Expect schools to stay closed through summer break because of coronavirus, Gavin Newsom says

California parents and students should expect schools to stay closed through summer break as efforts continue to contain the coronavirus, Gov. Gavin Newsom said Tuesday afternoon.

“Don’t anticipate schools are going to open in a week. Don’t anticipate schools are going to open in a few weeks,” Newsom said during a news conference. “I would plan and assume that it’s unlikely that many of these schools, few, if any, will open before the summer break.”

Newsom says he believes in being straight with Californians, as he is with his own family.

When he got home Monday night, Newsom said one of his daughters was “expressing deep distress and anxiety that she wasn’t in school.”

“She missed her friends,” he said. “She had thrown her bunny rabbit on the floor and pillows, most of the rest of the bed, on the floor. I told her, honey, I don’t think the schools are going to open again.”

Newsom has resisted calls to order all schools to close because that could force hospital workers with young kids to stay home from work and leave children who rely on school meals hungry.

But most school districts have decided to close on their own. About 98.8 percent of California’s 6.2 million students are already home from school because of the coronavirus that causes COVID-19 disease, Newsom said. His administration is seeking permission from the federal government to suspend standardized testing.

In the meantime, he’s not calling for daycare and childcare services to close.

“The bottom line is we need our child care facilities, our care care facilities to operate absorb the impact of these school closures,” he said.

He said the state may also use empty schools to provide child care with appropriate social distancing.

Help for parents with young children who need to return to work will mostly come from the federal government, which is working on relief legislation, Newsom said. He’s been in close contact with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who represents San Francisco, and says he’s confident that help is on the way from Congress and the White House.

Newsom said he also expects the federal government to approve funding waivers for school districts. When students miss school, funding decreases, as California schools are paid for through a formula that counts attendance as a factor. Closure of entire districts could be financially devastating without a waiver, reducing funding by millions for larger districts.

“Every request has been granted and in real time, so we are confident that as long as we don’t overstep, those waivers will be forthcoming,” he said.

Once it’s clear what the federal government will do, his administration will determine what resources the state can provide, Newsom said.

The California Department of Education provided guidance for K-12 schools, focusing on resources for distance learning, school meal delivery, accommodation for students with disabilities and child care.

The school closures are part of a massive effort to limit spread of the virus, which threatens to overwhelm the country’s hospitals and cause hundreds of thousands - potentially millions - of deaths.

The virus takes two to 14 days before infected people begin showing symptoms, health officials say, meaning people are likely spreading it before they know they are infected as they interact with others in their community.

Testing for the disease has been limited, but there are signs it is spreading widely through California communities, and the instances of infection will rise with more testing.

Epidemiologists have said the risk of coronavirus infections passed from person to person will remain high for weeks and possibly months.

This story was originally published March 17, 2020 at 5:51 PM with the headline "Expect schools to stay closed through summer break because of coronavirus, Gavin Newsom says."