysis.

As education leaders decide whether to reopen classrooms in the fall amid a raging pandemic, many are looking to a standard generally agreed upon among epidemiologists: To control community spread of the coronavirus, the average daily infection rate among those who are tested should not exceed 5 percent.

But of the nation’s 10 largest school districts, only New York City and Chicago appear to have achieved that public health goal, according to a New York Times analysis of city and county-level data.

Some of the biggest districts, like Miami-Dade County in Florida and Clark County, Nev., which includes Las Vegas, are in counties that have recently reported positive test rates more than four times greater than the 5 percent threshold, the data shows.

Americans crave outdoor recreation more than ever. But national parks — sometimes many miles from equipped hospitals — are grappling with how to safely stay open.

The alarming spread of the virus has prompted a growing number of districts to announce they would rely on online instruction in the fall. The superintendent of the nation’s sixth-largest district, in Broward County, Fla., on Tuesday recommended full-time remote learning despite pressure from the state’s governor and President Trump. That followed an announcement on Monday that California’s two largest districts, Los Angeles and San Diego, will teach 100 percent online.

“I’m just super frustrated and really disappointed that our nation, our states and our communities have not exercised the discipline that they need in order to get the coronavirus under control,” said Robert W. Runcie, the Broward superintendent. “Now the futures of our young people are collateral damage from our inability to take this thing seriously.”

In recent days, Nashville, Atlanta, Arlington, Va., and Oakland, Calif., have also announced plans to start the school year remotely.

The broad national move to keep schools shuttered represents a deepening crisis for the nation’s tens of millions of schoolchildren, who are already falling behind academically and socially during the pandemic.

The decisions will also require working parents to continue to carry a heavy burden of ad hoc child care and home schooling, which is presenting families with impossible trade-offs. CONTINUE READING: Most Big School Districts Aren’t Ready to Reopen. Here’s Why. - The New York Times

Addressing Disparities in America's Education System Amid Push to Reopen Schools | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Addressing Disparities in America's Education System Amid Push to Reopen Schools | Schott Foundation for Public Education

Addressing Disparities in America's Education System Amid Push to Reopen Schools

Schott President Dr. John H. Jackson appeared on Fox News this past weekend, arguing that the COVID-19 pandemic has laid bare the inequities in America's cities far beyond the schoolhouse, and that educators, districts and states will need billions of dollars in support from the Federal government in order to re-open safely this fall.

He also discussed the new Loving Cities Index relates to this moment. "We know that parental income is the best predictor of student outcomes, and in many respects parental income is a proxy for a host of indicators," Jackson said, "access to healthcare, access to transportation, healthy foods. So we have to be able to measure the degree to which cities are able to provide these infrastructure supports, and do it in an equitable way, if we care about all students having a fair and substantive opportunity to learn."

Addressing Disparities in America's Education System Amid Push to Reopen Schools | Schott Foundation for Public Education

To All the White Allies Seeking to Become Co-Conspirators, Here Are Things to Think About - Philly's 7th Ward

To All the White Allies Seeking to Become Co-Conspirators, Here Are Things to Think About - Philly's 7th Ward

TO ALL THE WHITE ALLIES SEEKING TO BECOME CO-CONSPIRATORS, HERE ARE THINGS TO THINK ABOUT

George Floyd, gasping for air, uttered a desperate final plea that was heard around the world: “I can’t breathe.” The image of a black man dying under the knee of a white cop is horrific — and symbolic of the racism embedded in every institution in America. Pre-K-12 education is no exception. The white-dominant education system is suffocating black students.

No universal pre-K. Inequitable school funding. Dilapidated buildings. Police brutality in schools. Unqualified teachers. Crumbling textbooks. No heat or air-conditioning. No Advanced Placement or dual-enrollment courses. Academic tracking of students. White teacher bias. High rate of school suspensions. Lack of teachers of color. White family flight. Redlining resulting in a decreased tax base. Fear of black male students. Black children’s behaviors labeled as inappropriate. Restrictions on black hairstyles. Bias in selective-admission schools. Parent meetings held during the workday. Lack of special education supports. Low levels of rigor. Devalued cultural identity. Biased standardized tests. “No excuses” models.

The results of these inequities are consistently recited as facts: Black students lack proficiency in math and reading. Black students are not college-ready. Black students experience significant learning disabilities.

