announcer: this is abc seven news. kristen: you were watching getting answers, live on abc seven, hulu and wherever you stream. we ask experts questions every day at 3:00. you have heard of nonrefundable tokens? digital assets that represent real-world objects. today, we talked to a bay area nonprofit that has launched the first effort philanthropic nft series. the pandemic continues to challenge education. in the past week, we have seen headlines on severe substitute shortages, battles over requiring vaccines, problems with remote learning, kids

falling behind and students destroying their own school facilities. with these issues, we are welcome to bring back the state superintendent tony thurmond. thank you for making the time. >> thank you. i am at the west county mandarin school. we are focusing heavily on dual emerging language programs to support our students as we go forward. kristen: very good. i want to say, let's start the announcement here with this week you said you are launching a campaign to ensure all california students learn to read by the time they are in the third grade. give us the details. >> this has been a goal for education for years. everyone has always said it is an important milestone. learning to read for third grade mean students are less likely to drop out and end up in criminal

justice system. we announced our goal is going to be getting to third grade literacy by 2026. it felt important to me to name a date. we are going to have a lot of resources like teacher training programs to help with families. we are going to work to get one million books donated to families so we get books in the hands of students and families to support reading goals. kristen: reading by third grade, that suggests the work needs to start now. >> it does. i am hopeful we can think of this in terms of any student who enters kindergarten in the upcoming year, by the time they reach third grade we can say all third-graders have reached that benchmark. this is going to be difficult. this has eluded education systems for a long time. because california now is having resources for universal

preschool for every four-year-old, now is the time for us to accelerate our efforts toward this goal. kristen: what is the percentage of third graders that cannot read proficiently? who are they? >> california data, the most available data suggests 51% of students between the third and 11th grade read proficiently. that means we have a lot of work. when you look at this snapshot of economically disadvantaged students, that number drops from 51% to 30%. somewhere in the mid 40's we have a lot of work to do to change that. if we start focusing on our youngest children and school readiness and making sure families have resources and support, we can get there and every year provide more support for students. kristen: is california behind

other states? >> california mirror versus other states because this is the challenge that exists in almost every single state. california needs to be a leader and we have to say we are going to do something about it. that is why we are making the bold claim that we are going to do something. get one million books in the hands of kids and say we are going to change this. kristen: one million bucks. you have a task for us. what kind of things do you think might be implemented? what are you thinking of that could help the kids succeed and also measure whether they are succeeding? >> you cannot do this without providing more training for teachers. our educators are important. i remember the days when i read to my kids and then one day they said i would like to read to you. i would like to thank our california teachers because that let us know they reached a level

of proficiency to do that. we are going to have to do work on reducing chronic absenteeism. many kids in our states ms. 10% of school. school readiness issues. we have universal meals now for any student who is hungry, regardless of financial background. more counseling. we have to work with students who are dealing with special needs and need help dealing with dyslexia and the appropriate recognition of students who learn differently and making sure we provide them with the right supports. kristen: i want to talk more about that, but i want to address vaccines. there have not been a lot of outbreaks in classrooms in california in part because our transmission rate is pretty low due to high vaccination rates and mitigation efforts. the state did mandate that

teachers be vaccinated, or be tested weekly. what percentage of teachers is currently vaccinated? >> nationally and in the state, we believe 90% are vaccinated. that mirrors many bay area counties. san francisco, the east bay, oakland, berkeley, and pro south bay, we are seeing numbers at that level of vaccination for educators and the general public. kristen: kumasi: do you think that is enough? do you want to see them keep the testing weekly option or should that be removed and everyone must get vaccinated? >> i think we have to step up and do even more. i want to commend californians for all they have done on vaccines but when you look at the strength of the delta variant and the possibility of future variance, the only thing that is going to prevent the most serious consequences is

having a vaccine. i think we are moving to a place where there is no longer temporary approvals of some vaccines, we are seeing more calls to get booster shots. we need to accelerate the vaccine especially for young people between 12 and 17. we have to be ready as soon as the fda says children under 12 can get the vaccine. we have to be ready. that is going to keep us safe and keep our schools and businesses open and keep us all safe. kristen: in the bay area, communities are seeing 90% vaccination rates amongst students in high school. what do you feel about the vaccination mandate for students? our viewers want to know is there a chance of making it mandatory? >> there is always a chance. but because the california legislature has recessed for the year, that is the primary place

where a mandate would come for all students. we know many school districts are already thinking about making their own mandates. our largest school district has done it, los angeles unified. culver city has done it. the bay area is thinking about doing it. we encourage them to do it. that is what is -- what it is going to take to get our children socialized. kristen: oakland unified expected to vote shortly. l.a. unified has already voted to approve. a group of oakland teachers and activists today held another news conference saying in person learning should not happen. face mortal danger. their words. do you agree with that? >> i have respect for oakland

