Letters in Solidarity: Bargaining to Address the Needs of the Whole Child

Big shout out to our SDEA school counselor colleagues who we honor during National School Counseling Week! Let’s uplift our school counselors who provide students with invaluable academic, career, social, and emotional support each day. We’re grateful for the work our school counselor colleagues do to help all our students learn, grow, and achieve their dreams!

We are proud that, together with our fellow union educators that mobilized throughout the district during last year’s successful contract campaign, we were able to win significant increases to elementary counselor allocations that have doubled or tripled the number of days for counselors at many schools. Our students’ behavioral and mental health needs have grown since the beginning of the pandemic and counselors are an essential part of the wrap-around supports that take into account the whole child.

When considering what our students need outside the classroom in order to be successful inside the classroom, housing insecurity is a major factor that negatively impacts student well-being. With the rising cost of living in San Diego, the number of families experiencing housing insecurity is steadily increasing. This is especially concerning for our students and their families as increasing housing costs are a stressor and lead to increased homelessness. Housing insecurity has a major influence on children’s healthy growth and development and is linked to negative mental and physical health outcomes, lower test scores, poor attendance, and lower future educational attainment.

In San Diego County, 93% of extremely low-income households with young children are housing insecure, paying more than half their income on housing costs. More than 8,000 SDUSD students are experiencing homelessness and many SDUSD families have tragically been displaced by the recent flooding during the January storm.

Addressing the housing crisis in San Diego requires urgent action from all levels of government and that starts with our school district. Currently, San Diego Unified provides resources specifically targeted to help homeless students in accordance with the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act with support from the County Office of Education. These supports include school site liaisons that assist unhoused, foster, and military students and their families in connecting to resources such as bus/transit passes, supplies (clothing, school supplies, hygiene products), and homelessness programs.

We will return to the bargaining table later this month to negotiate with the district as part of our reopener mid-contract discussions on 4 key areas: wages for next school year, transfers including eliminating fall excessing, evaluations and housing. Our bargaining related to housing will structure employee workforce housing that SDUSD is building with bond funds as well as housing supports for students and their families who are experiencing homelessness or housing insecurity. Just as we did last year during our successful contract campaign, we have the opportunity to join local organizations and SDUSD families in advocating for the schools AND communities that our students deserve.