San Francisco Teachers Strike: What Should Families Know?

For the first time in nearly 50 years, San Francisco teachers could be going on strike in the next few weeks. The move could suspend school operations and halt work for teachers, counselors, nurses and social workers.

After nearly a year of tense contract negotiations between the San Francisco Unified School District and the United Educators of San Francisco union, the two sides reached an impasse in the fall. The union said educators need higher wages that keep up with the rising cost of Bay Area living and fully funded family health care. The district, however, argues its dire budget crisis makes meeting those demands an impossibility.

The potential strike comes amid a coordinated campaign across California by teachers unions with similar demands. And it’s not the first time Bay Area teachers have mobilized in recent years: Oakland teachers went on strike in 2023 and almost went to the picket line again in 2025. West Contra Costa County teachers held a four-day strike in December that ended after the district offered them 8% raises and fully funded health care.

But if UESF and the district don’t reach a deal soon, San Francisco teachers could walk off the job for the first time since 1979.

And the lack of recent precedent for a strike like this means that parents and caregivers with kids currently in SFUSD won’t have much experience with exactly what to do when their schools are going through labor negotiations.

From free meals to child care support, keep reading to see what union organizers, teachers, school officials and parents say about what families should expect if a strike goes ahead this month.

Jump straight to

• Has a teachers’ strike like this happened before?
• Can children technically attend school during a strike?
• What options do San Francisco families have for child care during a strike?

Is a SFUSD strike definitely happening? When would it start?

A strike has not been called, but at this stage it’s very likely — and it could technically begin as early as next week.

Last Wednesday, educators overwhelmingly approved a strike authorization vote: the second of two votes the union requires to give the go-ahead to call a strike at any time.

The union and district have also wrapped up planned negotiating sessions, part of the legally mandated mediation process, without a deal.

UESF President Cassondra Curiel said this is the closest the union has been to a strike in more than 20 years and added that the district hasn’t indicated it plans to meet their demands without a work stoppage.

There are still a few more legal steps before members can walk off the job, though. While mediation talks have wrapped up, the union is still waiting on what’s called a “fact-finding report.”

This week, a three-member panel, which includes one union and one district representative, along with a neutral mediator, will issue a final report — expected Wednesday — that includes nonbinding recommendations for a settlement.

After that, UESF has to give the district at least 48 hours’ notice of a strike. All of which means that the very earliest an SFUSD teachers’ strike could start is Monday, Feb. 9.

Does SFUSD already have emergency plans in place if the union declares a strike?

On Tuesday, the Board of Education will hold an emergency meeting to consider a resolution from SFUSD Superintendent Maria Su asking the board to grant her expanded powers to make plans for school operations during a potential strike.

The resolution would give her the authority to close schools, modify school schedules, cancel or modify special education programming and extracurricular activities.

Until that resolution is approved, the district said that it cannot hash out plans for how it will handle many of families’ most pressing questions — like whether meals would still be distributed during a strike, or how students with special education services will be served.

We’ll keep updating this story with more information for San Francisco families as we learn it.

How did we get so close to a San Francisco teachers’ strike?

UESF and SFUSD have been negotiating a new two-year contract for union members since last March. Currently, educators are working under their 2023-25 deal, which expired in June.

In October, the parties declared an impasse — meaning they couldn’t come to an agreement independently — and entered the current mediation process.

The union has said its core demands are:

• Fully funded health care for families
• A 9% to 14% wage increase
• A proposal that the district add its sanctuary district policy language, which says it is committed to protecting immigrant students, to educators’ contracts
• A written commitment from the district to continue its current emergency shelter housing program for families

Union negotiators say many of their proposals over the last 10 months have been rejected, including those regarding the sanctuary policy language and the emergency shelter housing program.

The district said it has come to agreements with the union on a number of points and proposed a 2% wage hike for each of the next three years, totaling 6%. Last week, Su said her team had also offered the union a “creative way” to fund family health care and a pilot program to address special education workload.

But the union said the district’s raise proposal came with major concessions, including the end of a sabbatical program for longstanding members — and additional preparation periods for others who teach Advanced Placement classes — that they don’t want to give up. As for the district’s ideas for funding health care costs, Curiel said UESF never received any official proposal in writing.

