WALNUT CREEK – As Cheryl Dumesnil and Tracie Vickers prepared for their wedding a decade ago, they thought about living in San Francisco, where other gay and lesbian families would surround them, or retreating to the suburbs where they grew up were.

Their choice of central Contra Costa County made them pioneers, the first two-mother family in their leafy Walnut Creek neighborhood.

“This is Tracie's suburban dream,” Dumesnil said Tuesday at their ranch house, as the couple's 6-year-old son, Brennan, quietly read a book and 4-year-old Kian marched around the kitchen, a singing troubadour playing a white guitar Guitar. Neighbors welcomed this family with cookies and open arms.

“After saying I would never move to the suburbs again, here I am,” Dumesnil said.

The family of four is among nearly 1 percent of California households – about 126,000 households – headed by same-sex couples, according to 2010 Census statistics released Thursday. If the numbers are accurate, they show that nearly a quarter of same-sex couples in California are raising children.

While San Francisco remains a gay hub – the city has more than 10,000 gay and lesbian couples, compared to fewer than 300 in Walnut Creek – the census found same-sex couples in every corner of the state, making it clear that Same-sex couples in many parts of the state, suburban and rural areas have far higher chances of having children.

“We are not just a special interest group concentrated in large urban centers,” Dumesnil said. “We’re basically everywhere, just trying to live a legally protected and fulfilling life.”

Fifteen years after the federal Defense of Marriage Act banned gay marriage and seven years after San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom defiantly ordered licenses to be granted to same-sex couples, gay and lesbian families remain at odds political crosshairs, but also say that society is increasingly at risk. I'm getting used to having them – and their children – with us. In turn, whether they have been previously counted or not, more same-sex couples are aware of identifying themselves on census forms.

Demographers warn that the numbers may overcount same-sex couples because opposite-sex couples miscoded each other in a confusing way. The errors are compounded because there are far more opposite-sex couples than same-sex couples.

Gay and lesbian couples are identified in the census when the head of the household reports living with a “husband” or “unmarried partner” of the same sex. Changes in the way the Census Bureau counts same-sex couples make it difficult to accurately compare with the 2000 census, when the count found more than 92,000 same-sex couples in California.
However, it is clear that the number of open same-sex couples nationwide has increased significantly over the last decade.

“We have evidence that over time, more and more people are willing to report (same-sex unions),” said demographer Gary Gates of UCLA's Williams Institute on Sexual Orientation Law. “We saw that these increases were the largest outside of well-known gay neighborhoods. I expect these increases would be larger in the Central Valley than in San Francisco.”

Same-sex couples in suburban and rural areas are far more likely to be raising children than their urban counterparts. National studies show that about 19 percent of children of same-sex couples are adopted, Gates said. Many more are children from previous heterosexual relationships.

“This type of pattern is much more common in conservative areas where people come out later in life,” Gates said. “The further you get from San Francisco, the greater the proportion of same-sex couples raising children.”

For some same-sex couples, life in the outskirts of the Bay Area still seems like living on a cultural frontier.

The census counted 138 gay male couples in Antioch last year and found that 30 percent of them have children. However, partners Joe Horacek and Jonathan Lee only know one other family like them, who lives on the other side of town.

The family moved from South San Francisco to Antioch in 2004 because they wanted a larger, cheaper home to raise their three adopted children. Horacek and Lee were among about 18,000 same-sex couples who married for six months in 2008, when gay marriage was legal in the state, before voters passed Proposition 8. Life in Antioch was simpler when the children were small; Her oldest children, 14 and 13, now struggle to fit in in a community where two fathers are a rarity.

“My son encountered some negative reactions from kids on Facebook,” said Horacek, a local teacher. “We don’t want to be the ones putting the targets on their backs. All children get teased about something, but usually it has to do with themselves. We add that additional liability for customization.”

Hosts who greet the family of five at local restaurants sometimes mistake them for two separate parties. Because her 9-year-old daughter doesn't have a mother, a school principal recently asked if she could play the role for a Mother's Day tea. Usually polite conversation smooths over an adult's confusion, but the couple sometimes wonders if life would be easier for their children on the other side of the East Bay hills.

“For the most part, no one has questioned us or given us any problems, but there is more assumption here that the children have both a mother and a father,” Horacek said. “I know that, particularly in places like Berkeley and Alameda County, conversations about different types of families and same-sex relationships are part of the curriculum. That’s not necessarily the case out here.”

Three percent of households in San Francisco and just over two percent of households in Oakland, Berkeley and Emeryville are headed by same-sex couples, making these Bay Area cities with the highest concentrations of gay and lesbian partners. Other East Bay cities are close behind, and most of the neighborhoods outside of San Francisco with the census-highest number of same-sex couples are along the East Oakland foothills.

Same-sex couples from the East Bay are also more likely to have children than couples from San Francisco, although the same is true for heterosexual couples as well. Just over 4 percent of gay male couples in San Francisco and 19 percent of lesbian couples have children, compared to 11 percent of gay male couples and 22 percent of lesbian couples in Oakland.

Maya Scott-Chung and her multi-ethnic family also chose the East Bay because she found it more diverse.

“It wasn't just because we could afford to buy a house here, although that was part of it,” said Scott-Chung, who lives with her transgender partner and daughter in Oakland's San Antonio neighborhood . “It is important to us to live in Oakland because it is one of the most culturally, linguistically and economically diverse places in the Bay Area and probably the world. There are a large number of lesbian and two-mother families here.”

Nationally, lesbian partners are more likely to raise children than gay men – 32 percent of lesbian households have children, compared to 17.8 percent of gay male couples. Horacek said being a minority among minorities in a place like Antioch can be exciting and a little scary.

“Obviously gays have been in relationships for centuries, but this appears to be the first generation where this is happening in large numbers, particularly through the addition of children into the family,” he said. “We sometimes feel like we are soldiers at the front. Change is happening, but it’s still not mainstream here.”

Dumesnil said she and her wife have seen perceptions in Walnut Creek slowly change as they interacted with straight families at school events and in their neighborhood.

“Someone has to be out here,” she said. “In a way, the presence of the children was the great equalizer.”

