The San Francisco Department of Public Health released a report today revealing that kids continue to remain safe in San Francisco schools. Some highlights:

• “No COVID-19 outbreaks have occurred in San Francisco schools since they reopened to in-person learning in mid-August and case rates have remained steady among young children in recent months.”
• “Just 13 city children have been hospitalized because of the coronavirus since the pandemic started in early 2020 and none currently, officials said. No San Francisco children have died from the virus.”
• Read more in SF Chronicle coverage here.

A huge thank you to the Dept of Public Health for its careful eye on school safety as well as its science-backed guidance for in-person learning procedures, and SFUSD for continuing to commit to following expert advice. 🙌 It’s clear that following the Dept of Public Health continues to work!

• Air purifiers going into classrooms. Thanks in large part to your activism, SFUSD began installing high-grade air purifiers in school classrooms on Wednesday. Check out the list of initial wave schools here. Keep up the great communication, SFUSD! The Facilities team plans to install these systems in all school sites in the coming weeks.
• Pushing for progress on Modified Quarantine. Thank you to the 109 people who sent letters to the Board of Education and SFUSD in support of a universal roll out of Modified Quarantine, one of the key strategies from the Dept of Public Health for keeping healthy kids in school. SFUSD has not yet committed to a full roll out and there is still no labor agreement in place to ensure that classes of kids in 10-day quarantine receive direct instruction from their teachers. We continue to inquire and try to troubleshoot the barriers to full adoption.
• Still no universal adult vaccine mandate. While the vaccine rate for SFUSD educators and staff who reported their shot status to SFUSD is an impressive 96%, a quarter of educators and staff required to report did not do so. Meanwhile …
• Commissioner Collins & Lopez continue to push forward with their muddled resolution. As we described last week, the Collins/Lopez resolution that is currently on the table (and to be discussed at Curriculum and Program Committee School Board Meeting on Monday, 9/13) falls short in a number of ways. Superintendent Matthews reported at last week’s hearing that it is already taking staff “everything they’ve got” to smooth out operations of 50,000 kids back learning in-person, safely. Yet the resolution puts additional demands on staff that wouldn’t necessarily increase health and safety. Sadly, SF Parents learned that the Department of Public Health was not even consulted in the development of the resolution. Commissioners Collins and Lopez seem intent on fast tracking this document nonetheless, even trying to bypass important Budget Committee review.
  • Take Action: Please call in to Monday’s (9/13) 4 pm Curriculum Committee (note: the link to the agenda is incorrect on the SFUSD site) to speak up for proper expert health and fiscal review of–and significant revisions to–this proposed binding resolution before it goes up for a vote.
• Middle & High School Family Survey. If you have a kid in middle or high school in SFUSD, our Middle & High family group wants to hear about your priorities for the coming year. Take the survey here.
• It’s time to join your School Site Council. What’s that about? School Site Councils (SSCs) have oversight of how your school budget is spent, set important academic goals for schools and decide on strategic actions to meet those goals. It’s important to have engaged parents and caregivers on these bodies. Email your principal to self-nominate if your school has an opening!

Missed our Get to Know Us Zoom last week? No worries. Grab some popcorn and watch here! TL;DR, we’re six ordinary parents, who fit in our advocacy work around school and bedtime schedules. Learn how we all got involved and why and what our plans are for the organization going forward. Plus, answers to some of the more bizarre myths about us floating around the Internet. 🧐

News

• Letter to UESF Leadership (from SF Parents) in response to an offensive graphic and misinformation leadership publicly posted about SF Parents online.
• Nearly a quarter of San Francisco school district teachers and staff have not reported their vaccination status, SF Chronicle
• Tracking coronavirus cases in San Francisco public schools, SF Chronicle
• How Will America Recover From A Broken School Year, NY Times
• Are Schools Quarantining Too Many Students? Education Week
• Alison Collins drops $87 million lawsuit against S.F. school district on day recall backers submit signatures, SF Chronicle
• San Francisco educators face COVID vaccination requirement deadlines as district struggles with costs, KTVU
• A new role for school staff: COVID contact tracers, SF Examiner
• New S.F. data shows children haven’t been hard hit by COVID even amid delta surge, SF Chronicle
• UCSF doctor questions whether SFUSD’s proposed COVID-19 protocol is ‘medically warranted’, ABC 7 News
• News Correction: Last week, KQED erroneously associated SF Parents (formerly Decreasing the Distance) with involvement in organizing the Board of Education recall, in an article covering families who don’t want their children back in school. KQED has since made a correction to that article.

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