tonight on newsroom it is virtually thatis. to the pandemic tests students and teachers like never before as they balance safetywith lesson plans. also the debate about reopening schools amid equity gaps among different communities within school districts. they stress and pressure parents face to make me their kids educational and emotional needs. lcome to kqed newsroom classes resume this month with distance learning as the new normal education. everyone agrees it is not an tu ideal ion but there is less concurrence on how to make the best of this bad situation. school districts throughout the state have been preparing r a more robust online education

program than they could offer in the spring when the pandem for struck. at that time teachers and parents struggled with distance learning from simply gett online to getting assignments done. toght we consider the challenges and opportunities the new school year brings, when instruction shifts online. joining me now via skype is our senior editor of education julia mcavoy. also joining us his doctor alicia smith the executive director of the education trust west. thank you both for joining us. >> it to be here. >> julia let's start with you. most of california's schoolchildren are going back to sool this month but online only. there a process toget a waiver for elementary school kids. can you tell us about the criteria? >> schools and districts which are in counties where the caseload is under 200 per 100,000 residents, they can apply. they have to meet all sorts of safety criteria, plants were distance

learning, small cohorts of kids communication plan with parents. what they will do if a case services, there are a lot of things they had to plan for including the labor if their public schools before they can get approved by their local public thheauthority. >> a leash i want to talk to u about a pollyou conducted with the advocacy organization for california students. you conducted a couple of re surveys, one s of school- aged children through 12th grade another from zero through age 5 , what concerns did you hear from parents paicularly when itcomes to distance learning? >> we are concerned with parents across the state about their students and returng to school and whether or not they would really have that academic rough this year. able to get 90% rents in that poll expressed concerns about distance l40rning and almost of parents across

california in the home noted they had issues wi connecting to the internet or a lack of devices. we also heard a lot from parents about the inability to o actually provide and other support systems as well. >> isn't food being handled at school sites still? >> food is being handled at school sites across the state and one of the issues with isth it is really important and it has been a great service then schools have providing come many schools did not budget to provide those services. many of the fiscal issues we are all concerneabout around covid-19 are really being set up to sproportionately impact schools next fall. t if we don't more assistance from the federal government directed towards schools. >> there was also a national poll reased with results this week and it surveyed teachers, specifically around this question of reopening schools.

what are some key findings from that? >> i think what in are he from parents, there are a lot of concerns and the poll which queried a 500 teachers across the statth private and public, found that 82% of teachers are really concerned about going back and really one in three of them really prefer to teach primarily remotely. teachers are concerned about safety both of themselves, thr families, and their students and i just don't think there is a lot of stress right now that distris and even their counties can verify that would safe environment to return to at this point. >> distance learning has also b reveal gaps when it comes to equity for low income households and students of color. could you share with us some of the problems that are specific to these honorable communifies, anany of the problems that eming like they will be addressed and adjusted this fall. >> great estion. in the spring the big problem

was this scramble for digital devices and intecoet ections for i think it was state. million across the at this the superintendent of schools tony thurmond the state pe ntendent has said 700,000 california students select devices and about 300,000 lack internettaotspots. the didivide remains a huge hurdle and the students will be left out of the starting gate when comes to online learning. i can't think of a more fundamental equity issue than that. that aside we've got kids at home with their parents might what they are doing online, they can't help them do work or even understand what the teacher is as ng for. some of those children - line workers are watching their siblings. then you have kids in households, a student i know is in a one-bedroom apartment with five children and her parents are out working. she had to go into her car just to having ofquiet to participate in a zoom lesson

with her schools. she was embarrassed and didn't want to puthe video on and as you can see for some kids especiofly when i think kids of front-line workers you have a lot of barriers to participate including affluent e families and their s are help them figure things out. alicia let's turn to the role of the state in all of this do you feel the state has been doing the work they need to hools, teachers and students and parents succeed during this time? what should they be doing if you feel they are not doing what they should be. >> we believe there is a lot at more the can be doing. there is a lot of language in the bill now that does provide some guidance around instructional minuteudand whether a t should get live instruction versusru inion. however there is a lot of room for interpretation and what is

currently there. we know that when there are no guardrails and we are getting a lot of disparity in terms of what one school district is providing versus another, that is something that definitely leads to inequities. is there reallya greater role the state can play in terms of outlining some much more consistency across districts and schools in the state. >> despite these enormous challenges around distance- learning you see this as an y opportunr a reboot to happen within the educational system? >> we are really at a crossroads moment between the recent murder of george lloyd, breanna taylor and 70 others and the coronavirus. we have come to a moment where we can really continue to re- create tou inequities in education system that were already there, or we can work to create something new. to create something new there are some schools that are doing things like really thinking about how do they assess students when they come back

