California Gov. Newsom's 4 kids are back in the classroom at private school

California Gov. Gavin Newsom said at a Friday press briefing his children are resuming in-person learning with a "phased-in approach," as schools across the state remain closed, including all public schools in San Francisco, amid the coronavirus pandemic.

The governor's four children, ages 4 to 11, attend a private school in Sacramento County, according to Politico.

"They're phasing back into school, and we are phasing out of our very challenging distance learning that we've been doing, so many parents are doing up and down the state," said Newsom, who spoke at a COVID-19 testing facility Friday, Oct. 30, 2020, in Valencia, Calif.

The governor said he believes the best place for social emotional learning occurs in the classroom.

"It is absolutely incumbent to do everything in our power to provide support to our districts so they can safely reopen, emphasis on safely reopen," said Newsom.

To safely open, schools need personal protective equipment, and Newsom said the state has supplied districts with two-month supplies and wants to provide additional support for testing and personal protective equipment.

Under state rules, schools can open for all students 14 days after a county enters the red tier in the state's reopening plan. To fall into this tier, a county needs to have no more than 7 new daily cases per 100,000 residents and a positivity rate and health equity quartile no greater than 8%.

With more counties entering the red tier, or even less strict orange and yellow tiers, an increasing number of schools are reopening for some version of in-person instruction.

In 21 of the state's 58 counties, all school districts are either offering some form of in-person instruction for students, or are planning to do so within days or weeks, according to a survey by EdSource. In almost all cases, parents and students have the option of continuing to receive instruction remotely from their homes.

Most of these counties are in largely rural areas in Central and Northern California, with Orange County and San Diego County the most significant exceptions.

Not all counties that meet the state requirements to open schools are doing so as the state allows counties to move at their own pace. San Francisco, for example, is in the least-restrictive yellow tier, and while the city has given 82 private schools permission to open campuses, public ones remain closed with no plans for reopening before year's end.

Although there is no exact tally, the EdSource survey suggested that by far the majority of students are still getting instruction via distance learning. According to the survey, most districts offering in-person instruction are doing so in a hybrid or blended format. That means students come to school for direct instruction for some part of the school week and study via distance learning the rest of the week.

Bay City News contributed to this story.