Friday, September 18, 2020

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Has Died – Mother Jones

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Has Died

If President Trump succeeds in naming her replacement, it will change the court for a generation.

Just days before her death, as her strength waned, Ginsburg dictated this statement to her granddaughter Clara Spera:
"My most fervent wish is that I will not be replaced until a new president is installed."

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has died, the Supreme Court announced Friday night. Ginsburg’s passing gives President Donald Trump the opportunity to radically remake the Supreme Court for a generation by replacing the liberal feminist icon with a staunch conservative.

If Trump succeeds in filling Ginsburg’s seat with a justice in the mold of his two other appointees to the court, Neil Gorsuch and Brett Kavanaugh, it will be the court’s most extreme ideological shift since President George H.W. Bush nominated Clarence Thomas to replace legendary civil rights lawyer Thurgood Marshall in 1991.

Adam Feldman, who runs the Empirical SCOTUS blog, wrote recently that Ginsburg’s departure could be the left’s “biggest loss yet.” He pointed to some of the recent liberal victories on the court that would presumably have gone the other way if Ginsburg had been replaced with a conservative. Those cases include the affirmative action decision in Fisher v. University of Texas; Obergefell v. Hodges, which legalized same-sex marriage; National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, which upheld most of Obamacare; and Women’s Health v. Hellerstedt, which struck down restrictive abortion laws in Texas.

For this reason, the confirmation fight over Ginsburg’s replacement promises to be every bit as brutal as that of Kavanaugh, whose nomination was marred by allegations that he had sexually assaulted a woman in high school. The fact that it will take place during a pandemic in the middle of a presidential election promises to make the fight an ugly one, especially given that Senate Republicans prevented President Barack Obama from confirming a nominee to the court to replace the late Justice Antonin Scalia in 2016. CONTINUE READING: Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg Has Died – Mother Jones

OPPS: This Fall a Windfall: Sacramento City Unified School District Reports a Surplus of $23 Million Dollars - Sacramento City Teachers Association

This Fall a Windfall: Sacramento City Unified School District Reports a Surplus of $23 Million Dollars - Sacramento City Teachers Association

THIS FALL A WINDFALL: SACRAMENTO CITY UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT REPORTS A SURPLUS OF $23 MILLION DOLLARS

The 2019-20 school year finished with huge $23 million surplus after originally projecting a $12.3 million deficit, a turnaround of $35.5 million

This marks the eighth consecutive year of grossly inaccurate budget projections by SCUSD administrators

Reserve fund hits highest mark ever at $93 million

SACRAMENTO — The Chief Business Officer of the Sacramento City Unified School District, Rose Ramos, will report to the district’s board of education today that the Sac City schools finished the 2019-20 school year with a large surplus of cash and record reserves. Only last month, SCUSD leaders were predicting that the district, which educates 40,000 students in California’s capital city, would run a deficit, be out of cash in February 2021 and face state takeover next year.

Contrary to the bleak forecasts presented to the public in August, the “2019-20 Year End Financial Unaudited Actuals” report documents that SCUSD ended the 2019-20 school year with a surplus of $23,113,422.98. In July 2019, the district projected it would end the 2019-20 school year with a $12,344,416.83 deficit — a $35.5 million turnaround from the district’s dire predictions. Just as significantly, SCUSD now has $93,048,610.81 in its reserve fund, $82 million more than the minimum reserve fund required by the state.

“Parents, teachers and business leaders have been bombarded with ‘the sky is falling in’ messages coming out of the budget office that are parroted by both the school board and the Sacramento County Office of Education year after year,” said Sacramento City Teachers Association President David Fisher, who also is a SCUSD parent. “Every year SCUSD goes through this exercise of telling the public that it is running out of cash and better cut programs, only to end with ‘never mind, we actually ran a surplus.’”