The real fact is that the education system is failing black students.

On May 31, after watching the news with tears running down my face, I CONTINUE READING: To All the White Allies Seeking to Become Co-Conspirators, Here Are Things to Think About - Philly's 7th Ward

Schools Should Prioritize Reopening, But They Need A Lot More Money: New Report | HuffPost

Schools Should Prioritize Reopening, But They Need A Lot More Money: New Report | HuffPost

Schools Should Prioritize Reopening, But They Need A Lot More Money: New Report
Communities most impacted by COVID-19 could see even worse outcomes if they reopen schools too quickly, according to education and medical experts.

Schools should try to reopen if they think they can do so safely, prioritizing students with disabilities and children in kindergarten through fifth grade, according to a report released Wednesday. However, schools likely won’t be able to take all the necessary precautions without an injection of resources from states and the federal government. 

The new report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, which compiles months of research from education and medical experts, offers one of the most comprehensive looks at the costs and benefits of U.S. schools reopening amid the coronavirus pandemic. Over its more than 80 pages, the report outlines the potentially dire health risks communities could face if schools are reopened hastily and asks school and community leaders to engage in constant risk assessment.

Although the report ultimately stresses the importance of providing students with in-person learning opportunities, it also details the tremendous challenges that schools could face, especially without a major influx of funds. 

Implementing the necessary safety strategies could collectively cost schools an estimated $20 billion — even as shortfalls at the state and local levels mean many schools are currently tightening their budgets. 

“In the absence of substantial financial support from the federal government and state CONTINUE READING: Schools Should Prioritize Reopening, But They Need A Lot More Money: New Report | HuffPost

The next Tuesday @ 2: School Nutrition Town Hall webinar will be held on Tuesday, July 28, 2020, at 2 p.mr - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

June 30, 2020 Tuesday @ 2 Webinar - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

The next Tuesday @ 2: School Nutrition Town Hall webinar will be held on Tuesday, July 28, 2020, at 2 p.m

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Main Web Page

The California Department of Education (CDE) Nutrition Services Division (NSD) hosted the fourth Tuesday @ 2: School Nutrition Town Hall webinar on June 30, 2020, for School Nutrition Program food and nutrition directors, chief business officials, and community partners to listen to a discussion on transitioning back to school and moving forward in meal service amidst COVID-19.

Panelists included speakers from Auburn Union Elementary School District, Valley Center-Pauma Unified School District (USD), Placentia-Yorba Linda USD, and Garden Grove USD. The panelists discussed strategies for serving quality meals, implementing meals in the classroom, adapting new practices for farm-to-school, and engaging community partners.

The next Tuesday @ 2: School Nutrition Town Hall webinar will be held on Tuesday, July 28, 2020, at 2 p.m. The web page for this event will be updated with more information soon.

Contact Information

If you have any questions regarding this subject, please contact Julie BoarerPitchford, Nutrition Education Consultant, by phone at 916-322-1563 or by email at jboarerpitchford@cde.ca.gov.

Questions:   Nutrition Services Division | 800-952-5609

June 30, 2020 Tuesday @ 2 Webinar - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

Pittsburgh Charter Schools Take Federal Bailout Money Meant for Small Businesses | gadflyonthewallblog

Pittsburgh Charter Schools Take Federal Bailout Money Meant for Small Businesses | gadflyonthewallblog

Pittsburgh Charter Schools Take Federal Bailout Money Meant for Small Businesses

Are charter schools small businesses or public schools?

They can’t be both.

Several Pittsburgh area charter schools took a bailout meant for small businesses after already getting monetary relief meant for public schools.

Environmental Charter School at Frick Park, Hill House Passport Academy Charter School, Manchester Academic Charter School and Penn Hills Charter School of Entrepreneurship all applied for and received substantial low-interest loans from the federal government’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

The $660 billion federal initiative was intended to help businesses keep employees on the payroll and off unemployment benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. The loans will be forgiven if businesses meet certain conditions such as retaining or rehiring employees.

However, charter schools – including those in the Pittsburgh region – already should have received financial relief through the federal CARES Act.