and non-punitive ways but raise ways that really helped them understand where students are to take them from where they are to where they need to go ey are having a lot more ar. interaction one-on-one between teachers and students, all the things we know students real need and in some ways we could use this as an opportunity to re-create education ways we have needed to for far too long. >> thank you. facebook to our viewers and one of them asks, how ours they making this available to staff said schools are supposed to regularly test staff, how are they supposed todo that and who pays for it? at the moment they are saying staff should done by testing sites and as we know there has been a movement to get insurance companies to pay for

any testing of front-line or essential workers and teachers are considered essential workers. heif you are a tein a school it won't be the school paying for this, they are sending to the testing center and also seing them totheir health service and have that pickup. >> what do you thk will make the key districts between this school year and the school year. >> we know one of the most important things is is is going make sure they are providing materials to parents in native languages. we also know it will be super important to really communicate with educators and make sure they have the professional developmental they need to be able to help students. we also know funding for all of this will be crucial. we know it will be more fund from the federal government and there were already propositions

on the ballot which could p really hfuse more funding into to e students that need it most. i am really hopeful we will be able to push those three things in more school districts across the stat >> thank you both so mu for joining us. counties that are on california's coronavirus monitoring list scy only provide hool services online. when a county has been off the watch list for two weeks total school district could choose to provide in persons instruction again but teacher unions say that regulation does not go far enough. they argue using countywide w averagl lead to inequitable and unsafe situations and that more eddetailed simco data nes to be used instead. with me now ismarissa th president of the united teachers of richmond and a former elementary school

teacher. also joining the is shakira runneland cofounder of the parent leadership council thank us. g th so ch for >> thank you for having us. >> marissa what is yourconcern about using countywide data to reopen the school districts? de i think countydata is into painting the real story of what is going on in our counties. for exampli teach and contra costa county and san pablo is three times the number of cases as the countywide average. that means when students go back to hool it is likely they will go back with a greater likelihood of passing the virus to the students. we need to be using zip code data and making sure every zip code meets the requirements before goi back toschool. >> your position is no school should reopen until all schools can reopen within the county

yes? isn't that punitive to the students ithose districts that have lower infection te >> i think the bottom line is we want kids back in school. classroo are meant to be physical and we are meant to be it is not to return until er it is safer students. if you look at the countywide data, the places where there is a biggest discrepancy between the cases is where there e most essential and they are more likely to have relative so his case count is high. we are actually putting them in a really unsafe situation and i really believe we all needed to come together and put pressure on our county and local governmes to make sure putting contact tracing and testing in this communities so we can all be safe to go back you have two boys who are

young and in school. what has your experience with distance-learning been like and what are you expecting for the fall? >> quite honestly it has been quite inconsistent. experience, a great teacher who really jumped in th the distance-learning program and my other son had a teacher that luckily i feel lithe teachers and the district have really put a lot of effort into making sure the fall willbe a different experience. i'm expecting things will go better but it will still be difficult. i have two young children who both n d my constant assistance in ord participate in the program. >> are there any steps that could make distance-learning a e better expe for you and your children? >> i think some of the steps we are taking increased parent

training is really important in making sure we have policies in place to make sure thour neediest students, those who havedifficulty accessing distance-learning in the past who don't have wiconsistent-fi and things like that, we will have a better experience than at was really an emergent the. it was not a distance learning program. >> earlier today your union, the united teache reached a deal with the school district r distance to learning can you tell me about any specific pieces related to equity in that deal and what a typical day will ok like? >> i think theyfocus have been making this deal was equity and to do that we worked directly with our parents and with the leadership council to make sure they were involved.

it was crisis learning. teachers overnight had to figure it out how do i take what i learned in the classroom and years of learning and do it online? this new really lows for mo training for our teachers so they will be really prepared to do this with a special training on race and equity. every frid the month our teachers will get an hour and half of professional development which will really help make surewe are bringing all of our learning back when they come back to the classroom physically as t ll. >> m this conversation around equity has been framed in terms of race. do you think it should be broader? can you tell us about that? >> i am both a black parent obviously but i also have children with edspecial there are concerns of equity for children like mine. how are their needs being met in both the distance-learning

program and in physical classroom setting. as a parent we have so many balls to juggle here. there are therapies in iep's and different things like that so in every conversation i always want those needs to al be centered with race and class and income and all of these things have to be part of the on conversawe are having. >> do you feel you are getting the support you need from your school district? >> i feel liwe are on the road to getting the support that we need. i do felike my voice was heard when i had problems during the spring and i am cautiously optimistic. i read all 20+ pages and i see special education mentionepl itly and as i said my older son had an amazing teacher. she used to zoom with special needs children so i expect to have a ribetter exce than i

had in the spring. >> we received a question on facebook from one of our viewers. they are wondering if schools will be equipped with enough counselors is your school district requiring >> this is such an in great and portant question and th answer is no. i don't know of any districts doing this right now. and the problem is we don't have enough funding to make this possible. it is so clear during this crisis learning that schoole ntral to our community. we had teachers handing out the free reduced lunch, we had su teachers dropping oflies. we had teachers were getting the mental health health support and we need to fund