Cities in the Bay Area with
the highest percentage
of same-sex couples

Guerneville: 7.6 percent of all households are headed by same-sex couples (176 same-sex couples)
San Francisco: 3 percent (10,384)
Oakland: 2.2 percent (3,442)
Emeryville: 2.1 percent (119)
Berkeley: 2.1 percent (961)
El Cerrito: 1.9 percent (189)
Pacifica: 1.7 percent (237)
Albany: 1.7 percent (123)
Alameda: 1.5 percent (459)
San Rafael: 1.3 percent (301)
Vallejo: 1.2 percent (497)
Santa Rosa: 1.2 percent (757)
Richmond: 1.2 percent (427)
Concord: 1.2 percent (512)
Pleasant Hill: 1.1 percent (152)
San Leandro: 1.1 percent (326)

nationwide household figures

49%
Households headed by
Man-woman couples

6.2%
Households headed by unmarried partners of different genders
1 %
Households headed by
same-sex partners

43.4%
Resident does not live with us
a spouse or unmarried partner

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The Coolidge Corner Theater (‘the Coolidge’) today announced the winter/spring 2023 its weekly Kids’ Shows. Sure to delight all ages, the new season launches on Sunday, January 1 at 10:30am with a screening of the beloved stop-motion classic Shaun the Sheep.

As the season progresses, we’ll be welcoming back Coolidge favorites such as Josh and the Jamtones, Little Groove, and Illusionist David Garrity.

And of course, as New England’s premier movie destination, we can’t resist the opportunity to introduce a new generation to film classics such as The Great Muppet Caper, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, and My Neighbor Totoro.

The line-up for Winter/Spring 2023 Coolidge Kids’ Shows is as follows; all shows last roughly one hour unless otherwise indicated.

MOVIE: Shaun the Sheep

Saturday, December 31 and Sunday, January 1 at 10:30am

Aardman Studios’ wooly hero is the star of a British animated TV series that follows his madcap adventures on a small farm. Now in his own full-length adventure for the big screen, the mischievous ovine masterminds a plan to pull the wool over the farmer’s eyes so the flock can have some fun. Shaun’s barnyard antics inadvertently send the farmer to the big city, where he develops amnesia, prompting Shaun and his friends to go on an epic rescue mission. The result is a funny, inventive movie accessible to kids of all ages.

Run time: 85 minutes.

Recommended for ages 2+.

The Stacey Peasley Band

Saturday, January 7 at 10:30am

The Stacey Peasley Band has entertained and engaged families for over a decade! A teacher for ten years and a professional singer for twenty five, Stacey Peasley combines her love of children and music into a lively act that engages kids and creates memorable and fun sing-along songs, offering performances throughout the greater Boston area. Peasley lives in the Boston area with her husband and three children, who provide constant inspiration. Her music has been featured on radio programs nationwide, including Sirius XM’s Kids Place Live.

Recommended for ages 2+

Davey the Clown

Sunday, January 15 at 10:30am

Davey the Clown is a physical comedian, juggler, unicyclist and accordionist. His show includes juggling, amazing magic, incredible unicycling (on a 6-foot unicycle!), wacky antics, balloon sculpture, audience participation, and a rubber chicken! Plus accordion music, and a parade with volunteers from the audience! One hour of entertainment that will keep kids (and adults) convulsed – with laughter.

Recommended for ages 2+.

MOVIE: The Great Muppet Caper

Saturday, January 21 and Sunday, January 22 at 10:30am

Stop the press! It’s the crime of the century – and investigative reporters Kermit, Fozzie and Gonzo are out to crack the case in this song-filled, star-studded extravaganza directed by the legendary Jim Henson. Our heroes arrive in London to interview Lady Holiday (Diana Rigg), a high-fashion designer whose priceless diamond necklace has just been stolen. But when Kermit mistakes lovely receptionist/would-be model Miss Piggy for her aristocratic employer; it’s love at first sight. Unfortunately, Lady Holiday’s scheme brother (Charles Grodin) is also wooing the sultry swine so he can frame her for another brazen jewel heist. Now it’s up to Kermit and his Muppet pals to clear Piggy’s name and catch the real culprits.

Run time: 97 minutes

Recommended for ages 5+

MOVIE: My Neighbor Totoro

Saturday, January 28 and Sunday, January 29 at 10:30am

Often regarded as one of the best children’s films ever created, Hayao Miyazaki’s watercolor ode to childhood imagination is both a delightful, exhilarating adventure and nuanced portrait of youth, innocence, and growth. To be closer to their mother who is bedridden in a rural hospital, Satsuki and Mei move with their father to a remote village in the countryside, only to discover that the countryside is home to a family of gentle creatures that take these young girls on a magical new journey.

Dubbed in English. Runtime: 1h 25m

Recommended for ages 5+

Wayne Potash

Sunday, February 5 at 10:30am

“An amazing musician for little kids,” writes Zooglobble about singer/songwriter Wayne Potash. Wayne and his band put on high energy shows that engage young audiences with sing-a-longs, dancing, jumping, and lots of good-natured fun, with songs like “Lobster Dance,” “Shy Shark,” and “BIG, I ‘m big.” Rambles notes that Wayne sings “the most memorable melodies in American music with a friendly vocal delivery that positively begs the audience to sing along.” Performances include Boston Harborfest, Boston Children’s Hospital, Club Passim, Cambridge River Festival, Museum of Science, Boston and Rhode Island Children’s Museums, and hundreds of shows for festivals, schools, libraries, and park and recreation departments all over New England.
Recommended for ages 2+.

MOVIE: The Fantastic Mr Fox

Saturday, February 11 at 10:30am

Mr. and Mrs. Fox (George Clooney, Meryl Streep) live an idyllic home life with their son Ash (Schwartzman) and visiting young nephew Kristopherson (Eric Anderson)-but after 12 years, the bucolic existence proves too much for Mr. Fox’s wild animal instincts. Soon he slips back into his old ways as a sneaky chicken thief and in doing so, endangers not only his beloved family, but the whole animal community. Trapped underground with not enough food to go around, the animals band together to fight against the evil Farmers-Boggis, Bunce and Bean-who are determined to capture the audacious, fantastic Mr. Fox at any cost. Roald Dahl’s classic book was painstakingly brought to life in gorgeous detail by visionary director Wes Anderson and his team of stop-motion animators.

Run time: 87 minutes
Recommended for ages 6+.

