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Are you confused about how the reopening of schools and the return to campuses will roll out in late summer or early fall? The Santa Cruz County Chamber will host an education forum on Wednesday, July 28 via Zoom to discuss the latest plans for K-12 schools, community colleges, and the UC and state universities on the Central Coast. The State has formally launched a new Safe Schools for All Hub (https://schools.covid19.ca.gov/), a one-stop shop for state guidance and resources on safely resuming in-person instruction. The Hub provides the most updated guidance for all schools to follow, directives for reporting data, and links to additional resources, including how to implement school-centered testing. Our featured panelists are UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive, CSUMB President Eduardo Ochoa, Cabrillo College President Matthew Wetstein, Superintendent of Santa Cruz County Office of Education Faris Sabbah and the Superintendent of Santa Cruz City Schools Kris Munro. The registration link is here: Santa Cruz County Chamber Education Forum. If you are in the education sector, a parent, student, or just an interested community leader, this is an opportunity to learn what’s in store for the upcoming school year along the Central Coast. California health officials, after initially banning children who refuse to comply with the mask-wearing mandate from campuses, have scrapped that order and left enforcement up to individual school districts. State officials announced Monday, July 12 that K-12 students in California who refuse to wear masks inside school buildings will be barred from campuses and offered “alternative educational opportunities.” The exception will be for students granted exemptions, such as those whose medical condition makes it too difficult for them to keep a mask on. The guidance was updated later in the evening to remove the language stating schools must exclude students from campus who won’t wear masks and aren’t exempted from the requirement. It now states, “Consistent with guidance from the 2020-21 school year, schools must develop and implement local protocols to enforce the mask requirements.” In addition, “California’s school guidance will be clarified regarding masking enforcement, recognizing local schools’ experience in keeping students and educators safe while ensuring schools fully reopen for in-person instruction,” the California Department of Public Health tweeted Monday night. The department’s initial update Monday stated that: “Schools must exclude students from campus if they are not exempt from wearing a face covering under California Dept. of Public Health guidelines and refuse to wear one provided by the school.” Parent advocates angry over the mask mandate said the revision makes little difference, as the requirement still exists. California’s latest guidance is a departure from federal guidance issued last week, in which the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said teachers and students who are vaccinated don’t need to mask up indoors. Shortly after the CDC guidance came out, California health officials said the state would follow more strict guidelines, in part because they did not want students who continue to wear masks because they aren’t vaccinated to be singled out. “Masking is a simple and effective intervention that does not interfere with offering full in-person instruction,” Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s health and human services secretary, stated last Friday. This confusion continues to show that the federal government, the states and local government agencies are not in sync. This has been a familiar storyline since the pandemic placed us into an almost motionless state of shelter 16+ months ago. Some states have defined their own rules outside of CDC guidance. Arizona lawmakers have prohibited mask requirements in schools, which some public health experts have decried as foolhardy, with more contagious and possibly more virulent COVID variants on the rise. Others among the eight states that ban mask mandates include Texas, Arizona, Vermont and South Carolina. Three states — Illinois, Michigan and West Virginia — make mask-wearing contingent on vaccination status. Other states offer varying degrees of local flexibility. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond noted, “Requiring masks seems to be a safe course for ensuring that every student can come back to school in the fall.” “I certainly see the logic of it,” Thurmond concluded. With the delta variant spiking in pocketed areas of California and around the country, this underscores the pandemic divergence where the unvaccinated face growing danger. This back and forth policy decision making process at all levels is placing additional pressure on the Food and Drug Administration to grant full approval for COVID vaccines — albeit except for the latest concerns about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine — a move that could spur millions more Americans to get vaccinated — including thousands of Californians whose employers or universities plan to mandate the shots once the FDA approves one. It usually takes the FDA at least several months to approve vaccines once an application has been filed. The agency hasn’t specified when it expects to approve one or more of the three COVID shots beyond saying it is “working as quickly as possible to review applications.” Some infectious disease experts say there’s already so much safety and efficacy data on the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines — hundreds of millions of people around the world have gotten them, with few adverse outcomes — that the FDA should approve them now, or at least be transparent about its timeline. They say with the delta variant spreading and mini-surges popping up in many parts of the country, FDA approval is the only strategy left to boost vaccinations fast. What we do know is that schools will be back in session come this fall in some sort of hybrid system with campuses open. Come join us on July 28 via Zoom to learn the latest from our education experts. Registration link is here: Santa Cruz County Chamber Education Forum
Are you confused about how the reopening of schools and the return to campuses will roll out in late summer or early fall? The Santa Cruz County Chamber will host an education forum on Wednesday, July 28 via Zoom to discuss the latest plans for K-12 schools, community colleges, and the UC and state universities on the Central Coast.