Pennsylvania got $523 million to distribute to both authentic public schools and CONTINUE READING: Pittsburgh Charter Schools Take Federal Bailout Money Meant for Small Businesses | gadflyonthewallblog

Report On Reopening Schools: In-Person Class For Young Kids A Priority : Coronavirus Live Updates : NPR

Report On Reopening Schools: In-Person Class For Young Kids A Priority : Coronavirus Live Updates : NPR

'We Failed Children,' Says Co-Author Of New National Back-To-School Report

This fall, public school districts should prioritize full-time, in-person classes for grades K-5 and for students with special needs. That's the top line recommendation of a new report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine.

The report includes an updated review of the evidence from around the world and a set of recommendations on mitigation strategies for the virus in school settings. It adds to a hefty reading list of back-to-school guidance that now includes comprehensive recommendations from the CDC, the American Academy of Pediatrics, the American Federation of Teachers, and every U.S. state except Kansas. There's a growing consensus on a few best practices across most of these reports, such as the importance of masking and social distancing.

What stands out from this particular report is its emphasis on collaboration with public health authorities and focus on not just recommendations for action now, but decision-making strategies for schools under conditions that will continue to change.

Dr. Dimitri Christakis, a pediatrician and member of the committee that created the report, told NPR that it comes at a time of crisis and repeated failures.

"We failed children ethically and in three important ways. First and foremost, that we have done such a terrible job containing this pandemic. Secondly, that we closed schools...abruptly without any good plan about how to transition to distance learning and without adequate infrastructure for so many kids. And third, that the moment we closed schools, we didn't immediately start planning about how to reopen them."

Now, he says, with school months or weeks away, schools are "struggling to put CONTINUE READING: Report On Reopening Schools: In-Person Class For Young Kids A Priority : Coronavirus Live Updates : NPR

Mom: Virtual education was ‘a disaster’ for my son with Down syndrome - The Washington Post

Mom: Virtual education was ‘a disaster’ for my son with Down syndrome - The Washington Post

Virtual education was ‘a disaster’ for my son with Down syndrome. Here’s what students with disabilities really need

When covid-19 began to spread in the United States this past spring, schools closed around the country and most of them stayed that way through the end of the 2019-20 academic year.

Districts had hoped that remote learning could replace in some measure the learning that students would be missing while not in school. In some places it was enough, but in many it wasn’t — especially for students with special needs.

Special education students were stuck at home, most of them without the full array, or any, of the special services they get in school as required in their federally mandated Individualized Education Programs. And in many districts, remote learning will be the order of the day again when the 2020-21 academic year begins this fall, as covid-19 rates are spiking in many states. Several districts have announced that they are going to all-remote learning for the start of the school year, including Los Angeles, the second-largest in the country.

Allison Wohl’s son, Julian, is a rising fifth-grader in Montgomery County Public Schools in Maryland, and virtual learning was “a disaster” for him, she said. In this post, she explains what happened to him and sets out exactly what schools need to do now to help students with special needs.

For parents trying to replicate school for children with disabilities, a confounding task

By Allison Wohl

The covid-19 pandemic has laid bare deep inequities in our society, particularly in access to quality education. While some students benefited from the makeshift distance learning program that schools put in place, many more, including students with disabilities, were frustrated and left even further behind.

For our son Julian, who recently finished fourth grade, and who has Down syndrome, distance learning CONTINUE READING: Mom: Virtual education was ‘a disaster’ for my son with Down syndrome - The Washington Post

Making Black Lives Matter in School | Diane Ravitch's blog

Making Black Lives Matter in School | Diane Ravitch's blog

Making Black Lives Matter in School

The following article appeared in the Grio and was co-authored by Dr. Andre Perry, Jitu Brown, Keron Blair, Richard Fowler, Stacy Davis Gates and Tiffany Dena Loftin.

George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and now Rayshard Brooks — all Black people whose lives and purposes were snuffed out by White Supremacy. These four slain Americans were fathers, brothers, mothers, sisters, and one-time students of our nation’s public education system.

If we acknowledge the truth about the systemic racism in our country, we must also acknowledge the impact that racism has on our children and their classrooms. For us, #BlackLivesMatter is more than just a hashtag or social media post. #BlackLivesMatter is a policy doctrine that should govern how we think about safety, health care, the economy and certainly our nation’s public schools.