MOVIE: Mary Poppins

Sunday, February 19 at 10:30am

Experience the extraordinary animation and award-winning music of the original Mary Poppins, presented on our big screen! Julie Andrews made her screen debut and won an Academy Award for her portrayal of the “practically perfect” nanny who revolutionizes the prim and proper Banks family in this supercalifragilisticexpialidocious Disney classic. Co-starring Dick Van Dyke as the lovable chimney sweep Bert, Mary Poppins is filled with memorable songs and dazzling special effects.

Runtime: 2h 19m

Recommended for ages 3+.

Saturday, February 25 at 10:30am

Illusionist David Garrity presents “Magic & Beyond,” a one-person illusion show that features unique, theatrical and visual magic, audience participation, comedy to a custom-edited musical soundtrack. Garrity uses visual magic and illusions combined with music, pantomime, situation comedy and audience participation to entertain audiences of all ages and backgrounds. Recommended for ages 2+.

The Airborne Comedians

Sunday, March 5 at 10:30am

The Airborne Comedians are two performers who’ve traveled the globe performing their high energy, unorthodox comedy juggling show to the delight of all ages. Dan Foley and Joel Harris throw and catch birdbaths, lawn-chairs, electric guitars and baseball bats in their hilarious juggling routines while balanced atop 6 and 7-foot high unicycles! A sure bet to make you laugh. Recommended for ages 2+.

Little Groove

Saturday, March 11 at 10:30am

Come to the Coolidge for an interactive music experience with your child. The show is designed for children 8 and under, who will have fun using real instruments such as drums, shakers, and tambourines. They will also interact with puppets, bubbles, balls, pom poms, and parachutes! Children will enjoy being a part of the musical experience, using their bodies and voices to sing along to catchy songs that help them build important motor and social skills. Parents and caregivers are encouraged to join in the musical experience with their children.
Recommended for ages 1+.

Josh and the Jamtones

Sunday, March 19 at 10:30am

Josh and the Jamtones is an exciting Boston-based rock and roll family band working towards a singular goal: to create a unique and original music experience that parents can enjoy together with their children. After 100+ shows, one full-length release and three separate EP’s in 2011, the Jamtones family took a step onto the national stage with a brand new record in 2012. The band is led by front-man Josh Shriber, owner of the wildly popular Jammin’ With You!, a 5,000 square-foot music and teaching studio and performing center located in Wellesley, MA. Recommended for ages 2+.

MOVIE: New York International Children’s Film Festival Kid Flicks One

Sunday, March 26 at 10:30am

A collection of short films curated by the New York International Children’s Film Festival, Kid Flicks One gives a warm welcome to all budding cinephiles with this lively international lineup of fun. Whether dreaming up the fantastical, like a cat the size of a house, or the practical, like finding a beloved teacher or a summer romance, these shorts are sure to surprise and delight.

Run time: 49 minutes

Recommended for ages 5+

Tanglewood Marionettes presents Sleeping Beauty

Saturday, April 8 at 10:30am

Tanglewood Marionettes’ production of Sleeping Beauty begins with a brief demonstration of the art of puppetry. Through humorous interplay, the audience will learn about various forms of puppets, from the simple glove puppet to the sophisticated marionette. A classic tale which appeals to children of all ages, Sleeping Beauty begins in King Felix’s great hall with the celebration of Princess Aurora’s birth. The party goes awry when the wicked witch arrives and curses Princess Aurora. Will the course come true? Will someone with a “true heart” appear? You will know when you see Tanglewood Marionettes’ presentation of this best-loved tale.

Recommended for ages 3+.

The Coolidge’s screens are accessible by elevators. Booster seats are available for small children. All screens are equipped with a variety of options for patrons that are hard of hearing, deaf, blind, and/or visually impaired. For questions about accessibility or to request any special accommodations, please email info@coolidge.org.

All events take place at 10:30am unless otherwise indicated; For tickets and showtimes, please visit coolidge.org. The Coolidge Corner Theater is located at 290 Harvard Street, Brookline, MA. Kids’ Show tickets are $14 general admission and $11 for Coolidge members.

The nonprofit Coolidge Corner Theater is a premier American independent cinema renowned for its curated feature film programming and innovative signature educational, cultural, and entertainment programs. A beloved movie house, the Coolidge welcomes over 225,000 patrons per year and has been pleasing audiences with the best in cinematic entertainment since 1933.

In addition to showcasing the best in contemporary independent cinema, the Coolidge has developed a wide range of programming to reach all sectors of the community, including: Big Screen Classics, After Midnite, Senior Matinees, Talk Cinema, Science on Screen, Cinema Jukebox, PANORAMA, The Sounds of Silents, Kids’ Shows, Rewind!, Box Office Babies, and adult education film classes. The Coolidge hosts several prominent film festivals and has welcomed film luminaries such as Meryl Streep, Werner Herzog, Jane Fonda, Liv Ullmann, Ethan Hawke, Viggo Mortensen, and more. For more information, visit coolidge.org.

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Vivian Kargbo thought her daughter’s Boston school district was doing the right thing when officials kept classrooms closed for most students for more than a year.

Kargbo, a caregiver for hospice patients, didn’t want to risk them getting COVID-19. And extending pandemic school closures through the spring of 2021 is what many in her community said was best to keep kids and adults safe.

But her daughter became depressed and stopped doing school work or paying attention to online classes. The former honor-roll student failed nearly all of her eighth grade courses.

“She’s behind,” said Kargbo, whose daughter is now in tenth grade. “It didn’t work at all. Knowing what I know now, I would say they should have put them in school.”

Preliminary test scores around the country confirm what Kargbo witnessed: The longer many students studied remotely, the less they learned. Some educators and parents are questioning decisions in cities from Boston to Chicago to Los Angeles to remain online long after clear evidence emerged that schools weren’t COVID-19 super-spreaders — and months after life-saving adult vaccines became widely available.

There are fears for the futures of students who don’t catch up. They run the risk of never learning to read, long a precursor for dropping out of school. They might never master simple algebra, putting science and tech fields out of reach. The pandemic decline in college attendance could continue to accelerate, crippling the U.S. economy.

In a sign of how inflammatory the debate has become, there’s sharp disagreement among educators, school leaders and parents even about how to label the problems created by online school. “Learning loss” has become a lightning rod. Some fear the term might brand struggling students or cast blame on teachers, and they say it overlooks the need to save lives during a pandemic.

