Covid Safety for Brentwood, California Schools

The safety and well-being of the Brentwood Union School District (BUSD) students and employees are the highest priority for the District. The District is committed to keeping the community updated about the latest developments relevant to the schools in response to the coronavirus, called COVID-19, which is causing an outbreak of pneumonia disease.

In Hubei Province, China, the COVID-19 outbreak started in December 2019, but outbreaks are now occurring in other countries around the world. In California, a number of confirmed cases of novel coronavirus have been identified, including here in Contra Costa County, where the school district of Brentwood Union is located.

This emerging disease is being tracked by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Public Health of California (CDPH), and other public health agencies. In order to control the situation locally, Contra Costa Health Services is working closely with its partners and other health systems and has sent coronavirus information to local care facilities, emergency medical service providers, and schools.

Brentwood Union School District works closely with the County Office of Education and local health agencies to track emerging disease trends and to ensure that everybody complies with the latest up-to-date school standards to avoid and delay the spread of the disease.

Distance Learning Resources for Parents in the District

My child requires in – person services, not through distance learning. How will the district provide that?

The district will not be providing any in-person programs as long as the school board has implemented a distance learning strategy. This is for the workers and the community’s welfare. They  will not circumvent the Board of Education’s decision. They  would be able to provide services in various ways when they make a different decision, but not before then. Meanwhile, to help the students prosper, remain healthy, and learn as much as they can, we must all work together.

My child didn’t learn anything last year during distance learning, how is he going to learn anything now and what is the school district going to do to make up for his learning loss?

Because of the need for distance learning, all students suffered some learning loss last year, and so all of the teachers will take that into account when they prepare their curriculum for this year.

If it is needed due to excessive learning loss, the IEP (Individualized Education Program) of your student can often be adjusted to concentrate on new objectives and an IEP meeting will be the place to further address this. What will help your student to make the fastest progress can be considered by your IEP team.

How can I support the school with what they are doing to make sure my student is successful?

Contact the teacher of your child so that you understand how distance learning is going to work and you can behave with the teacher regularly.

• There will be some time every day when your child with his or her teacher will have to participate in a live class.
• There will also be work expected to be done by your child away from the teacher.
• For speech facilities, this will be the same thing.
• When something is not obvious, ask questions and say something if you need something.

Will it be safe to return to school when we are allowed to do so?

An unequivocal’ yes’ is the answer to this. The school   district takes sanitization and safety very seriously, and comprehensive procedures will be in place that will allow them to do what they can to keep everyone safe.