schools like they are the community centers they really have been serving in our community. no we are not doing that, i think that is something we need to step up and do. as a state we need to invest in the services foour students. many parents have been scrambling and they have often en creating these so-called pandemic pods where a few people will come together with their kids to share childcare, potentially hire a tutor or teac educate their children in a smaller group setting in a ive setting. there has been a lot of present criticism about this specifically in terms of equity. i am u rious what think about pandemic pods and if u know anyone doing this. >> actually i do know someone that is paicipating but from a very different standpoint than what you just mentioned. she is in san jose and is doing this because the teachers there are being required to be in du

their classroomsng this learning. she is creating a pod with classmates of her son and also because there e some essential workers who need that level of support. i think the need fochildcare and essential workers is getting lost in the discussion of pandemic pods and that is onai something ble to people of a certain mes. i still, it is justtalking about people who have the monies to take people out of the teaching force anask them to work in their homes, then i feel like we are misdirecting nor resources and really looking toward the county and state muto state to all that we can to get this virus under control and to reduce the infections and make our public schools safe for everyone.

>> thank you both so much. >> thank you. nothat school is coming back many parents may find it difficult to keep up with the demands of their children's distance-learning and their own work schedule. this pressure has had a negative impact on the mental health of parents and their kids, struggling with uncertainty and up and did routines. joining me now is esthe prr of psychiatry doctor william . martin thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. >> as a psychologist can you briefly describe for us what mental health challenges you are seeing in your pare, s patienrticularly around distance education? >> yes that is a grea question. we are seeing a lot o

with our families as well and we primarily serve folks on public insurance and what we are seeing is a lot of struggling on figuring out how to provide the kids education if these parents are working from home hothey are able to both work from home and do a second job being the educator for their kids. for folks who are front-line essential workers we are seeing a lot of stress to figure out how to to provide childcare or have childcare provided for their kids at home and their education provided while they are out working. >> i am curious how much higher a level of mental health struggle that you are seng thesdays through the pandemic and going into the school year? en talking with colleagues ave

all around the country who were in similar clins working with similar populations that we are seeing a lot of mental health ug symptoms go ththe roof right now. right now we are ving a lot f ks who are highly olate for just a couple hours , the mental health system unis r stress right now. that inot there in many parks especially here in san francisco. folks are really starting to see an weuptick and are starting to see a lot more symptoms, children it's of great concern right now. >> what advice do you have? >> number one parents need to be mindful of theiown stress, im

self-care is sortant. if you can't take care of yoself you will not able to take care of yourown child. children feed off their parents stress and anxiety. second is to have faith in yourself, your families ability to handle and we think every en family has to hardship before. every family has their way of dealing with things >> what are you hearing from school-aged children about their struggles during is time? >> a lot of it with his inability to social distance right, especially in our adolescent population. this is a time for independence, a time where theyh are buildingr own

identities and with not having school and ithaving abs to socialize or less abilities to do that they are struggling. a lot of times we still have zoom and other forms of cial media to interact with these in person interactions are so important and being able to do things together. for the younger kids it is a lot of anxiety t and a of younger kids don't understand the grand scale of this. they are just seeing that people are anxious and there is a scary virus, and my potentially gog to die? >> we see they are experiencing a lot of anxiety. >> let's talk about masks, public health officials is requirina mask wearing in public. art there. adolescence i ll adolescents just by nature of that stage of development just e

by that nature we see some of them who wamaybe don't to wear a mask or feel like they can be safe without wearing one. i think it is important to treat them tsas adtalk to them about the importance and why and how important it is what their role could be is just yeah, it's t, it's scratchy and it's hard for them to keep up with that, especially masks. there are masks made for younger kids but they are no the mocomfortable. we do see but with the younger kids they are likely to wear the mask if you really explain why they should. >> this is a time in which kids should be learning all the rules of socialization are being aprced to ay t and

social distance. can you tell us how this may impact their growth and development in the ars to come? >> that is a great question. estion about how we think r about recovery from covid-19. they tested and now they are comingut of the lness but in society if we don't think about these larger kind of public health issud think about how we can provide this in the interim, thinking about how to get creative about spaces with these kids is creating specific spacious for socialization. we do's hand stand to see what issues are downe line. this lack of socialization right now i think it is important our public health folks, the planning folks, all think about thisand think about how we can de with this in the interim in a safe manner. >> doctor william martinez

thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. >> you find more of our coverage online. you can reach me on twitter, facebook and instagram from all of us here at kqed thanks for wahing. at night.

bert c.: the virus surges, congress stalls and the election heats up. >> they wereying, that's true and it i what it is. robert c.: president trump pushes ahead, clashing with experts, asou the white is locked in a standoff over virus relief. >> the republicans and the president do not understand the gravity of the situation and every time we me with them it robert c.: 1k389 campaign turns vicious. president tru he's against god, helps against guns. robert c.: as the former vice president readies his own v.p. next. announcer: this is "washington week." rporate sfunled funding is provided by --