The State has formally launched a new Safe Schools for All Hub (https://schools.covid19.ca.gov/), a one-stop shop for state guidance and resources on safely resuming in-person instruction. The Hub provides the most updated guidance for all schools to follow, directives for reporting data, and links to additional resources, including how to implement school-centered testing.
Our featured panelists are UCSC Chancellor Cynthia Larive, CSUMB President Eduardo Ochoa, Cabrillo College President Matthew Wetstein, Superintendent of Santa Cruz County Office of Education Faris Sabbah and the Superintendent of Santa Cruz City Schools Kris Munro. The registration link is here: Santa Cruz County Chamber Education Forum.
If you are in the education sector, a parent, student, or just an interested community leader, this is an opportunity to learn what’s in store for the upcoming school year along the Central Coast.
California health officials, after initially banning children who refuse to comply with the mask-wearing mandate from campuses, have scrapped that order and left enforcement up to individual school districts.
State officials announced Monday, July 12 that K-12 students in California who refuse to wear masks inside school buildings will be barred from campuses and offered “alternative educational opportunities.” The exception will be for students granted exemptions, such as those whose medical condition makes it too difficult for them to keep a mask on. The guidance was updated later in the evening to remove the language stating schools must exclude students from campus who won’t wear masks and aren’t exempted from the requirement. It now states, “Consistent with guidance from the 2020-21 school year, schools must develop and implement local protocols to enforce the mask requirements.” In addition, “California’s school guidance will be clarified regarding masking enforcement, recognizing local schools’ experience in keeping students and educators safe while ensuring schools fully reopen for in-person instruction,” the California Department of Public Health tweeted Monday night.
The department’s initial update Monday stated that: “Schools must exclude students from campus if they are not exempt from wearing a face covering under California Dept. of Public Health guidelines and refuse to wear one provided by the school.”
Parent advocates angry over the mask mandate said the revision makes little difference, as the requirement still exists. California’s latest guidance is a departure from federal guidance issued last week, in which the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said teachers and students who are vaccinated don’t need to mask up indoors. Shortly after the CDC guidance came out, California health officials said the state would follow more strict guidelines, in part because they did not want students who continue to wear masks because they aren’t vaccinated to be singled out. “Masking is a simple and effective intervention that does not interfere with offering full in-person instruction,” Dr. Mark Ghaly, the state’s health and human services secretary, stated last Friday.
This confusion continues to show that the federal government, the states and local government agencies are not in sync. This has been a familiar storyline since the pandemic placed us into an almost motionless state of shelter 16+ months ago. Some states have defined their own rules outside of CDC guidance. Arizona lawmakers have prohibited mask requirements in schools, which some public health experts have decried as foolhardy, with more contagious and possibly more virulent COVID variants on the rise. Others among the eight states that ban mask mandates include Texas, Arizona, Vermont and South Carolina. Three states — Illinois, Michigan and West Virginia — make mask-wearing contingent on vaccination status. Other states offer varying degrees of local flexibility.
State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond noted, “Requiring masks seems to be a safe course for ensuring that every student can come back to school in the fall.” “I certainly see the logic of it,” Thurmond concluded.
With the delta variant spiking in pocketed areas of California and around the country, this underscores the pandemic divergence where the unvaccinated face growing danger. This back and forth policy decision making process at all levels is placing additional pressure on the Food and Drug Administration to grant full approval for COVID vaccines — albeit except for the latest concerns about the Johnson & Johnson vaccine — a move that could spur millions more Americans to get vaccinated — including thousands of Californians whose employers or universities plan to mandate the shots once the FDA approves one.
It usually takes the FDA at least several months to approve vaccines once an application has been filed. The agency hasn’t specified when it expects to approve one or more of the three COVID shots beyond saying it is “working as quickly as possible to review applications.” Some infectious disease experts say there’s already so much safety and efficacy data on the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines — hundreds of millions of people around the world have gotten them, with few adverse outcomes — that the FDA should approve them now, or at least be transparent about its timeline. They say with the delta variant spreading and mini-surges popping up in many parts of the country, FDA approval is the only strategy left to boost vaccinations fast.
What we do know is that schools will be back in session come this fall in some sort of hybrid system with campuses open. Come join us on July 28 via Zoom to learn the latest from our education experts. Registration link is here: Santa Cruz County Chamber Education Forum