“As someone who’s born and raised here, I think the city is just an incredible place to raise a family, to have kids,” said Vanessa Hutchinson-Szekely, a physical education teacher at Roosevelt Middle School and a union member. “I want our teachers to be able to stay in the city.”

“We love our jobs. We love our kids,” she said. “We also just want to stay in San Francisco.”

What happens if a San Francisco teachers’ strike takes place?

Nothing is known for sure, but Su said the district could have to close schools. Still, she guaranteed that the district would meet its requirement of 180 school days, which might mean extending the school year beyond the currently scheduled closing day of June 30.

Some districts that have had recent strikes, like West Contra Costa County, were able to keep schools open during the strike period. But San Francisco’s educators’ union represents a wider range of employees that could make that impossible.

These include substitutes who otherwise might have been called on to replace striking teachers, as well as counselors, social workers, nurses and support staff like security guards and paraeducators.

If schools stay open, students who attend would be supervised, but instruction would likely not continue as usual. (Jump to: More information on what happens when students continue attendance during a strike.)

“We know that parents are stressed right now by this decision to possibly strike. And we don’t want to strike,” Hutchinson-Szekely said. “It’s very intense.”

Which San Francisco schools could be affected by a strike?

SFUSD has a directory of all of the schools under its jurisdiction on its website. But not every school may be affected the same way.

During the 1979 strike, for example, some schools reopened before others and also operated differently depending on what staff they had available.

UESF has suggested that families stay in close contact with their school’s educators and create group communication channels through apps like WhatsApp or Signal to discuss their school-specific details.

Has this kind of strike ever happened before?

The last time San Francisco teachers walked out almost half a century ago, the strike lasted more than six weeks, beginning in September 1979 and delaying the start of the school year.

Elementary school campuses reopened two weeks into the strike, and middle and high school campuses slowly resumed operations the following week.

While some teachers crossed the picket line to return to their classrooms, and the district brought in substitutes to supervise students, instruction was still significantly interrupted throughout.

The strike came after Proposition 13 capped California property taxes, which made up the majority of public school funding. As a result of the funding loss and declining enrollment, SFUSD had laid off more than 1,000 teachers.

John Logan, a labor and employment studies professor at San Francisco State University, said it’s unlikely a strike this year would last that long — but it’s possible it could extend a week or two, which would be majorly disruptive.

In 1979, then-Mayor Dianne Feinstein was integral to negotiating the end of the strike. Logan said city officials would likely also feel the heat to get involved this time around. “Your local elected politicians are going to feel huge pressure first to try and avoid a strike, and then if a strike were to happen, to make sure that it’s over as quickly as possible,” he said.

Mayor Daniel Lurie told KQED’s Political Breakdown last month that he was not involved in the negotiations but would step in if Su requested his office’s support.

The 1979 strike finally ended with a deal for a 15.5% wage hike and a promise to rehire 700 teachers — close to the 15.7% raise and promise to rehire all teachers that the union initially proposed.

Logan said if a strike comes to pass in 2026, he similarly expects to see “the school district moving closer to the position that the union is asking for.”

“If a strike were to happen, within days, politicians would be saying, ‘This has to end,’ and school district officials would be under enormous pressure to bargain a settlement with the union,” Logan said.

Can children technically attend school during a strike?

Yes, they can — unless schools are closed. And according to SFUSD, closures can only happen if the Board of Education authorizes Su to enact them.

On its website, SFUSD describes closing schools as “a last resort,” but it said they’ll be necessary if the district “cannot safely operate schools during a strike.”

If your child were to attend school during a strike, they would be supervised, but the statewide California Teachers Association union said the replacements watching them may be “unqualified” as educators.

If parents support the strike, how can they show it?

UESF’s Hutchinson-Szekely said that parents have “so much influence,” especially when emailing or calling school board members and district leadership.

Parents can also attend school board meetings on Tuesday nights and speak during public comments.

Another way to show support for the strike, Hutchinson-Szekely said, is by leaving positive comments online or by sending an encouraging message to a union member, she said.

