In the fall of 2020, at the height of the debate over pandemic school closures, a California lawsuit made a serious claim: The state was failing in its constitutional duty to provide equal education to low-income, black and Hispanic students, online There are fewer opportunities to learn.
Now, in a settlement announced Thursday, the state has agreed to use at least $2 billion in pandemic recovery to help students still struggling to catch up. It also includes guardrails on how the funds will be used.
Mark Rosenbaum, the plaintiffs’ lead attorney, described it as a “historic settlement” that ensures the money will go to students “who need help the most.”
“Children are not getting anywhere close to the education they deserve, and this is built into an unequal system from the beginning,” he said.
The settlement will require school districts to identify and assess students most in need of support and use the funds for evidence-backed interventions. Research shows that certain interventions, such as frequent group tutoring and extra study time during school breaks, can have significant effects.
State officials said the funding will come from additional funds already set aside for school districts, pending legislative approval, as part of an ongoing commitment to serve the most vulnerable students.
“This proposal includes changes the administration deems appropriate at this time in the wake of the pandemic,” said Alex Traverso, spokesman for the California State Board of Education.
The lawsuit focuses not so much on the state’s decision to issue pandemic emergency orders or close schools — something nearly every state did in the spring of 2020 — but on California’s response during remote learning.
Although California has had some of the longest school closures in the country, the cases were concentrated only in the first few months of spring into fall 2020.
According to court documents in the case, state officials distributed more than 45,000 laptops and more than 73,000 other computing devices to students.
But as of September 2020, as many as 1 million children — about a fifth of California’s public school population — lacked adequate access to online courses, according to estimates in court records.
The lawsuit, which represents several families in the Oakland and Los Angeles school districts, describes the aftermath of school closures: Some second-graders took only two online classes that spring; the brothers had to share a laptop and take turns attending classes; A family living under a flight path from Los Angeles International Airport had a weak internet connection.
Elizabeth Sanders, a spokesperson for the California Department of Education, said the state “sprung into action” when students were home from school and helped provide 1 million computers to students by fall 2020.
However, the lawsuit contends that California has failed in its obligation to provide “basic educational equity,” noting that many students without consistent access to the Internet and education are low-income students of color.
New national research released this week highlights the long-term effects of the pandemic and distance learning: U.S. students have made up just a third of their pandemic losses in math, widening inequalities and leaving students in poorer communities at a greater disadvantage than they do status was five years ago.
Although nearly all state constitutions have provisions that have been interpreted by courts as requiring meaningful, fair or adequate public education, “I haven’t seen many examples of similar challenges in other states,” said Robert King, executive director of the commission. (Robert Kim) said. The Education Law Center is an education legal group not involved in the case.
Other pandemic-era school lawsuits often focus on school closures, mask and vaccine mandates or the education of students with disabilities.
Still, the California constitution and case law are particularly forceful in defining public education as a “fundamental concern of the state,” Mr. King said.
Rosenbaum said California was chosen in part because the state has the largest public school population in the country, with more than 5 million students, but similar cases could occur elsewhere.
“You could take a dart and throw it at a map of the United States and you’d definitely hit a state where kids are suffering because of the pandemic,” said Rosenbaum, public counsel for Pro Bono Law. A Los Angeles law firm, he handled the case along with attorneys from Morrison & Foster LLP.
Legal experts said California politics — where the governor and state officials support educational equity — may also have played a role in the outcome.
That $2 billion is just a fraction of California’s overall education budget of more than $100 billion annually. The state also received federal aid to help schools recover from the pandemic, including $15 billion that is set to expire in September.
Federal legislation requires that only 20% of funds be used for learning loss, but there are few regulations on how these funds are used.
The settlement seeks a tougher approach with more oversight and accountability for districts.
Lakisha Young, founder and CEO of Oakland-based REACH, said the families in the lawsuit will not receive individual compensation as part of the settlement. REACH Auckland is a parent organization that works closely with families involved in litigation.
But, she said, “being able to say to them, ‘Your voice does matter,’ makes my heart explode.”