It is the eighth year in a row that the district financial projections have been wildly inaccurate, falsely painting a picture of SCUSD on the brink of fiscal insolvency. Among other accounting problems, a budget officer previously hired by the school board based on recommendations from Superintendent Jorge Aguilar, was forced to step down in 2019 when it was revealed SCUSD forgot to count five of the district’s schools, a $25-million mistake.

“With a surplus of $23 million from last school year and a reserve fund that now exceeds $93 million, it’s time to focus on the positive and determine how we can best redirect those resources back to the classroom,” said Fisher. “Especially now, with the added educational challenges that the pandemic brings, we need to employ more school nurses, lower class sizes, improve special education services and provide help so that our teachers can tailor virtual learning to the needs of each student.”

This Fall a Windfall: Sacramento City Unified School District Reports a Surplus of $23 Million Dollars - Sacramento City Teachers Association

Schools Reopen — And Teachers Fight For Their Lives... - PopularResistance.Org

SCHOOLS REOPEN — AND TEACHERS FIGHT FOR THEIR LIVES…Their Students, And The Future Of Public Education.

As schools begin to reopen, within teacher unions around the country, teachers have been coming together to discuss the risks they’re willing to take — both to protect public health in the short term, and to protect public education in the long run.

The starting place for the unions, noted Stacy Davis Gates, vice president of the Chicago Teachers Union, is that the push to reopen schools as if they could wish the pandemic away, whether it was coming from President Trump and U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos or from Chicago’s mayor Lori Lightfoot, “was wrong and dangerous.” With safety as their first concern, the CTU organized through its delegates, held tele-town halls, talked with community groups it has been allied with since its landmark 2012 strike, held car caravans, and ultimately announced a strike vote.

Within hours of the announcement that the union would vote on a strike, another announcement came: Chicago schools would open virtually, not in person.

In New York City, rank and file teachers in the United Federation of Teachers who are organizing with the Movement of Rank and File Educators (MORE) caucus had already planned a sick-out in March that pressed the district to close down. The UFT responded to the continued pressure for in-person reopening by calling strike preparation meetings. New York’s Taylor Law makes public sector strikes technically illegal, but the UFT’s president Michael Mulgrew told reporters, “If we feel that a school is not safe we are prepared to CONTINUE READING: Schools Reopen — And Teachers Fight For Their Lives... - PopularResistance.Org

Take it Easy on Teachers, OK? | Teacher in a strange land

Take it Easy on Teachers, OK?

So are we tired of the back to school merry-go-round?

My social media feeds are filled with hundreds—maybe thousands—of stories, most of them first-hand, about what’s happening as schools play poker with a deadly virus and human beings.

There are the Never-ending Shitshow posts: School’s in session for three days before COVID makes an appearance. So school’s out, but kids are still playing soccer for some reason. The first day of all-online school, the internet burps at 8:00 a.m., then dies for five hours. Next, the grapevine (not the school) delivers the news that two more kids and a teacher tested positive. Then—football returns after a two-week hiatus, courtesy of a bunch of powerful white dads. And maybe there will now be a different hybrid plan, to please working parents. Stay tuned. And on and on.

There are also the Brave, Let’s Do This posts: Teacher (perhaps one with asthma or a history of breast cancer) publicly declares this isn’t what she wants to be doing, but damn it, she’s going in, to serve the kids she loves. There are the usual ‘here’s my room’ photos, with the furniture against the walls, plastic shields around the teacher’s desk and taped squares on the floor. The word ‘exhausted’ appears frequently, and the word ‘terrified’ leaks out, but a principal hears about it and makes her take it down.

There are the Tech Helper posts, where teachers swap tips, tricks, emergency fixes and horror stories about technological platforms, and the idiotic policies schools and CONTINUE READING: Take it Easy on Teachers, OK? | Teacher in a strange land

The Ends Do Not Justify the Means in the Lives and Education of Children – radical eyes for equity

The Ends Do Not Justify the Means in the Lives and Education of Children

17 September 2020 turned out to be a day of disinformation about education in the U.S. The White House launched another assault on education (not a surprise), and the International Literacy Association offered (for a fee) “Making Sense of the Science of Reading.”