Regardless of what it’s called, the casualties of Zoom school are real.

The scale of the problem and the challenges in addressing it were apparent in Associated Press interviews with nearly 50 school leaders, teachers, parents and health officials, who struggled to agree on a way forward.

Some public health officials and educators warned against second-guessing the school closures for a virus that killed over a million people in the U.S. More than 200,000 children lost at least one parent.

“It is very easy with hindsight to say, ‘Oh, learning loss, we should have opened.’ People forget how many people died,” said Austin Beutner, former superintendent in Los Angeles, where students were online from mid-March 2020 until the start of hybrid instruction in April 2021.

The question isn’t merely academic.

School closures continued last year because of teacher shortages and COVID-19 spread. It’s conceivable another pandemic might emerge — or a different crisis.

But there’s another reason for asking what lessons have been learned: the kids who have fallen behind. Some third graders struggle to sound out words. Some ninth graders have given up on school because they feel so behind they can’t catch up. The future of American children hangs in the balance.

FILE – Chicago charter school teacher Angela McByrd works on her laptop to teach remotely from her home in Chicago, Sept. 24, 2020. (Nam Y. Huh/AP)

Many adults are pushing to move on, to stop talking about the impact of the pandemic — especially learning loss.

“As crazy as this sounds now, I’m afraid people are going to forget about the pandemic,” said Jason Kamras, superintendent in Richmond, Virginia. “People will say, ‘That was two years ago. Get over it.’”

When COVID-19 first reached the U.S., scientists didn’t fully understand how it spread or whether it was harmful to children. American schools, like most around the world, understandably shuttered in March 2020.

That summer, scientists learned kids didn’t face the same risks as adults, but experts couldn’t decide how to operate schools safely — or whether it was even possible.

It was already clear that remote learning was devastating for many young people. But did the risks of social isolation and falling behind outweigh the risks of children, school staff and families catching the virus?

The tradeoffs differed depending on how vulnerable a community felt. Black and Latino people, who historically had less access to health care, remain nearly twice as likely to die of COVID-19 than white people. Parents in those communities often had deep-rooted doubts about whether schools could keep their children safe.

Politics was a factor, too. Districts that reopened in person tended to be in areas that voted for President Donald Trump or had largely white populations.

By winter, studies showed schools weren’t contributing to increased COVID-19 spread in the community. Classes with masked students and distancing could be conducted safely, growing evidence said. President Joe Biden prioritized reopening schools when he took office in January 2021, and once the COVID-19 vaccine was available, some Democratic-leaning districts started to reopen.

Yet many schools stayed closed well into the spring, including in California, where the state’s powerful teachers unions fought returning to classrooms, citing lack of safety protocols.

In Chicago, after a six-week standoff with the teachers union, the district started bringing students back on a hybrid schedule just before spring 2021. It wasn’t until the fall that students were back in school full time.

Marla Williams initially supported Chicago Public Schools’ decision to instruct students online during the fall of 2020. Williams, a single mother, has asthma, as do her two children. While she was working, she enlisted her father, a retired teacher, to supervise her children’s studies.

Her father would log into his grandson’s classes from his suburban home and try to monitor what was happening. But it didn’t work.

Her son lost motivation and wouldn’t do his assignments. Once he went back on a hybrid schedule in spring 2021, he started doing well again, Williams said.

“I wish we’d been in person earlier,” she said. “Other schools seemed to be doing it successfully.”

Officials were divided in Chicago. The city Department of Public Health advocated reopening schools months earlier, in the fall of 2020. The commissioner, Dr. Allison Arwady, said they felt the risk of missing education was higher than the risk of COVID-19. Others, such as the director of the Institute for Global Health at Northwestern University, advocated for staying remote.

“I think the answer on that has been settled fairly clearly, especially once we had vaccines available,” Arwady said. “I’m concerned about the loss that has occurred.”

FILE – Audra Quisenberry, right, whispers in the ear of her classmate, Logan Bowhay, both 6, as they wait to meet other schoolmates via online Zoom, at Premier Martial Arts, Aug. 24, 2020, in Wildwood, Mo. (Jeff Roberson/AP File)

From March 2020 to June 2021, the average student in Chicago lost 21 weeks of learning in reading and 20 weeks in math, equivalent to missing half a year of school, according to Georgetown University’s Edunomics Lab, which analyzed data from a widely used test called MAP to estimate learning loss for every U.S. school district.

Nationally, kids whose schools met mostly online in the 2020-2021 school year performed 13 percentage points lower in math and 8 percentage points lower in reading compared with schools meeting mostly in person, according to a 2022 study by Brown University economist Emily Oster.

The setbacks have some grappling with regret.

“I can’t imagine a situation where we would close schools again, unless there’s a virus attacking kids,” said Eric Conti, superintendent for Burlington, Massachusetts, a 3,400-student district outside Boston. His students alternated between online and in-person learning from the fall of 2020 until the next spring. “It’s going to be a very high bar.”

Dallas Superintendent Stephanie Elizalde initially disagreed with the Texas governor’s push to reopen schools in the fall of 2020. “But it was absolutely the right thing to do,” she said.

Some school officials said they lacked the expertise to decide whether it was safe to open schools.

“Schools should never have been placed in a situation where we have choice,” said Tony Wold, former associate superintendent of West Contra Costa Unified School District, east of San Francisco. “With lessons learned, when you have a public health pandemic, there needs to be a single voice.”

Still, many school officials said with hindsight they’d make the same decision to keep schools online well into 2021. Only two superintendents said they’d likely make a different decision if there were another pandemic that was not particularly dangerous to children.

In some communities, demographics and the historic underinvestment in schools loomed large, superintendents said. In the South, Black Americans’ fear of the virus was sometimes coupled with mistrust of schools rooted in segregation. Cities from Atlanta to Nashville to Jackson, Mississippi, shuttered schools — in some cases, for nearly all of the 2020-2021 school year.

In Clayton County, Georgia, home to the state’s highest percentage of Black residents, schools chief Morcease Beasley said he knew closing schools would have a devastating impact, but the fear in his community was overwhelming.

“I knew teachers couldn’t teach if they were that scared, and students couldn’t learn,” he said.

