SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California schools should plan on teaching from afar for the rest of the academic year because it's unlikely the coronavirus will allow them to reopen before summer, according to the state schools superintendent.
"Due to the current safety concerns and needs for ongoing social distancing, it currently appears that our students will not be able to return to school campuses before the end of the school year," Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond wrote in a Tuesday letter to district leaders. "This is in no way to suggest that school is over for the year, but rather we should put all efforts into strengthening our delivery of education through distance learning."
It's not a mandate, but it will give school districts the cover to do what many already felt was necessary, said Troy Flint, spokesman for the California School Boards Association. It follows Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom's prediction last month that schools wouldn't reopen this academic year.
Newsom, the father of four children 10 and under, said Tuesday the state has more work to do to "address the anxiety of parents, like me and my wife, millions of others, about whether or not kids are going to go back to school."
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Flint said Thurmond's letter gives districts the "security they feel they need to make a decision and explain that to their communities."
California Republican U.S. Rep. Devin Nunes interpreted Thurmond's letter as tantamount to a statewide closure order. He said such a move is unnecessary.
"The schools were just canceled out here in California, which is way overkill," Nunes said in an interview on Fox News. "It's possible kids could have gone back to school in two weeks to four weeks, but they just canceled the rest of the schools."
Virginia, Kansas and Arizona already closed schools for the rest of the year. California, the nation's most populous state, has more than 6 million students across 10,000 schools.
Californians are under a statewide stay-at-home order that requires most people to stay inside except for essential activities such as grocery shopping or going for a walk.
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