For Black lives to matter, we must reconstitute our nation’s classrooms and ensure that they are places that push back against the epidemic of racism and anti-Blackness. Its symptoms include under-resourced school buildings, oversized classrooms, over-policing, less CONTINUE READING: Making Black Lives Matter in School | Diane Ravitch's blog

Big Education Ape: BLACK LIVES MATTER at SCHOOL 2020 National Student Voter Toolkit – Black Lives Matter At School - https://bigeducationape.blogspot.com/2020/07/black-lives-matter-at-school-2020.html

Teacher Tom: What Mrs. Jennings Understood: Why Standardization is Always the Enemy of Learning

Teacher Tom: What Mrs. Jennings Understood: Why Standardization is Always the Enemy of Learning

What Mrs. Jennings Understood: Why Standardization is Always the Enemy of Learning

I went to kindergarten back in the 1960's. We played outdoors, built with blocks, pretended, and made some art. I don't think there was any particular curriculum or ideology behind the program offered by Mrs. Jennings and Mrs. Ruiz. We mostly played, much like the kids do at Woodland Park, although I remember one classroom project in which we sat around tables, each responsible for coloring in a part of a train -- box cars, coal cars, passenger cars. I got the engine. Mrs. Jennings gave very specific instructions about how to color our pictures. We were to strive to color side-to-side, using only horizontal motions, and to stay within the lines.

It was the kind of project I always enjoyed. To this day I love the challenge of creating artwork that requires fine motor deftness and precision. I chose to make my engine mostly red and was quite impressed with how wonderful the finished product looked. I'd already learned to take aesthetic pleasure in staying within the lines, but the whole horizontal coloring concept was an epiphany to me, a concept I employed in coloring projects throughout the rest of my youth.

The following day we arrived at school to find that Mrs. Jennings had taped our individual pictures to the wall to create a train, my red engine at the front. I was proud of that engine, but man was I appalled at my classmates' work. Most of them had failed to stay within the lines, and from what I could tell only I had adhered to the horizontal coloring method. Yet there was Mrs. Jennings, not scolding anyone, not correcting anyone, not making anyone do it over, but CONTINUE READING: Teacher Tom: What Mrs. Jennings Understood: Why Standardization is Always the Enemy of Learning

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: As Pence says to ignore the CDC, the CDC says America is in for some super dark times

Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: As Pence says to ignore the CDC, the CDC says America is in for some super dark times

As Pence says to ignore the CDC, the CDC says America is in for some super dark times

Oh my gosh, this is surreal. You couldn't sell this as a screenplay because Holywood would say it was too unbelievable.

Vice president Pence yesterday said CDC recommendations should not stop anyone from opening schools.

From WWLTV.com, 

Pence was blunt Tuesday in dismissing those guidelines in favor of a quick reopening. 

"To be very clear, we don't want CDC guidance to be a reason why people don't reopen their schools," he said. 

He pointed to possible lower risk factors among children for catching coronavirus, which could make them poor vectors for virus transmission. 

https://www.wwltv.com/article/news/health/coronavirus/vp-pence-says-schools-should-open-as-louisiana-schools-plan-delays/289-bd6818de-4836-4b33-b5f4-575ccae2baa8

Um has Pence never met a kid or seen a school? Mr. Vice Presidnet they have these things called parents CONTINUE READING: Mr. G for District 3: Chris Guerrieri's Education Matters: As Pence says to ignore the CDC, the CDC says America is in for some super dark times

School Opening Optimism Collapses: In Midst of COVID-19 Surge, Many Districts Will Open Online Only | janresseger

School Opening Optimism Collapses: In Midst of COVID-19 Surge, Many Districts Will Open Online Only | janresseger

School Opening Optimism Collapses: In Midst of COVID-19 Surge, Many Districts Will Open Online Only

Until last week it seemed that nobody—apart from the school administrators and teachers considering staggered schedules this fall to ensure social distancing as smaller groups of children share classroom space and buses—seemed to be thinking about the feasibility of opening school this fall.  Then last week, when President Trump and Education Secretary Betsy DeVos demanded that schools reopen full time, five days a week, everybody finally began paying attention to the sometimes competing needs of students for routine and in-person support from their teachers, of educators for direct connection with children, and parents for the supervision schools would provide when they have to go back to work. There has also been the puzzling contradiction between pediatricians who recently said kids can go back to school safely and the data in our newspapers which say COVID-19 is spiking even higher in some places than back in March, when schools shut down to protect everybody.