Rhode Island was an outlier among liberal-leaning coastal states when it ordered schools to reopen in person in the fall of 2020. “We can’t do this to our kids,” state education chief Angélica Infante-Green remembers thinking after watching students turn off cameras or log in from under blankets in bed. “This is not OK.”

But in the predominantly Latino and Black Rhode Island community of Central Falls, more than three-quarters of students stayed home to study remotely.

To address parent distrust, officials tracked COVID-19 cases among school-aged Central Falls residents. They met with families to show them the kids catching the virus were in remote learning — and they weren’t learning as much as students in school. It worked.

Among teachers, there’s some dispute about online learning’s impact on children. But many fear some students will be scarred for years.

“Should we have reopened earlier? Absolutely,” said California teacher Sarah Curry. She initially favored school closings in her rural Central Valley district, but grew frustrated with the duration of distance learning. She taught pre-kindergarten and found it impossible to maintain attention spans online.

One of her biggest regrets: that teachers who wanted to return to classrooms had little choice in the matter.

But the nation’s 3 million public school teachers are far from a monolith. Many lost loved ones to COVID-19, battled mental health challenges of their own or feared catching the virus.

Jessica Cross, who taught ninth grade math on Chicago’s west side at Phoenix Military Academy, feels her school reopened too soon.

“I didn’t feel entirely safe,” she said. Mask rules were good in theory, but not all students wore them properly. She said safety should come before academics.

“Ultimately, I still feel that remote learning was really the only thing to do,” Cross said.

A representative from the American Federation of Teachers declined in an interview to address whether the union regrets the positions teachers took against reopening schools.

“If we start to play the blame game,” said Fedrick Ingram, AFT’s secretary-treasurer, “we get into the political fray of trying to determine if teachers did a good job or not. And I don’t think that’s fair.”

Regrets or no, experts agree: America’s kids need more from adults if they’re going to be made whole.

The country needs “ideally, a reinvention of public education as we know it,” Los Angeles Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said. Students need more days in school and smaller classes.

Short of extending the school year, experts say intensive tutoring is the most efficient way to help students catch up. Saturday school or doubling up on math or reading during a regular school day would also help.

Too few school districts have made those investments, Harvard economist Tom Kane said. Summer school is insufficient, Kane says — it’s voluntary, and many parents don’t sign up.

Adding school time for students is politically impossible in many cities. In Los Angeles, the teachers union filed a complaint after the district scheduled four optional school days for students to recoup learning. The school board in Richmond rejected a move to an all-year school calendar.

There are exceptions: Atlanta extended the school day 30 minutes for three years. Hopewell Schools in Virginia moved to year-round schooling last year.

Even the federal government’s record education spending isn’t enough for the scope of kids’ academic setbacks, according to the American Educational Research Association. Researchers there estimate it will cost $700 billion to offset learning loss for America’s schoolchildren – more than three times the $190 billion allocated to schools.

“We need something on the scale of the Marshall Plan for education,” said Kamras, the Richmond superintendent. “Anything short of that and we’re going to see this blip in outcomes become permanent for a generation of children — and that would be criminal.”

___

Gecker reported from San Francisco. Collin Binkley in Washington, D.C., Sharon Lurye in New Orleans, Arleigh Rodgers in Indianapolis, Claire Savage in Chicago and Brooke Schultz in Harrisburg, Pa., contributed to this report.

___

Rodgers, Savage and Schultz are corps members for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.

___

The Associated Press education team receives support from the Carnegie Corporation of New York. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

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This week, San Francisco is expected to once again ease certain indoor mask mandates for portions of the adult population. Mayor London Breed has celebrated this news “because it will allow offices to have more normal routines and interactions.” Noticeably lacking in the new guidance is any update for school and child care mask mandates or even any acknowledgment that kids might also need more normal routines and interactions. Considering they are in peak development years, children need these things even more than adults.

It’s not as if mask relief for kids couldn’t safely become a reality. In fact, Mayor Breed and the San Francisco Department of Public Health recently acknowledged what has been known almost from the beginning: Serious COVID-19 illness in those under 18 is extremely rare, pediatric cases make up a small percentage of total cases, and this percentage has been relatively consistent over time, including during our delta wave. In fact, numbers indicate that COVID-19 poses a significantly lower risk to kids than drowning, homicides, suicides, cancer, car accidents, common flu and heart disease — all risks we’ve previously accepted without dramatically altering the school environment.

San Francisco has also acknowledged that the majority of pediatric COVID-19 cases in the city are a result of household adult-to-child transmission. The simple truth is even when they are infected, children rarely pass on the infection at high rates. A study suggests that less than 4% of household outbreaks are caused by children, meaning approximately 96% are not. Since March 2020, there have been a total of 13 pediatric hospitalizations among San Francisco residents at San Francisco hospitals, and hospitalizations are so low that the city says “the data cannot be publicly reported without concern for privacy and confidentiality.” There also hasn’ t been a single COVID-19-related death under the age of 20 in San Francisco.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID-19 risk assessments by age estimate that simply being a child aged five to 17 is 99.9994% protective against the risk of death and 98% protective against hospitalization. While any death of a child is tragic, of the 74 million Americans age 17 and under, there have been just 499 deaths attributed to COVID-19 since January 2020, while more than 57,000 deaths in that age group have been attributed to other causes. Additionally, any concern around the risk of long COVID in kids appears to be unsubstantiated.

Even with this established good news, San Francisco remains an outlier on child mask mandates compared to the vast majority of Europe. The CDC’s European counterpart the European Center for Disease Prevention and Control only recommends masking for children ages 12 and up. After consulting an “international and multidisciplinary expert group” on COVID-19 disease and transmission in children, and taking into consideration “childrens’ psychosocial needs and developmental milestones,” UNICEF and the World Health Organization have not recommended masks on age 5 and under. They also allow for nuance when it comes to masking children ages 6 to 11, including a “child’s proximity to other people who are at high risk of developing serious illness, such as the elderly.”

This guidance is likely why England, for example, has never masked children in school, reasoning that “there is greater use of the system of controls for minimizing risk, including through keeping in small and consistent groups or bubbles, and greater scope for physical distancing by staff within classrooms. Face coverings can have a negative impact on learning and teaching and so their use in the classroom should be avoided.” During the UK’s delta wave in June, the country actually saw lower case rates in schools compared with the previous fall and the general population, and have since removed any recommendations around classroom bubbles.

