Dear Superintendent Hoffman and Board of Trustees,

We are writing to advocate for the Elk Grove Unified School District to reopen for full-time, in-person instruction IMMEDIATELY, given the recent changes in the state reopening guidance and the recent lawsuit which affirmed that state law requires school districts to “offer in-person instruction to the greatest extent possible.” With revised CDPH Guidance recommending 3 feet of spacing in classrooms and removing restrictions on reopening certain grades based on current case rates in our county, there is nothing preventing our district from offering in-person instruction five days a week to all students in all our schools. Furthermore, as Senate Bill 98 requires that our district “offer in-person instruction to the greatest extent possible,” we would be in violation of state law if we do not offer students the ability to return for instruction fulltime under a normal schedule.

As the Trustees are likely aware, last week a judge in San Diego County prohibited the state from enforcing certain rules such as 4 feet of distancing and prohibitions on opening secondary schools in the purple tier, which the judge said were “selective in their applicability, vague in its terms and arbitrary in its prescriptions.” The judge also affirmed that “the prevailing statewide standard is in-person learning,” particularly given the evidence of the failure of distance learning and the academic, physical, mental, and emotional harm caused from over a year of school closures. Therefore, any school district which does not attempt to bring back as many students as possible and does not “offer in-person instruction to the greatest extent possible” is in violation of SB 98. For example, if a school district or county imposes stricter rules than the CDPH Guidance or enters into agreements with labor partners which operate to prevent students from returning to campus full-time, five days a week, those rules or agreements would be unenforceable as conflicting with the mandate for in-person instruction “to the greatest extent possible” in SB 98.
 
In addition, the California Supreme Court has repeatedly upheld that education is a fundament interest, and that the opportunity to receive schooling furnished by the state must be available to all on an equal basis. Labor negotiations do not and cannot negate the fundamental right of all California students to an in-person education. A failure to immediately and fully reopen all EGUSD schools for full time in-person instruction five days a week will expose EGUSD to significant legal liability and unnecessary legal expenses.

Elk Grove Unified School District is the 5th largest district in the state and should be a leader in its ability to make sound yet bold and swift educational policy decisions for its students. Although we acknowledge the large amount of district coordination to implement the concurrent model over the past couple of months; we see other districts who have been able to pivot and take immediate action by calling for emergency board meetings to change their model of full in person instruction, within DAYS of the new CDPH guidance.  We urge you to follow the science and the law and open our schools to all students in all grades immediately to allow for full-time, in-person instruction five days a week. Time is running out on this school year; and with the harm to our students from continued distance learning, we cannot afford to wait another day.

Sincerely,
EGUSD Parent Coalition (Representative Body of 1,200 Families)