The latter is disappointing from a powerful and influential professional organization because the “sense” made appears to be quite different than the intent.

Ultimately, as this event revealed, the “science of reading” (SoR) advocacy fails for several key reasons:

The movement is driven by parent advocacy (specifically around dyslexia) and media advocacy. That grounding lacks historical context and expertise in reading, literacy, and special needs.
SoR promotes a simple view of reading and seeks to mandate systematic intensive phonics for all students (regardless of student need).
SoR embraces a simplistic and distorted view of “science” as “settled.”
SoR links reading to policies and practices that lack scientific support and cross ethical lines of allowing the ends to justify the means (for example, nonsense literacy and grade retention linked to high-stakes testing).

Here, I want to focus on how SoR crosses ethical lines in order to justify and misrepresent the very “science” those advocates embrace.

Writing about corporal punishment, Rutherford quotes from Gertrude CONTINUE READING: The Ends Do Not Justify the Means in the Lives and Education of Children – radical eyes for equity

What comes after the left / right paradigm, if anything? – Wrench in the Gears

What comes after the left / right paradigm, if anything?

I asked this question on social media today and got quite a few very thoughtful replies.
One person asked me what led me to ask the question, and this was my response:

I believe we’re teetering on the brink of worldwide techo-fascism.
Well, it’s pretty much blowing out in certain quarters already.

The program has been wrapped in progressive language.
As a result, many have unknowingly been led to embrace the creation of a global digital jail.
We’ll soon see the roll out of Internet of Things social credit scoring and human capital bonds.
The rules of the game will be the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

This is the World Economic Forum / Davos global economic reset.
This is the advent of Globalization 4.0.
This is “wrong kind of green” financialization of nature.
Predatory poverty mining by nonprofits for hedge funds.
Covid the trigger event; Klaus Schwab the helmsman.

We need a clear assessment of stakeholder capitalism.
While we were busy surviving austerity.
Fin-tech oligarchs, academics, and think tanks, crafted a high-tech economic control system.
Put on the brakes now or “what works” “smart” government will dominate most humans.
And our precious earth and fellow non-human travelers, too.

Look up, to space.
That’s where the CONTINUE READING: What comes after the left / right paradigm, if anything? – Wrench in the Gears

Civics knowledge among American adults jumps in new survey -- but hold your applause - The Washington Post

Civics knowledge among American adults jumps in new survey — but hold your applause

A new survey on U.S. civics knowledge shows a marked jump in the number of American adults who answered questions properly about their constitutional rights and the basic structure of the federal government.

But even with the increase, almost half still can’t name the three branches of the government (executive, legislative and judicial), according to the 2020 Annenberg Constitution Day Civics Survey. In addition:

Only 51 percent of respondents correctly said the Supreme Court has the final responsibility for deciding whether an action taken by the president is constitutional, lower than the 61 percent in 2019.
And when asked what a 5-to-4 Supreme Court ruling means, only 54 percent correctly knew that the decision is the law and needs to be followed — a drop from 59 percent in 2019.

The survey, taken annually by the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania, found significant jumps in civics understanding on specific issues, and Kathleen Hall Jamieson, director of the center, said that could be a result of events during the Trump administration.

“Divided government, the impeachment process, and the number of times political leaders have turned to the courts probably deserve credit for increasing awareness of the three branches, while controversies over the right to peaceably assemble, freedom of religion, and freedom of speech may have done the same for the First Amendment,” she said in a statement.

Asked to name individual rights guaranteed to Americans under the First Amendment:

73 percent correctly named freedom of speech, up from 48 percent in 2017
47 percent named freedom of religion, up from 15 percent in 2017
42 percent named freedom of the press, up from 14 percent in 2017
34 percent named the right of assembly, up from 10 percent in 2017
14 percent named the right to petition the government, up from 3 percent in 2017
The percentage of Americans who could not name any First Amendment rights fell from 37 in 2017 to 19 percent in 2020.