Similarly, Sweden has continued to run school as normal, even during their peak COVID-19 wave. An analysis from March through June 2020 took a look at roughly 2 million preschool- and school-age children (ages 1 to 16), where there was no masking, no social distancing and no school building ventilation improvements. Just 15 total kids (0.00075%) required hospitalization from COVID-19, with zero deaths. Another significant finding is that there was no greater COVID-19 illness risk for the preschool and school teacher population than members of the general public.

Norway has also never recommended face masks for any age of schooling, while Finland, Denmark, Iceland, Ireland, the Netherlands and Switzerland have either never recommended masks on elementary age students or have shifted to no masks for the current school year. Switzerland instead focuses on maintaining good ventilation and testing. Denmark, Norway and Sweden all have lower adult vaccination rates than San Francisco, yet have removed most, if not all, COVID-19 restrictions. Spain and Italy make mask exceptions for ages six and under, while France is in the midst of removing elementary mask requirements in communities with low case rates.

As the above examples demonstrate, Europe has consistently acknowledged children’s incredibly low risk of serious illness from COVID-19 and the importance of the learning environment and children’s developmental and psychosocial needs. We believe that faces are essential to early speech and language development, as well as social skills, and that masks can impair face recognition and nonverbal communication for young children. It’s not until they are teenagers that children are able to move beyond a reliance on facial features, and that was before we entered a 20-month phase of heavy mask wearing. It seems very few are actually studying any potential downstream impacts.

While there continue to be articles on how schools and parents can help kids compensate for mask wearing, the bigger question should be: Why concern ourselves with any of that if mask wearing by kids is simply unnecessary? The onus should be on SFDPH and Mayor Breed to demonstrate that the benefits of masking kids outweigh the costs. They have been enforcing a fundamental, risky shift in classroom interactions and childhood development indefinitely, and they should prove with certainty there is no other way. Neither have offered such proof.

It’s incredibly illogical that SFDPH doesn’t mandate face coverings for children under 10 in indoor public buildings, yet requires them for children ages 2 and up in child care and school settings, where learning and socialization are key components. In addition, school interactions happen in much more stable groups than interactions at a grocery store or restaurant, for example, yet masks are only required for them at the former, often for eight to 10 hours a day.

As San Francisco parents, educators and concerned adults, we believe city officials are long overdue in balancing public health requirements with the medical necessity for kids, and the impact on their overall well-being, psyche and development. We ask SFDPH and Mayor Breed to allow for mask choice for chilren ages 12 and under in child care, youth programs and in-person school, as much of Europe has. This would also be in line with California Department of Public Health guidance, which allows for local flexibility. Parents who prefer that their kids still wear masks would of course be free to make that decision.

Our duty as adults is to not only protect the younger generation, but also to do as much as possible to ensure they thrive. Their incredibly low COVID-19 risk should be celebrated and reflected in public health policy. It is well past time for our children to return to “normal routines and interactions” and to be freed from this singular focus on virus mitigation.

This op-ed was submitted by a group of 41 Bay Area parents and residents. Their names follow:

Laura Fagan (12-year San Francisco resident, professional, and parent of three)
Ram Duriseti (Menlo Park parent of three)
Michelle Koskella (Burlingame parent of two)
Lelia Glass (San Francisco resident, educator, academic linguist)
Anh Shah (San Francisco parent of two)
Pradyut Shah (San Francisco parent of two)
Kathleen Laipply (San Francisco parent of three)
Ashwin Krishnan (San Francisco parent of three)
Daniel Bryant (Windsor Unified parent of three)
Anne Woodward (San Francisco resident)
Mercedes Hoglund (San Francisco parent of three)
Heath Hoglund (San Francisco parent of three)
Lesley Fisher (San Francisco parent of two)
Katja Wishart (San Francisco parent of one)
Robin Attia (San Francisco parent of three)
Jenny Gillespie Mason (Berkeley parent of two)
Mary Wellhausen (Antioch parent of three)
Sally Hwang (San Francisco parent of one)
Eric Passetti (San Francisco parent of one)
Elizabeth Woods (Berkeley parent of two)
Michael Senger (San Francisco resident)
Reza Musavi (San Francisco parent of two)
Markus Shayeb (Marin parent of four)
Meghan Weber (San Francisco parent of two)
Geoff Weber (San Francisco parent of two)
Julia Sterling (San Francisco parent of two)
Eva Chung (San Francisco parent of two)
Kai Sparnas (San Francisco parent)
Justen Sepka (San Francisco resident)
Michelle Gyorke-Takatri (San Francisco resident parent of three)
Katelyn Ribero (San Mateo resident)
Ashton Wilson (San Francisco parent)
Alexandra Gutentag (Berkeley resident)
Erica Sandberg (San Francisco parent of one)
Evan Bailyn (Berkeley parent of one)
Eileen Godsey (San Francisco parent of two)
Jed Godsey (San Francisco parent of two)
Robert Chappell (Berkeley resident)
Marie Hurabiell (San Francisco parent of two)
Matthew Ryan (San Francisco and Marin County parent)

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Scott Davis has been a fan of the San Francisco Giants since 1986.

He wears his orange and black gear proudly and, more importantly, was thrilled this year to be affiliated with his favorite Major League Baseball franchise.

The City of Manteca partnered with the Giants Community Fund – a non-profit program that promotes health, education and character development to propel youth in underserved areas to be positive forces in their communities – on an eight-week schedule consisting of youth baseball and softball teams as part of the City’s Recreation and Community Services.

Recreation Supervisor Eric Culpepper was the force behind bringing the Junior Giants to Manteca, having established a connection after working with two other cities.

“Our goal was to get as many kids involved,” he said on Wednesday.

The signups for the inaugural season exceeded his initial numbers of 150 participants.

The Junior Giants were involved in the Little League program at Northgate. The local underserved youngsters not only sported the team colors and logo but played for free in Major, Minor and T-Ball divisions, according to Culpepper.

He’s hoping to do likewise later this year with the City of Manteca partnering with NFL and NBA in flag football and basketball, respectively.

The non-competitive Challenger division, meanwhile, was near and dear to those such as Culpepper, Davis and John Barrera. The latter two are volunteer coaches for the special needs players.

No score is kept as players learn more than just baseball.

