As climate-fueled natural disasters and power shutoffs have eroded the school year in an unprecedented swath of California, a lawmaker in wildfire country is proposing making up the lost instructional time for the most severely impacted students by funding “disaster relief” summer schools.
Formally dubbed the “Disaster Relief Instructional Recovery Program,” Senate Bill 884 by Democratic Sen. Bill Dodd of Napa would give schools the funding to make up instructional days lost to fires, natural disasters and attendant blackouts.
School districts would not be required to participate in the program, and neither students or teachers would be required to participate in disaster relief summer school if their school district opts into the program. District and charter schools would be eligible to participate if they lost five or more instructional days to disasters in one school year or, cumulatively, “at least 10 instructional days in two out of three consecutive school years,” according to the bill’s text.
The legislation, introduced Thursday, follows reporting and data published last year by CalMatters that detailed the heavy toll that climate-driven fires –and the power shutoffs aimed at preventing them –have taken on students, teachers and public schools.
This school year alone, fires and utility power shutoffs forced emergency closures in more than 1,500 public schools across 34 counties that affected more than 800,000 kids, according to school-closure data gathered by CalMatters.
Though it isn’t required by state law, school districts can voluntarily budget emergency days into their academic calendars —a strategy the state Department of Education advised in the wake of this year’s widespread disruptions.
But local officials overseeing schools most affected by disasters say they don’t have the finances to make up the days — and sometimes weeks — of lost instruction.
In a phone interview, Dodd said his bill would help alleviate the negative academic impact on students who miss school because of fires, disasters and power shutoffs.
“This is something that I think does impact students adversely and we have to provide some sort of framework,” Dodd said. Though he does not yet have a cost estimate, he said the state needs to step up support for schools and students whose education, in some cases, is now being annually disrupted “through no fault of their own.”
During the fall of the current 2019-20 school year, more than 360 schools closed for five school days or longer, with some students in Sonoma County losing as many as 15 instructional days –equivalent to three weeks of class time –due to mandatory wildfire evacuations and power shutoffs.
CalMatters identified at least 480 California public schools that have lost 10 or more instructional days for fire-related issues since the 2017-18 term, and thus would be eligible for disaster relief summer school under the bill’s provisions.