Fifty-one percent named all three branches of the federal government, up from CONTINUE READING: Civics knowledge among American adults jumps in new survey -- but hold your applause - The Washington Post

Trump: Schools Must Teach “Patriotic” U.S. History | Diane Ravitch's blog

Trump: Schools Must Teach “Patriotic” U.S. History

Standing in front of the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution at the National Archives, Trump denounced the teaching of history in U.S. schools as leftist “indoctrination” and pledged to create a “1776 Commission” to restore “patriotic” American history. He is especially vitriolic about the “1619 Project,” which revised the role of African-Americans in U.S. history. He thinks that any effort to think critically about history or to include nonwhites is “leftist” propaganda.

This is not as difficult as it might seem. He could just resurrect the U.S. history textbooks used in the 1950s, which presented a homogenized and triumphalist version of history, centered on white heroes. Then add a last chapter about the Reign of Trump. Whitewashed is the right word.

Do you think he has ever read either of the nation’s founding documents? Remember that he repeatedly claimed that Article II of the Constitution allows the president to do whatever he wants. Clearly he has never read Article II.

Do you think he knows that federal law prohibits any federal official from interfering with curriculum or CONTINUE READING: Trump: Schools Must Teach “Patriotic” U.S. History | Diane Ravitch's blog

Michael Kohlhass: Will these 22 Los Angeles Charter Schools Be Closed Down? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Michael Kohlhass: Will these 22 Los Angeles Charter Schools Be Closed Down?

Michael Kohlhaas, a super investigator of public records in California, discovered that 22 charter schools in Los Angeles were rated “low performing” this year. If they get the same rating for a second year in a row, they must close, under the terms of the recently passed charter accountability law, AB 1505.

Among the low-performing schools are a couple of KIPPS, some Ref Rodriguez charters, and other highly touted but low performing schools.

Thomas Sowell at the Stanford’s Hoover Institution pointed to NYC’s high-scoring, high-attrition Success Avademy as his evidence for the miracle of charter schools. Los Angeles is not far from Palo Alto. Why didn’t he look there? CONTINUE READING: Michael Kohlhass: Will these 22 Los Angeles Charter Schools Be Closed Down? | Diane Ravitch's blog

Framing a New Website Forced Us to Reconsider Public Education’s Core Principles | janresseger

Framing a New Website Forced Us to Reconsider Public Education’s Core Principles

This week the Northeast Ohio Friends of Public Education launched a new website. If you live in Central Ohio in Columbus or Marion or Chillicothe—or Southwest Ohio in Dayton or Cincinnati or Middletown—or Northwest Ohio in Toledo—or Southeast Ohio in Athens or along the Ohio River, you may not imagine that this website will be of interest to you. And if you live in another state, you are probably certain the new website is irrelevant. If you live in Northeast Ohio, however—in Cleveland or Akron or Youngstown, Lorain or East Cleveland (the three impoverished school districts which the state has taken over in recent years) or in any of the suburbs of these urban areas, maybe you’ll take a look.

I believe, however, that the website might, on some level, be important for anybody who cares about public education in America. The Northeast Ohio Friends of Public Education is a loose group of educators and advocates, and the way this new website evolved out of several broader conversations speaks to our times.

Federally and across the states, America’s public schools are emerging from two decades of federally mandated, rigid, high-stakes, standardized-test-based, public school accountability—punitive accountability with sanctions, and delivered without financial help for the mostly underfunded schools and school districts deemed “failing.” We had fifteen years of No Child Left Behind and Race to the Top—softened in 2015, when the Every Student Succeeds Act replaced No Child Left Behind. The new version modified the punishments but continued to mandate the annual testing and the theory of sanctioning schools into better performance—performance still measured by each school’s aggregate standardized test scores.

