Governor Newsom Announces Agreement Between Teachers, Classified Employees and School System Management to Support Student Instruction During COVID-19 Outbreak

SACRAMENTO – Governor Gavin Newsom April 2, announced an agreement between teachers, classified employees, school boards, superintendents, and principals to work collaboratively to provide distance learning to California’s students as a result of school closures due to mitigation efforts against the COVID-19 outbreak. The agreement is to ensure more students will be able to get school resources, such as quality distance instruction, and empowers teachers to create lessons within clear parameters.

The agreement includes a collaboration framework for school employers and employees to work together on matters of labor and management to minimize any impact to students—including direction on implementation and delivery of distance learning, special education, and meals through the end of the school year. Endorsing organizations include the following: California Department of Education, Association of California School Administrators, California Teachers Association, California School Boards Association, California Federation of Teachers, California County Superintendents Educational Services Association, California School Employees Association, California Association of School Business Officials, Service Employees International Union, Small School Districts’ Association, AFSCME California, and the California Labor Federation.

The Governor also announced a partnership with Google to provide mobile hotspots and Chromebooks to students in rural areas to facilitate distance learning. Google will donate Chromebooks and will fund the use of 100,000 donated mobile hotspots to provide free and unlimited high-speed Internet connectivity for the remainder of the school year. The California Department of Education will be distributing these resources, prioritizing rural communities.

The framework for student instruction can be found here:

https://www.gov.ca.gov/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/4.1.20-Labor-Management-Framework.pdf