UPDATE: School reopening deal aims to bring California kids back to class by April 1

California schools will be pressured to reopen this spring under a deal Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders announced Monday morning.

The deal aims to use $2 billion in grants to incentivize schools to reopen for their youngest students by the end of the month. Most of the state’s 6 million students have spent nearly a year outside of classrooms, learning from home.

Legislation to enact the deal will dole out the money to schools that have reopened by the end of March for kindergarten through second grades and high needs students of all ages, regardless of the level of coronavirus transmission in their county.

High needs students include homeless and foster youth, kids who don’t have internet access, English learners and those with disabilities.

For every day schools miss the April 1 deadline, they will lose 1% of the funding.

“So many of our kids and caregivers are celebrating this day because we all are united around coming back safely into the schools and helping with the social-emotional supports our kids so desperately need,” Newsom said during a press conference at an Franklin Elementary in Elk Grove.

For counties in the red tier – where there are fewer than seven new cases daily per 100,000 residents and test positivity is below 8% – schools must reopen elementary grades and at least one middle or high school grade to get the money.

The deal does not guarantee that teachers will have been offered vaccines by the time they return to classrooms, although the Newsom administration is setting aside doses for educators to get them vaccinated quickly.

Schools that have already reopened or whose school boards set a reopening date before the end of March will not face a testing requirement.

Schools that set a reopening date after the end-of-March deadline will need to conduct regular testing if they are in the purple tier – meaning their county is reporting more than seven new COVID-19 cases daily per 100,000 residents and a test positivity rate over 8%.

The deal concludes months of tense negotiations between legislative leaders, school districts and teachers unions. Newsom wanted to reopen schools in February, while lawmakers countered with April 15. The final deal sets a reopening target date two weeks earlier than lawmakers proposed.

Over the last several weeks, a bipartisan coalition of parent groups and lawmakers demanded a more aggressive school reopening plan.

Teachers unions, however, have pushed back against the pressure, saying that vaccines for educators and lower infection rates were needed to earn their approval of any blueprint to getting kids back into classrooms.

E. Toby Boyd, president of the California Teachers Association, commended the plan in a statement, but stopped short of saying it would guarantee schools can reopen safely.

“The plan announced today by Gov. Newsom and legislative leaders gets us one step closer to rejoining our students for in-person teaching and learning,” he wrote. “As community infection rates decline, more counties move into less restrictive tiers, and educators are increasingly vaccinated statewide, this plan will help ensure transparency and accountability.”

In many districts, negotiations with local teachers unions will help determine when students can return to classes. Boyd praised the legislation’s requirements for testing, but said the union still supports testing for all schools, even ones that would be exempt under the deal.

Jeff Freitas, president of the California Federation of Teachers, said educators are “eager” to return to classrooms and argued the agreement doesn’t have enough teeth to ensure that can happen safely, even as it moves in the right direction.

Kevin Gordon, president of Capitol Advisors Group, a lobbying firm representing school districts, said Monday’s announcement represents a path that “really will reopen schools.”

“Up to this point, there were an awful lot of hurdles and requirements that were getting in the way,” Gordon said. “This bill basically clears a very, very broad path for school districts to reopen as soon as they can. It’s very encouraging.”

Gordon said even though this initial step will affect mostly younger students, the legislation is designed to eventually apply to upper grades.

“We want to see this happen all across the state of California, and that’s what this package provides,” Newsom said.

The deal won’t force schools to reopen, but Newsom said he expects the $2 billion will be enough of an incentive for districts to bring students back into classrooms.

The money is intended to help pay for new personal protective equipment, ventilation and other safety measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19 in classrooms.

“We incentivize opening up our schools by providing real resources to do it,” Newsom said.

OpenSchoolsCA, an organization pushing for complete reopening, released statements from parents criticizing the approach after Newsom and lawmakers announced the deal.

“This isn’t a breakthrough, it’s a failure,” wrote Berkeley parent Pat Reilly, who is working with the group. “Make no mistake, there will still be closed schools and kids left behind a month from now and months afterwards until the Governor, legislature or the courts force them open.”

The deal will also allocate $4.6 billion in funding for all schools to help them make up for lost learning time during the pandemic.

That money can be used to extend the school year into the summer, reduce class sizes and hire additional staff to support students academically and emotionally. It will also force schools to report data on viral transmission to the state.

Lawmakers say they plan to pass the deal Thursday. Newsom has committed to signing it into law.