California youth

Supporting California Students and Families During COVID-19

The California Partnership for the Future of Learning (CA PFL) envisions schools as places of belonging and healing. But what happens when students can’t actually be in school?

As schools across the state closed due to the COVID-19 pandemic, students and families lost access to schools as critical hubs of community and resources. The current crisis shines a new light on the complicated and overlapping reasons that California public schools have yet to live up to the promise of an equal education for all, especially for students of color and other marginalized students.

COVID-19 also presents a new opportunity for students, their families, and educators to become architects of a new vision for an equitable and just public education system. Now, more than ever, we must build a network of public schools that are beacons of light and provide hope, opportunity, and pathways to health and success.

The community needs assessment conducted by the CA PFL elevated key areas where students and families have said they need support, now and in the future. The California Shared Story Table is excited to share stories about the important work that community-based organizations are doing to address these needs and support students and communities during COVID-19:

Providing Mental Health Support, Belonging and Relationships

Students and families struggling with stress, anxiety, and isolation during this difficult time need mental health supports. Now and when students return to campus, schools and districts must prioritize cultivating students’ sense of belonging, relationships, and connection, in addition to academics.

In the meantime, many organizations are stepping up to provide support and opportunities for connection for their students and communities. Here are just a few examples:

Providing Access To Equitable Learning Opportunities

With the move to distance learning, students have limited and unequal access to resources and quality home-based learning opportunities. Not all students have the technology or internet access to be able to learn from home and even those who do may not yet know how to effectively use these tools. And, for some students, including students with exceptional needs and English learners, learning from home is even more challenging.

Many organizations are working to expose and remedy these inequities:

Dignity in Schools Campaign CA Parent Racial Justice Demands graphic

Addressing Uncertainty For High School Seniors & Juniors

High school seniors and juniors are struggling with uncertainty and fears about missing out on key milestones, like applying to and enrolling in college and rites of passage, like graduation and prom. Across California, advocates for education justice are responding:

Engaging Students & Families As Partners In Key Decisions Now And For The Future

As districts develop their COVID-19 response plans and press forward with school and district budgets, impacted students, families, and communities must be partners in the process. We can’t simply plan to return to the status quo; instead we have the opportunity to reimagine California as a place where every student goes to an amazing school if we start to fully invest in them with a focus on equity and inclusivity for all.

Many members of the Shared Story Table are doing crucial work to assess community needs, elevate them for policymakers and the public, and advocate for students, their families, and educators to be the architects of the path forward:

Meeting Intersectional Needs Of Families & Students

Schools are more than just places of learning. With schools shut down, millions of families are cut off from their community and safety net. For students to learn at home, their basic needs (and those of their families) must first be met. Every organization involved with the Table is stepping up in huge ways; here are just a few examples:

Supporting Teachers

This pandemic created an unprecedented challenge for the hundreds of thousands of teachers across California, who are now tasked with teaching and supporting their students remotely. Schools, districts, and statewide and local teachers unions are working to make sure teachers are prepared and supported: