DENVER — School districts nationwide are working to remove police officers from campuses, but some Black and Indigenous educational leaders are resisting the push prompted by the national reckoning over racial injustice and police brutality. Some say the system is hamstrung by a complicated mix of police response policies and...
AP-NORC Poll: Very Few Americans Back Full School Reopening
BOSTON — Virtual instruction. Mandated masks. Physical distancing. The start of school will look very different this year because of the coronavirus — and that’s OK with the vast majority of Americans. Only about 1 in 10 Americans think daycare centers, preschools or K-12 schools should open this fall without restrictions, according...
How Does COVID-19 Affect Kids? Science Has Answers and Gaps
What role children play in the coronavirus pandemic is the hot-button question of the summer as kids relish their free time while schools labor over how to resume classes. The Trump administration says the science “is very clear,” but many doctors who specialize in pediatrics and infectious diseases say much...
Newsom Overrules Local Districts on School Reopening Plans
Gov. Gavin Newsom laid out strict criteria Friday for school reopenings that make it unlikely the vast majority of districts, including in Fresno and Clovis, will have classroom instruction in the fall as the coronavirus pandemic surges. The rules include a mandate that students above 2nd grade and all staff...
Newsom to Outline Plans for Reopening Schools
SAN FRANCISCO — Gov. Gavin Newsom is expected to announce new guidance for the reopening of California schools Friday, with many of the state’s 1,000 districts just weeks away from returning to school and still undecided on whether to allow students back in classrooms. Several school districts have already said...
AP Fact Check: Trump Team's False Comfort on Schools, Virus
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump's aides are misrepresenting the record on kids and the coronavirus as they push for schools to reopen. White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany on Monday inaccurately characterized what the chief of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said on the matter. A day earlier, Education Secretary...
Newsom Hopes California Schools Won't Be Delayed by Virus
SACRAMENTO — Surging coronavirus cases in California prompted a warning on Wednesday from the nation's most populous county of a possible delay to classroom instruction in public schools next month — a setback Gov. Gavin Newsom said he hopes to avoid by convincing more people to wear face coverings and...
Trump Threatens to Cut Federal Aid If Schools Don't Reopen
President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to withhold federal funding if schools don’t reopen in the fall, and he lashed out at federal health officials over school reopening guidelines that he says are impractical and expensive. Taking to Twitter to voice his frustration, Trump argued that countries including Germany, Denmark...
DeVos Rejects Part-Time Reopening for Schools Amid Pandemic
Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday assailed plans by some local districts to offer in-person instruction only a few days a week and said schools must be “fully operational” even amid the coronavirus pandemic. Anything less, she says, would fail students and taxpayers. DeVos made the comments during a call with...
Schools Face Prospect of Layoffs, Furloughs as State Budget Gets Slashed
California’s public schools, physically closed since mid-March and strapped for cash, are coming out of a frying pan and into a financial fire. The fire comes in the form of a $6.5 billion cut to schools’ main source of funding as well as other reductions in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s revised budget...