educators and their associations. i would say it is possible for us to have in person instruction. we should accelerate vaccines and i want to commend many leaders in the school district who have been talking about more vaccine outreach, covid testing and mitigations. i have to look to san francisco unified. last week -- i have not seen today's data -- but as of last week, they have not had a single case of the need to close a school or shut down because they have such high mitigations. it is incredible what is happening in san francisco. to me, it is a sign it can be done and we know our students need access to personal instruction, educators and peers. kristen: we will take a short break on the air, but hey, i just got a text from my sister. you remember rick, her neighbor?

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kristen: we are back with state superintendent tony thurmond. good of you to make that time. i want to ask you how well you think independent study is going so far from what you are hearing from kids who didn't want to return to in person learning? is there a way to gauge that the kids are succeeding? >> the students can succeed. the way independent study was restructured to prepare for quarantine does enable students to succeed. you have to have a computer my access to the internet, check ins in case students need adjustment. the reality is that we have

never had to do this before and schools are struggling. it has been a bumpy start to the school year for kids who had to quarantine from home but independent study can work. the challenges we are experiencing are a teacher shortage. the governor has given an executive order that allows retired teachers to start back sooner. districts can also take the money they have been given to support this program to raise the salary of substitute so we can get access to more teachers. it can work, but it has been bumpy. people are working for -- working through it. kristen: i have been reading the headlines about the teacher shortage. i got an emails from my own school district. is that because of people quarantining, the teachers? or maybe teachers are worried about putting themselves at risk? what is driving it? >> it is a combination of shortages.

schools didn't always have independent study. in many cases in the state, school districts have had about 5% of their total population of students asking for independent study. if you didn't already have independent study, you had to build it from scratch. and in some cases, finding the teachers to deliver. we already had a teacher shortage before the pandemic. it has grown. a lot of districts have been supplementing some administrative staff who are credentialed getting back into the classroom working with substitutes. this has been difficult but everyone is leaning in together. kristen: are districts offering more money? is that something the state can support so they could? ark of the state has given districts more money to pay higher salaries for teachers who do the hybrid or zoom for independent study to pay for more staff, or a one to one aide

in general. to be fair, districts are hesitating. they are concerned. the state and federal money is mostly one-time money and they are not sure how to make this work. but we are encouraging them to make those hires where you can. there is no one to blame. kudos to everyone for their effort and we have to keep working hard to get through this together. >> do you know how learning is supposed to take place when a child is in quarantine? let's say classroom, do they have to go on independent study? independent study? if it is only 10 days, there's not a lot of time to set things up. >> there is a combination of things. public health officials allow for a couple of things including a modified quarantine for students who may have been exposed but not showing symptoms. if they were not in close

contact, there are steric -- circumstances students can come to school and do covid testing twice a week. if they have symptoms, they have to quarantine. there have been provisions from public health folks. for those who are quarantining, independent study is set up to make sure you can get access and have access to a teacher. there are ways you can continue to learn. it is just difficult. this is a new system. independent study is not new, but in the past it was more independent where students work on their own. it has been reshaped for this moment to make sure the teacher and the students are still connected virtually. it has just been harder to staff , so we are going through growing pains. kristen: in the past year and a half, we have heard stories of learning loss. many have fallen behind.

can you talk about what you are trying to do to address that and look at the socioeconomic and racial components of disparity? >> part of why we named this time to focus on reading by third grade is i believe literacy is a gateway scale. we can't make up lost seat time, but if you focus on building skills for students, we can help them get there. i talked about being at a dual language immersion school. students in the school are -- some of the students already speak three languages. learning a language accelerates brain development. these are powerful programs that can support students and help them recover from any gaps or losses that were experienced during the pandemic. we have work to do, but there are things we can do and the state has provided more money for afterschool programs that will focus on helping students recover, training teachers to bring on more staff. the resources are they are, our

students are working through it and we will see that with universal preschool for all of our four-year-olds, universal meals, 4 billion dollars for counseling and mental health. we have the resources to address our students as they reconnect, we just have to work through the implementation. >> speaking of social needs, i've got to ask, we have seen a trend of kids destroying their school facilities. ripping up bathrooms to the point where some schools are closing down the bathrooms. what do you think is happening? what can we do? >> i hear this from school leaders across the state that there has been excitement, but for many students, they have not been socialized for 18 months. even in some of our youngest children we see an increase in behaviors. we have to utilize the resources we have. $4 million for mental health, $3 billion for wraparound supports.