Privatization was part of this. One of the federally mandated punishments for so-called CONTINUE READING: Framing a New Website Forced Us to Reconsider Public Education’s Core Principles | janresseger

Children Are Born Scientists. What If School Encouraged That? (Kristina Rizga) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Children Are Born Scientists. What If School Encouraged That? (Kristina Rizga)

Kristina Rizga is a writer based in San Francisco, co-creator of The Atlantic’s “On Teaching” project, and author of Mission High. This article appeared in The Atlantic Online September 11, 2020.

Growing up, Gary Koppelman, now an award-winning science teacher, didn’t think he’d make it to college. In elementary school in the late 1950s, he struggled with math and reading and got mostly Cs and Ds. Speaking in front of his classmates made him stutter. He was teased relentlessly, and he had very few friends. By the time he began high school in 1966, his counselor told him to forget about college.

And then, as has happened to many students, one teacher changed everything. Koppelman’s high-school Spanish teacher, Doug Cline, made a point of frequently praising Koppelman’s strengths, like his work ethic and resilience, and helped him navigate incidents of teasing and bullying. When Cline and Koppelman discovered that they shared a passion for horses, the teacher taught his student how to compete in horse shows, and Koppelman went on to win many of them.

“Mr. Cline helped me feel successful, and convinced me that my challenges will make me stronger to help others in need,” Koppelman told me late last year. We were sitting in the science lab that he designed at Blissfield Elementary, a small rural school in southeast Michigan, where he worked for 32 years until retiring in 2019.

Cline also encouraged Koppelman to try college for at least a year. In 1970, CONTINUE READING: Children Are Born Scientists. What If School Encouraged That? (Kristina Rizga) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

DeVos to State Ed Chiefs: Don’t Even Think About Testing Waivers This Year. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

DeVos to State Ed Chiefs: Don’t Even Think About Testing Waivers This Year.

I have many issues with contemporary American education’s dependence upon standardized testing.

Testing students in order to grade teachers and schools is a misuse of student-completed standardized tests, and the high-stakes nature of this testing makes it a system begging to be gamed.

High-stakes testing narrows the broader curriculum because it wrongly bestows disproportionate value upon “tested subjects.”

Testing– and test prep– and test remediation– and retesting– costs states millions of dollars each year.

Standardized test results are of limited use in understanding student educational needs and pale in comparison to in-the-moment, informal teacher assessment based upon student behavior and performance on class assignments– conducted in classrooms across the nation every day– day to day– in order to understand where students are with mastering particular content and skills and in determining next steps to move those students forward in their learning.

However, in trying to teach during the COVID-19 pandemic, one issue in particular is for me at the forefront of my beef with our nation’s unhealthy devotion to K12 standardized testing:

Testing devours class time, and with the lingering unknowns brought on by the pandemic, in-person teaching time is at a premium.

I do not want to surrender a minute of what little time I have in person with CONTINUE READING: DeVos to State Ed Chiefs: Don’t Even Think About Testing Waivers This Year. | deutsch29: Mercedes Schneider's Blog

NYC Educator: UFT Executive Board September 17, 2020--We Will Keep Kids Safe and Take Care of One Another

UFT Executive Board September 17, 2020--We Will Keep Kids Safe and Take Care of One Another

5:50 roll call

Minutes--approved

UFT President Michael Mulgrew--We were prepared for different tactics, but we knew we could not open Monday. We weren't ready. It wasn't safe. We need better quality for safety. This is due to advocacy of members in all boroughs. That's what union does.

DOE didn't understand, but we were out on the sidewalk because things were wrong. Principals could say everything was fine, but it wasn't. We met this afternoon with DOE. We said enough is enough. You serve the schools, they don't serve you.