Along with leadership, integrity and teamwork – pillars of the Junior Giants program – the players in the Challenger division, ranging in age from 5 to 20, receive important lessons in education, health and violence prevention.

Davis, who is involved locally with Give Every Child A Chance and works with special needs of the San Joaquin County Office of Education, just wrapped coaching this past week with his team, The Say Hey Kids.

“I chose the name because not only is Willie Mays’ the Say Hey Kid but the song (Say Hey! Willie Mays), at one point – ‘That Giants kid is great,’” he noted.

Davis added: “I truly believe and want everyone to know that each and every Challengers player I work with is great.”

Like the parent club, the Junior Giants also recognizes a distinguished player with the Willie Mac Award.

Davis’ summer school student in the SJCOE program, Matteo Orlando, was the recipient of the award for the Say Hey Kids. The two were honored to attend the Home of the Giants’ Oracle Park in San Francisco not too long ago for the special event.

Those involved with Junior Giants program throughout Northern California are scheduled for another special event at Oracle Park this weekend.

Barrera, who coaches the Bad News Bears, is an Oakland A’s fan. He was able to put his team allegiances aside for the program. “We do it for the kids,” said Barrera, who is a longtime Little League coach.

The Bad News Bears and the Say Hey Kids played six games this summer at Lincoln Park, with each player receiving free glove hat, and asked to name a few.

Funding for the Junior Giant program is made possible by contributions from individuals, businesses and foundations via a number of special partnerships and fundraisers – included is the 50/50 raffle during home games at Oracle Park.

Since its inception in 1991, the Giants Community Fund has donated over $34.5 million to community efforts.

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Three years ago, the Board of Supervisors made the landmark decision to shut down San Francisco’s juvenile hall by the end of 2021, becoming the first major city in the nation to take such a step. Yet the Youth Guidance Center remains open—and it could take another three years or more to close.

The decision in 2019 came in the wake of a Chronicle report that showed a dramatic drop in serious youth crime that had left the state’s juvenile halls almost vacant. Supervisors pledged to stop incarcerating kids and instead create home-like rehabilitative centers, including a secure site for youth who pose a public safety risk.

While no clear timeline or new deadline has been set, officials acknowledged this week that juvenile hall may remain open for many more years, highlighting how difficult criminal justice reform can be even amid strong political support. The city is struggling to find an acceptable site for a smaller “non-institutional” building that would be secure enough to meet state regulations for youth deemed dangerous.

“If I had to give a realistic estimate (for closure), it would be three years,” said Supervisor Hillary Ronen, co-sponsor of the legislation to shutter juvenile hall.

Ronen acknowledged that the original goal was overly ambitious.

“Originally, we thought we could just find a big house and fix it up,” she said. “But that was wishful thinking. There is not an existing building that meets the state regulations for a secure building.”

Ronen said the realistic conclusion is that a new building will need to be constructed to meet state regulations. Those rules include a requirement that the building have hallways that are at least 8 feet wide, which is exceedingly rare.

San Francisco’s juvenile hall had just 11 occupants on Thursday. An average of 14 juveniles per day were kept in custody in San Francisco in 2021 — at an annual cost of about $1.1 million each— inside a facility built to hold as many as 150 people.

Juvenile Probation Chief Katy Weinstein Miller said at a special meeting of the supervisors’ Youth, Young Adults and Families Committee on Thursday that her department is seeking $500,000 in the next city budget for an architect or designer to work with the community on a vision for a new building. No new site has yet been identified.

According to a report from the juvenile hall closure task force last year, possible sites included cottages on the Edgewood Center for Children and Families campus in the Sunset District, where other spaces are used for health mental crisis care and other treatment. Other options include a former Academy of Arts residential building or the purchase of an industrial warehouse converted into a therapeutic setting. Miller said she also believes the current juvenile hall site should be considered, though she acknowledged that site would be controversial.

Ronen insisted that supervisors remain committed to closing juvenile hall.

“Our urgency and our goal have not changed,” she said Friday. “What’s changed is how we practically see ourselves getting to that goal.”

Speakers from a collection of city departments — including the police, district attorney, public defender, juvenile probation and public health — spoke at Thursday’s hearing and agreed that the city should continue to expand on its current strategy of steering juvenile offenders away from prison-like settings and toward supportive programs.

Already, youth who are arrested are typically diverted from juvenile hall and into programs they attend while living at home or in a group home.

Ronen and Supervisor Shamann Walton voted Thursday to continue the discussion. Supervisors Myrna Melgar and Ahsha Safaí were absent.

Advocates of the juvenile hall shutdown, including a group of youth activists, said the city needs to move more quickly, and shouldn’t focus so much energy on a new building — which they labeled “just a jail by another name.” Instead, they said, the city should aim to end incarceration by providing sufficient services to keep youth from needing to be held in a secure facility.

The hearing, and the renewed attention on closing juvenile hall, comes as concern about crime in San Francisco runs high, even as data shows a complex picture, and a variety of polls show that most San Franciscans support the recall of District Attorney Chesa Boudin, who they believe has been too lenient.

Supporters of the 2019 decision to close juvenile hall cited the trauma inflicted on young offenders in a setting where they sleep in locked cells on thin upholstered mats set atop concrete platforms. City officials deemed the detention morally unacceptable and ineffective at rehabilitating young people. They also decried the exorbitant cost.

Walton said it was important to acknowledge the progress the city has made in reforming juvenile justice.

“We are in a much better space now than we were then,” he said.

Plans to shutter juvenile hall have also been slowed by COVID as well as the state’s decision to close California youth prisons, which leaves nowhere to send youth offenders convicted of serious crimes.

In the next year, Ronen said, she envisions having a design informed by community feedback as well as a site selected. She also hopes the city will have figured out how to pay for construction.

Walton said the next steps also include directing the creation of support programs for children and families identified in the task force report.

That would include the creation of one or more wellness advocate positions to help youth and families ensure they’re getting the services they need and a commitment by all city agencies that work with troubled youth to collaborate with the Juvenile Probation Department, and with youth advocates , to change the way juvenile hall is operated.

“At the end of the day, there are some issues we are not fully in control of,” Walton told The Chronicle, citing the need for court approval. “But we are not backsliding.”