If there is a strike, UESF said all members of the public — including parents — are welcome to show up in person and contribute in various ways. For example, UESF is seeking volunteers to “adopt a picket” at a school they’re connected to and perform tasks such as coordinating food and drink deliveries for picketers, collecting donations and providing child care support.

Hutchinson-Szekely also encouraged families to talk to students about “what it means to be in solidarity with the staff.” She said this may involve instigating conversations about how schools operate and talking with children about how “chronic underfunding and understaffing are more disruptive in the long term.”

“We’re just hoping that kind of discussion can happen within families and emphasizing that the inconvenience is temporary,” she said. “But the impact of under-resourced schools lasts for years.”

What does ‘crossing a picket line’ actually mean?

Families sending students to school during a strike

The CTA said that as a parent or guardian, “you’ll have to decide if you want your child in this environment” of a school that’s in the middle of a strike.

“A strike is most powerful when students do not attend school, because this puts financial pressure on the district to negotiate with educators or lose more money from the state,” the statewide union’s guidance for families reads.

Volunteers teaching in schools during a strike in the absence of teachers

The National Parent–Teacher Association guidance to local branches also states that “PTA should not man the classrooms” unless “possibly for a day in the absence of advance notice of a strike.”

“Not only is manning of classrooms inconsistent with PTA efforts to obtain a qualified teacher in every classroom, but personal liability may be incurred,” the notice reads. “If the school administration intends to keep the schools open during a teacher walkout, it should develop a corps of volunteers outside the PTA structure.”

What options do working families have for child care during this time?

If San Francisco schools close because of a strike, parents could end up in a logistical bind when it comes to their children. And right now, options for additional child care aren’t certain.

UESF has invited parents to bring their children and join picket lines, and the union also said it is in contact with community partner organizations that are “assessing their capacity” to expand child care offerings throughout the school day.

The San Francisco Beacon Initiative works with local nonprofits — including the YMCA of Greater San Francisco and the Boys and Girls Club — to run after-school programs at 27 SFUSD schools, including all of the district’s middle schools and its highest-need elementary schools.

Sally Jenkins-Stevens, the Beacon Initiative’s executive director, said that all these partners are looking into the feasibility of offering all-day care for students, though any services they can provide would likely be for some of the children already enrolled in their after-school programs.

So far, only Real Options for City Kids, which operates at Visitacion Valley elementary and middle schools, as well as El Dorado Elementary School, has confirmed that it can extend its care. And that’ll be a fraction of its students — about 40, compared with the 300 they provide after-school programming for, according to Jenkins-Stevens.

Other organizations, she said, are simply limited by space. Many use campus facilities, and it’s unclear whether they would be able to access those if schools close.

The Boys and Girls Club, which runs Malcolm X Academy and Carver elementary schools’ programs, is looking into using its clubhouses, Jenkins-Stevens said — and other partners could explore using city libraries or recreation centers, like they did to operate “community hubs” during the COVID-19 pandemic.

UESF said it is also looking for churches, libraries and recreation centers that could open up facilities, and it might rely on community organizations, parent leaders and educators to operate them.

What about families who rely on free meals at school?

So far, the district has not said how it plans to handle breakfast and lunch distribution.

For children who participate in after-school programs, San Francisco’s Department of Children, Youth and Their Families provides daily snacks and suppers, and it has already asked its partner organizations if they can serve as meal distribution sites in the event of a strike, according to Jenkins-Stevens.

KQED has a thorough guide on how to find and use a food pantry near you in the Bay Area, including San Francisco resources like:

• The California Association of Food Banks’ online tool, which lists all the major food banks in the state
• The state’s 211 hotline
• The SF-Marin Food Bank, which distributes food to participating pantry organizations and has a tool to locate food resources near you
• CityTeam San Francisco’s searchable database of places to find food and other types of support
• St. Anthony’s Foundation at 121 Golden Gate Ave.
• Glide Memorial Church at 330 Ellis St.
• Mission Food Hub at 701 Alabama St., which provides groceries on Fridays to registered residents living in zip code 94110.

San Francisco County also provides some food assistance, including:

• Free food locations offering both groceries and meals
• Options for having meals delivered to your home
• Locations where you can find a community meal

KQED’s Carly Severn contributed to this report.