We now have to make them fulfill the plan. Not there yet, but we've made major steps toward getting schools what they need. We were in chaos, with thousands of operational issues. Much of this is tied to economic recession. Budget cuts affect us too, and we were looking at 9000 layoffs.

Today we're in a place where the mayor has said we will find money to open school system safely. Now we've gone from firing teachers to hiring teachers. Right off the bat we will get 4500 for preK to 8. No agreement yet for middle and high schools, but we will have that next week.

Yesterday we were looking at chaos on Monday, layoffs. Now we are looking at phased in opening, and more teachers. Meeting daily with mayor about schools. In contact with person in charge of Covid testing and tracing. We have a situation room, and we are getting results faster. We will be getting tracing reports about schools.

Last Monday we were talking about ventilation, and ten school buildings were closed. We made city hire independent ventilation company to inspect every school. Once again, the section of our school system that is forgotten, D75, sites all over the city didn't get what was promised. This is an important story. About a site where children go every day, not cleaned since August, with not one piece of PPE.

Chapter leader took all his teachers out on the sidewalk Tuesday. On Wednesday the press heard their story. This framed everything for the rest of the week. Teachers were in chairs on sidewalk saying we're not ready. Parents were enraged at being forgotten yet again. They'd had enough and didn't want regression. Life skills abilities couldn't regress. They said they loved their teachers and paras, and their kids had to go to school. D75 jobs are tough but rewarding.

We are opening our school system again. Low positivity rate allows us to. People want to abuse, attack and get rid of public education. We will show them how to get a school system open and safe. We wouldn't be here if it weren't for all the advocacy for our schools. Right now all of DOE is on the phone talking to us and everyone, getting D75 everything they need. They've hired 60 new special ed. teachers and need more.

Our preK sites are getting a lot of attention, but it shouldn't be anyone getting better attention. We should all get the attention. PreK and D75 opening Monday. If you don't have CONTINUE READING; NYC Educator: UFT Executive Board September 17, 2020--We Will Keep Kids Safe and Take Care of One Another

We Must All Be Civics Teachers – Constitution Day, 2020 | Live Long and Prosper

We Must All Be Civics Teachers – Constitution Day, 2020

CONSTITUTION DAY CIVICS SURVEY

A few days ago, the Annenberg Public Policy Center released its annual Constitution Day Civics Survey. The results of the survey suggest that the recent upheavals in the United States…racial protests, a pandemic-based health crisis, and increased political polarization…have provided Americans with the excuse to learn more about our form of government.

The survey found that Americans now know more about how our government works than in the last couple of years.

Asked to name any of the rights guaranteed under the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution:

73% of Americans named freedom of speech, up from 48% in 2017;

47% named freedom of religion, up from 15% in 2017;

42% named freedom of the press, up from 14% in 2017;

34% named right of assembly, up from 10%;

14% named the right to petition the government, up from 3%;

Those who could not name any First Amendment right fell to 19% from 37% in 2017 (total of “can’t name any” and “don’t know”).

It seems obvious that daily newscasts and political pronouncements have helped to educate Americans on the freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment. The CONTINUE READING: We Must All Be Civics Teachers – Constitution Day, 2020 | Live Long and Prosper

Russ on Reading: The Mighty Storm: Multiple Texts Help Synthesize Thought

The Mighty Storm: Multiple Texts Help Synthesize Thought

Three things I read this morning came together in what might be considered a perfect storm of insight. First, I read for one hour the book I'm currently reading, Isaac's Storm, by Erik Larson. Isaac's Storm tells the tragic story of the deadliest natural disaster in U. S. history, the Galveston, Texas hurricane of 1900. The second thing I read was from a headline on the front page of the New York Times, Trump Scorns Own Scientists on Virus Data. The article details how the President rejected the professional scientific conclusions of his own advisers on the prospects of a Covid vaccine being widely available and on the importance of people wearing masks to slow the spread of the disease. The third item was also a headline from the front page of the Times, Unexpected Fury of Storm Pounds Coast of Florida, which tells how the latest hurricane, Sally, proved difficult for forecasters to predict and hit with unexpected force in Pensacola. Florida where people were not expecting it to be as powerful and destructive.