we have to use these resources to help students with social and emotional needs as they reenter the school. for some kids, they have never been in all days -- been on a school campus before. some entering middle or high school for the first time on campus. now is a good time for us to attend to our students and family. please, take care of our schools. if you are destroying the school, you are hurting us all. i do not think locking the bathroom is the right idea but schools are just trying to figure out what to do. let's find some positive challenges to engage in. students are bright, resilient, let's come up with the best we can come up with during this time to support our students and engage them like our state advisory commission we just created so that young people could give us ideas on how we can do a better job educating students. let's challenge our students to do their best on tiktok and in

our communities. kristen: you should start some new hash tag where people challenging child there to do one kind thing. tony thurman, thank you. >> i am going to work on one kind act and invite you to be a spokesperson. kristen: we will take a short break. when we come back, and ftes. what they are and how a local nonprofit is using them like no one else has before.

princess cruises was born right here in california. for over 55 years, we've been helping californians make the most of their precious vacation time. and right about now, we could all use a real vacation. so forget the road trips and rentals and sail with princess right from san francisco to the glaciers of alaska, the beautiful tropics of hawaii, the beaches of mexico or along the california coast. set sail with california's cruise line. book now at princess.com or call your travel advisor. kristen: you have probably heard of and ftes. even if you do not understand it, like me. nonrefundable tokens represent real-life objects. the golden state warriors lets you bid on all sorts of warriors and ftes including digital versions of their championship rings. there are tickets from memorable games. some entities can be worth

millions and that has got the attention of nonprofit organizations. joining us is the manager of strategy for street coat academy, dj jack. should i call you dj? what do you prefer? >> dj is perfect. thank you for having me. kristen: street coat offers free technology and entrepreneurship classes and free laptops to communities of color on the peninsula. it was named nonprofit of the year. big congratulations. great work, you are always on the cutting edge. now you are jumping in on and ftes. explain what you guys are doing. >> the reality of the situation is we realized that those who could potentially benefit the most from this new technology are the same people being left behind while billions of dollars flow.

ouou effect of just a portion of those dollars could make it into the hands of an organization like ours. that is what motivated us to do this. as a test -- tech academy in silicon valley, we view it as our responsibility to lead the way and create a blueprint. that is why we created the world's first philanthropic and ftes. kristen: now through september 30, you are minting a series of unique and ftes featuring brand ambassadors. who are these folks? what do you get as a donor? >> what we did was we partnere with some of our most influential supporters. people like tessa are going as. greg lutes e.

senator diaz becse we asked them if we were able to use their image and likeness to create an nft in their honor. they said yes. you can go on our website to check them out. if you would like to get one, it is very simple. we try to remove as much complexity as possible. all you have to do is donate and the highest donation will win that specific nft. that is how it will work. kristen: this is a bigger question, do you own the digital -- what is it you own? any file can be replicated. what makes it valuable? >> any file can be replicated. the difference between you replicating the file and other people having the same file versus having the nft, think of

it like having a serial number. there are a lot of stephen king books in the world, but very few have an autograph. if you have the nft, you have the original. it says you have the authentic version. that is what makes it valuable. kristen: is this -- you guys on the end of being a nonprofit hoping to make money, is there some sort of royalty aspects this provides that keeps bringing in money to fund your work? >> i am glad you brought that up. yes. that is one of the things that make and ftes so revolutionary. imagine in the old days, an unknown artist sells a painting for hundred -- for $100, years later it sells for $1 million. that is great for them, but i don't get a penny. with nft's there is a built-in

royalty so that any time it is sold you get a percentage. now with my work sells for $1 million i am thrilled because i might get $100,000 or more depending on how high i set the royalty. this is where you will see a lot of creators move into the space. passive income forever. how can people find out more to either be part of the fundraiser or take courses? visit our website streetscode.org. to know about the fundraiser,

kristen: thank you for joining us. today, we covered all things

education with superintendent tony thurmond and we learned about and ftes. tonight, as we come on the air, the key meeting at the cdc under way. all of this with the fda decision on boosters for millions of americans expected at any moment. the fda could green-light a third pfizer shot for adults 65 and older and those at high risk of covid. at the same time, a cdc advisory panel also meeting to decide who should get those boosters first and how quickly. tonight, authorities say those first pfizer boosters could possibly be ready to go by the end of this week. steve osunsami with late reporting, he's at the cdc. also tonight, the new images coming in. the urgent police search for brian laundrie. divers and drones now called in, searching 25,000 acres of swampland. a person of interest in the case of gabby petito and what we're