By Monday night, however, with a spate of press reports about schooling this fall in a number of the nation’s biggest cities, optimism collapsed. We have learned that in a number of large school districts where the coronavirus is spiking, students will begin the school year online full time. The Washington Post‘s Laura Meckler reports: “Resisting pressure from President Trump, three of the nation’s largest school districts said Monday that they will begin the new school year with all students learning from home.  Schools in Los Angeles, San Diego, and Atlanta will begin entirely online, officials said Monday.  Schools in Nashville plan to do the same, at least through Labor Day.”

The NY Times Shawn Hubler and Dana Goldstein remind us that a lot of students are involved, and that the government’s failure to contain the virus is the reason: “The Los Angeles and San CONTINUE READING: School Opening Optimism Collapses: In Midst of COVID-19 Surge, Many Districts Will Open Online Only | janresseger

SB 98: State Meal Mandate Update - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

SB 98: State Meal Mandate Update - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)

SB 98: State Meal Mandate Update

Senate Bill (SB) 98, Education Finance: Education Omnibus Budget Trailer Bill (Chapter 24, Statutes of 2020) was amended and signed into law on June 29, 2020. You can view this law on the California Legislative Information web page

California Education Code (EC) Section 49550 requires school districts and county offices of education (COE) to provide nutritionally adequate meals to pupils who are eligible for free and reduced-price (F/RP) meals every school day. EC Section 47613.5 extends this requirement to charter schools, including those charter schools offering nonclassroom-based instruction for eligible pupils on any school day that the pupil is scheduled for educational activities lasting two or more hours at a school site, resource center, meeting space, or other satellite facility operated by the charter school.

Section 34 of the 2020 Budget Act amends EC Section 49550 and EC Section 47613.5 to add distance learning as an instructional model and requires school districts, COEs, and charter schools to provide nutritionally adequate meals for pupils who are eligible for F/RP meals whether engaged in in-person instruction or distance learning.

A nutritionally adequate meal (breakfast and lunch) must meet the federal meal pattern requirements and is defined in EC Section 49531 as:

A nutritionally adequate breakfast...is one that qualifies for reimbursement under the most current meal pattern requirement for the federal School Breakfast Program, as defined in Section 220.8 of Title 7 of the Code of Federal Regulations (7 CFR). A nutritionally adequate lunch is one that qualifies for reimbursement under the most current meal pattern for the federal National School Lunch Program, as defined in Section 210.10 of 7 CFR.

Distance learning means instruction in which the pupil and instructor are in different locations and pupils are under the general supervision of a certified employee of the local educational agency. Distance learning may include, but is not limited to, all of the following:

1. Interaction, instructions, and check-ins between teachers and pupils through the use of a computer or communications technology
   
2. Video or audio instruction in which the primary mode of communication between the pupil and certified employee is online interaction, instructional television, video, telecourses, or other instruction that relies on computer or communications technology
   
3. The use of print materials incorporating assignments that are the subject of written or oral feedback

Non-classroom based charter schools do not provide distance learning as defined in EC Section 43500(a). As a result, this new requirement does not apply to non-classroom based charters who were defined as such pursuant to EC Section 47612.5 as of the 2019 – 2020 fiscal year.

This law is contingent upon the California Department of Education receiving an approved waiver to allow noncongregate feeding and meal service time flexibility from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) for each day of the scheduled school year. On June 25, 2020, the USDA released nationwide waivers to allow noncongregate feeding and meal service time flexibility through June 30, 2021.

The Nutrition Services Division will provide more information on this subject in an upcoming Management Bulletin.

Contact Information

If you have any questions regarding the subject, please contact your county’s School Nutrition Programs (SNP) Specialist. A list of SNP Specialists is available in the Download Forms section of the Child Nutrition Information and Payment System, Form ID Caseload. You can also contact Jeremy Partsch, SNP Unit Office Technician, by phone at 916-322-3005 or 800-952-5609, Option 2, or by email at jpartsch@cde.ca.gov to be directed to your SNP Specialist.

Questions:   Nutrition Services Division | 800-952-5609

SB 98: State Meal Mandate Update - Nutrition (CA Dept of Education)