The hurricane in Galveston in 1900 struck unexpectedly and with great ferocity, with winds of more than 145 mph and with a storm surge of perhaps 30 feet. An estimated 6,00 to 12,00 people were killed. Property damage was estimated at 34 million, more than a billion in today's dollars. Perhaps the greatest tragedy of all was that their were no warnings about the storm, and no chance for people to evacuate largely because of politics, CONTINUE READING: Russ on Reading: The Mighty Storm: Multiple Texts Help Synthesize Thought

August 25, 2020 Tuesday at 2 Webinar + COVID 19: FFVP School Year 2020–21 Waivers - (CA Dept of Education) -

August 25, 2020 Tuesday at 2 Webinar

August 25, 2020 Tuesday at 2 Webinar

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Main Web Page

The California Department of Education (CDE) Nutrition Services Division (NSD) hosted the eighth Tuesday @ 2: School Nutrition Town Hall webinar on August 25, 2020 for school food service operators, chief business officials, and community partners to listen to a discussion on best practices during the transition back to school and moving forward in meal service amidst COVID-19.

Panelists included speakers from Fairfax Elementary School District, San Luis Coastal Unified School District, Cupertino Union School District, and Mt. Diablo Unified School District. The panelists discussed strategies for serving quality meals, implementing contactless meals, food safety for families and staff, and engaging community partners.

The next Tuesday @ 2: School Nutrition Town Hall webinar will be held on Tuesday, September 22, 2020 at 2 p.m. Join the Tuesday @ 2: School Nutrition Town Hall Webinar.

Password: 182792

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

COVID 19: FFVP School Year 2020–21 Waivers

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Main Web Page

Effective immediately, the U.S. Department of Agriculture has granted the California Department of Education (CDE) Nutrition Services Division two waivers for the Fresh Fruit and Vegetable Program (FFVP) for School Year 2020–21.

The first waiver allows school food authorities (SFA) participating in the FFVP to distribute the FFVP snacks to a parent or guardian on behalf of their eligible child(ren) without the child(ren) being present. (Parent Pick-Up Waiver)
The second waiver allows SFAs participating in the FFVP to offer the FFVP snacks to elementary school children at non-FFVP school sites (elementary, middle, or high schools) if the FFVP school is closed or does not have meal service. (Serving FFVP at Alternate Sites Waiver)

The SFAs must demonstrate that the waivers do not result in an increase to the overall cost of the FFVP.

How to Opt-in

If you plan to implement the Parent Pick-up Waiver or the Serving FFVP at Alternate Sites Waiver, please send an email to ffvp@cde.ca.gov to opt-in.

When opting-in to use the Parent Pick-Up Waiver, please describe your plan for how you will provide FFVP snacks only to parents or guardians of eligible children and how you will ensure that no duplicates are distributed to any child.

When opting-in to use the Serving FFVP at Alternate Sites Waiver, please list the name(s) of the FFVP sites that are closed that will use this waiver and the name(s) of the site(s) that will serve the FFVP snacks while using this waiver to only eligible children.

Within the next year, all 2020–21 FFVP grantees who opt-in to use the waiver(s) will receive an email to complete the mandatory report(s).

Effective Date

Both the FFVP Parent Pick-up Waiver and Serving FFVP at Alternate Sites Waiver are effective immediately and will remain in effect until June 30, 2021.

For more comprehensive COVID-19 guidance, please visit the CDE School and Child and Adult Day Care Meals web page.

Contact Information

If you have any questions regarding this subject, please contact the CDE FFVP Team, by phone at 916-322-9943 or by email at ffvp@cde.ca.gov.

Questions: Nutrition Services Division | 800-952-5609