Newsom Hints At Deal For School Reopenings; LA Mulls LAUSD Suit

LOS ANGELES, CA — Los Angeles City Councilman Joe Buscaino Tuesday asked city leaders to join him in pursuing legal options to force the Los Angeles Unified School District to reopen schools. Whether a legal battle could force Los Angeles teachers back into classrooms this school year remains to be seen, but the threat of a lawsuit adds to the pressure campaign to get elementary school students back in their classrooms.

The coronavirus infection rate in Los Angeles County is trending down and on track to reach the threshold for school reopenings within weeks. The sticking point is the availability of vaccine doses for teachers and school staffers, who are not currently prioritized by the state or county. The LA teachers union made full vaccination for staff a red line, and on Monday night Gov. Gavin Newsom said his office is working on a deal with legislators that includes earmarking vaccines for teachers.

“We hope to get there this week, and we can announce some of that progress,” Newsom told reporters. “It includes a prioritization framework to get our teachers vaccinated.”

Already, the state's fourth-largest city — San Francisco — has opened up its vaccine distribution centers for teachers in a longshot bid to reopen classrooms before the summer break.

LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner said this week it would require 25,000 vaccinations to reopen LA elementary schools. The slow rollout of vaccines in L.A. County means teachers still aren't eligible to receive the shots, which are restricted primarily to health care workers and residents aged 65 and over.

Los Angeles County Public Health Department Director Barbara Ferrer said Tuesday that depending on future availability of vaccines, teachers and other front-line essential workers could become eligible in a matter of weeks. But even when they do, that group of essential workers includes more than 1 million people, meaning it will take time to get them all vaccinated with two doses that must be administered three to four weeks apart.

Buscaino, said he thinks a lawsuit could force the issue.

"Today I ask my colleagues on the Los Angeles City Council to join me and Council member Gil Cedillo, on behalf of the nearly 600,000 LAUSD students who have gone nearly a year without classroom learning, to work together with the teachers union, the county, and the state to reopen LAUSD campuses safely," Buscaino said in a statement. The motion was seconded by Cedillo.

If the City Council approves the motion, it would follow in the footsteps of the San Francisco City Council, which is suing its school district to force reopenings. There was no immediate timeline for when the motion could come up for a vote before the City Council.

Schools have not been fully open for in-person classes since March 2020. Buscaino announced plans last week to introduce the motion, and on Tuesday he said that since his announcement, he's "seen movement in a positive direction."

"The governor is prioritizing this issue and is taking more active steps toward encouraging reopening, and LAUSD has been responsive as well. It is very encouraging to see momentum toward finalizing a plan to reopen our schools safely, and we need that momentum to continue," he said.

Buscaino said he believes schools should immediately reopen at 25% capacity with the goal of fully opening when it is safe.

Under the state's current guidelines. Schools in Los Angeles aren't currently eligible to reopen due to the elevated rate of exposure in the county. The average daily rate of new COVID-19 cases would have to drop from 31.7 cases per 100,000 residents to below 25 cases per 100,000 residents. If the outbreak continues to decline at its current rate, it won't be long before the schools would be allowed to reopen under state guidelines.

But the teacher's union and Beutner haven't softened their stance on vaccinated all staffers before reopening.

Buscaino's motion argues that the ongoing school closure is widening the achievement gap between privileged students and low-income students. Cedillo said he sees that disparity in his northeast Los Angeles district.

"A recent LAUSD study exposed deep disparities faced by students of color, students that are children of families in my district," he said. "For instance, among Latinos who make up three-quarters of the school district, significant percentages of students were not actively participating in learning, citing that family members from this demographic disproportionately work as essential front-line workers, frequently in low-paying jobs that have exposed family members to health risks and prevented them from overseeing their children's schoolwork at home. Low-income students lagged between 10 and 20 percentage points behind their peers from more affluent families."

The motion also noted a drop in reports of child abuse, which experts believe is not due to a decline in abuse, but from the absence of teachers and other adults observing signs of abuse on children.

"Children and youth are also suffering mentally and socio-economically, as evidenced by increased reporting for in-patient mental health services and suicides," the motion stated.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.