Michael Cabanatuan (he/him) is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan

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In early March 2020, Sheridan Block, 30, had just finished a year abroad in Marseilles, France, as a volunteer English teacher to refugees. She flew home to Jacksonville, Florida, to spend time with her maternal grandparents—her grandfather was recovering from health issues at the time. Her plan was to stay a few months to help care for them while also saving money, paying off some student debt and credit card bills before returning abroad.

Then, the pandemic hit. “It was kind of a spiral,” says Block.

In exchange for living rent-free, she helped drive her grandparents to appointments, ran errands, cooked and did chores around the house. She ended up staying nearly two years. “I was able to save enough money to pay off all those debts that I had to finance a car and then ultimately to move out,” she explains. It was beneficial financially, she says, and good to be close to family, but it required her to adjust her ideas of what adulthood should look like.

Block is among a growing group of ‘boomerang kids’ – adult children who return to their parents or grandparents’ homes after moving out. This group of adults is on the rise – and not just because of the pandemic. In July 2020, 52% of young adults in the US resided with one or both of their parents, according to a Pew Research Center analysis – the highest percentage the United States has seen since the end of the Great Depression, in 1940. In the UK, the proportion of single, child-free 20-to-34-year-olds living with their parents went up 55% between 2008 to 2017, according to research from Loughborough University.

In Western cultures particularly, moving away from home has traditionally been considered a crucial step in becoming an independent adult. But as the number of boomerang kids continues to rise in countries such as the US, UK and Canada, this may be set to change – and with it, our notion of what the stages of adult independence look like.

An upward boom

When she moved in with her grandparents, Block noticed she was far from alone among her peers.

“I found that a lot of friends, and even some dates I went on, were kind of in the same boat,” she says. “I had met one guy [on a date] who moved from San Francisco back in with his mom in Jacksonville. That’s just a reality now, to do whatever you’ve got to do to save money.”

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San Francisco released its emergency plans for vaccinating children on Friday morning if the Food and Drug Administration grants an emergency authorization to Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine for ages 5 to 11.

The city follows in the footsteps of Marin County, which announced a preliminary plan last week.

The city said in a statement that it will use the already existing network of nearly 100 vaccination sites in doctors’ offices, clinics, schools, pharmacies and more to get shots in the arms of the children.

The expected approval of the vaccine for children comes after the FDA announced approval of Pfizer booster doses for people aged 65 and older and other high-risk groups. San Francisco said in the statement it is ready to begin administering these but will prioritize those who need first and second shots. The city encourages people to contact their healthcare providers for information on obtaining boosters.

“We anticipate a capacity to administer 25,000 vaccine doses per week at these sites to collectively meet demand from eligible children, adults seeking a first vaccination, and third-dose booster shots for those who qualify,” the said City. “We must emphasize that ensuring access to the first and second doses for all members of our community, including children aged 5 to 11 when they are eligible, will be our top priority.”

While Marin County scheduled specific dates for mass child vaccination sites in anticipation of next month’s emergency approval of the Pfizer vaccine, San Francisco gave no dates for major events.

Marin County has tentatively scheduled vaccination events for three consecutive weekends: October 30 and 31, November 6 and 7, and November 13 and 14. They are also launching an awareness campaign.

“We know many parents want advice from their pediatrician or GP, so we’re also working to build the capacity for GPs to have the COVID-19 vaccine available in their offices,” said Laine Hendricks, a spokeswoman for the Marin County Department of Health wrote in an email. “We are reaching out and meeting with pediatric practices to look at vaccine administration, refrigeration/storage etc. In that sense, Marin County Public Health would be complementary to what pediatricians offer.”

Hendricks added that the goal in Marin County is to have 75% of eligible children have a first dose within one month of receiving emergency clearance.

Pfizer CEO Albert Bourla said Tuesday that COVID-19 vaccine data for children ages 5 to 11 would be available soon and could be submitted to the FDA by the end of September, CNBC reported.

“Then it’s up to the FDA to take its time and then make a decision,” Bourla said during an interview at Research America’s 2021 National Health Research Forum.

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By Sydney Johnson and Ida Mojadad

Authors of the review team

As vaccination regulations roll out in schools and work environments across the country, the San Francisco Unified School District holds out.

This is largely due to the district’s already high level of vaccination among students. According to The City’s COVID-19 data dashboard, as of September 10, around 90% of teenagers ages 12-17 are fully vaccinated.

“I’m not sure if a mandate would make a difference to get the last 10 percent,” said Dr. Naveena Bobba, assistant health director of San Francisco. “Even without a mandate, 12 to 17-year-olds have taken it upon themselves to protect themselves and those around them.”

Health experts believe the county’s high vaccination rate among teens and staff is keeping child rates low, even during the recent delta surge, which is now gradually easing.

About 11.5% of the most recent positive cases in San Francisco were in children under the age of 18, according to the Department of Health. And to date, there have been no COVID-19 outbreaks in schools in San Francisco, defined as “three or more cases in unrelated households where the source of infection was at the school and not in another location”.

By waiving a mandate, the district is also likely to avoid potential lawsuits rumored in response to recent student vaccination requirements announced in Los Angeles Unified, California’s largest school district. But vaccination regulations already apply across San Francisco. Since this summer, the city has required all employees to be vaccinated, as well as health care workers, the police and the fire brigade. SFUSD employees must also be vaccinated or have weekly tests.

San Francisco was also one of the first in the country to require individuals to demonstrate their vaccination status before dining indoors or attending other indoor events, and is now considering extending similar requirements to large outdoor events.

President Joe Biden announced a similar statewide requirement Thursday for businesses with 100+ employees that don’t require vaccinations or weekly testing for non-remote workers.

The move comes not long after California legislature pumped the breaks to a proposed law that would protect employers who require employees to get vaccinated or take weekly tests, as well as another bill that would require companies to review vaccination records for indoor events and gatherings.

By September 2, approximately 96% of SFUSD workers were fully vaccinated; however, the district was still waiting for feedback from around 2,400 of its 10,000 employees.

SFUSD will continue to monitor cases of COVID-19 and adjust security protocols if necessary, said Laura Dudnick, spokeswoman for the district.

“It is extremely encouraging to see such high vaccination rates among our staff,” said Superintendent Vincent Matthews. “Our vaccine needs are one of the many ways we protect our students, employees and families.”

sjohnson@sfexaminer.com

imojadad@sfexaminer.com

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