Hundreds of students with disabilities in the San Francisco Unified School District have gone a year without the kind of assessment that helps plan their education. Now, the district and teachers union have forged a deal to restart those evaluations.
The bad news is they still don’t know how in-person learning will be done safely.
Special educators often work with students with varying disabilities, moving between different classes and even schools all over the district.
“Students with disabilities have a lot of really specific needs,” said Megan Caluza, an SFUSD teacher who specializes in behavioral needs. She said certain safety standards for COVID-19 are a lot more complicated for her students.
"They're not all gonna wear masks," Caluza said. "That’s just how it goes. And they're gonna need help with hygiene issues — we wipe their faces and help them go to the bathroom.”
A recent study from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that the virus spreads more often in classrooms where physical distancing and mask-wearing is harder to maintain.
“I would worry a lot less if I was vaccinated,” Caluza said.
Gov. Gavin Newsom announced last month that the state would begin setting aside 10% of the vaccine supply for educators by March. And while San Francisco’s vaccination sites are now open to teachers, doses have been limited and delayed by confusion between city and state officials. On Wednesday, San Francisco Mayor London Breed said the city had finalized a plan to get vaccine codes to teachers.
In the meantime, some teachers, including Caluza, have gone to Oakland for vaccines. In a statement, a spokeswoman for SFUSD said it's working with the city to make vaccinating teachers a priority.
But even if vaccines do turn up, there are some parents that aren’t in a rush to go back. This is especially true for parents of children with severe needs.
Jose Victor Luna's daughter, who is in first grade at Dolores Huerta Elementary School, was born with leukemia and is immunodeficient. He says he likes remote learning, both because he can spend more time with his daughter and because he knows she’s safe from the virus.
He says the virus is still out there, and it poses too great a risk.
"And it's not just how it relates to my daughter, but to all students who are special," even if all teachers are vaccinated, he said in Spanish.
The logistics of hybrid learning for students like Luna’s daughter are still subject to closed-door negotiations between the union and the district.