‘Stressed is an understatement.’ California unemployment workers testify about troubled agency

The California state Senate took the unusual step Wednesday of calling front-line state workers to talk about a historic backlog of unemployment claims that accumulated at the Employment Development Department during the coronavirus outbreak.

Three workers who process unemployment insurance claims told senators about the personal stresses and systemic challenges of their jobs in the recession that accompanied the pandemic.

“We went from working an eight-hour workday five days a week to working seven days a week up to 14 hours a day … saying people are stressed is an understatement,” said Irene Green, who said she has been an employment programs representative at the department for 11 years.

A strike team Gov. Gavin Newsom recently formed to identify and fix problems at the overwhelmed department said in a September report that experienced employees are critical to processing claims efficiently.

About 1.6 million claims were backlogged in September despite the department hiring thousands of new employees who have answered calls and tried to help applicants process claims. The report found that employee productivity went down during the hiring spree, since experienced employees have had to spend time training new employees instead of processing claims.

About 400,000 of those backlogged claims have been processed, and the department expects to get through the backlog by the end of January, Carol Williams, EDD’s chief deputy director of operations, said during Wednesday’s hearing.

Employees need at least six months of training and need to be familiar with an 800-page manual to process complex problems with claims, the report said.

The department’s outdated, patchwork technology systems contribute to the need for intensive training, but Newsom’s team noted technology isn’t the only hurdle.

Employees sometimes lack the flexibility to address easily fixable problems, and as a result, claims get diverted to a backlog where they wait for months for closer scrutiny, the report said.

John Torok, who said he’s been with EDD for 10 years, offered an example at Wednesday’s hearing.

Torok said employees sometimes see claims with obvious typos from applicants, such as a mis-typed number in a date of birth. If employees could fix those, they could process the claim.

The report recommended giving employees the ability to call and email claimants directly, which they hadn’t been able to do.

Sen. Richard Pan, D-Sacramento, said that until recently, people who failed to reach the department by phone and showed up in-person were told they couldn’t be helped unless they called. Pan credited workers with helping get that changed.

“I think it’s so important we do listen to the workers on the front line,” he said.

Torok raised a more foundational issue: low pay. He told the committee the department is one of the lowest-paid in state government, along with the Department of Motor Vehicles. For that reason, he said it often serves as a starting point for state workers who move on to better-paying jobs in other departments or outside of government.

The department’s employees, like the rest of the state’s workforce, are working at reduced pay under a state pay-cut program that reduces employees’ pay and gives them two flexible days off per month.

https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/the-state-worker/article246461095.html

‘Historical failure’: Thousands of students being left behind by Sacramento school district

Marcheri Smith hovers behind her son Tulley as he strains to hear his teacher’s instructions on Zoom and worries, like many parents at Sacramento City Unified schools, whether her son is falling behind.

With spotty internet, tight budgets, glitchy devices and piling responsibilities, Smith’s family is just trying to make it through each day.

“I don’t sleep at all,” she said.

Parents, school experts and educators say their worst predictions of the coronavirus pandemic’s effect on children are being revealed with each passing day of learning from home: Despite sincere efforts by teachers, aides and administrators, the Sacramento City Unified School District is failing to step up and help its most vulnerable students.

Most of the district’s 46,000 students live in low-income families; about 72 percent qualify for free or reduced lunch. The financially strained district must not only educate through distance learning, but also offer healthy meals to thousands of students, provide after-school programming and outdoor exercise, create safe spaces for foster and homeless youth, and help English learners and children with special needs thrive.

In some neighborhoods covered by the district, as many as one in four households don’t have a broadband subscription. It took weeks for the district to distribute Google Chromebooks to students in need. Sacramento City Unified issued nearly 27,000 Chromebooks to the students who requested them, roughly 64 percent of the student population.

The district is aware of the ongoing connectivity issues and has been working through the pandemic to rectify them, said spokeswoman Tara Gallegos in an email. The district, for example, has purchased and distributed hundreds of WiFi hotspots, she said.

School districts across the country have scrambled to improve access to meals and the internet amid distance learning.

In Baltimore, parents can go to any school to pick up meals from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Other districts, such as St. Paul, Minn., have offered weekly home delivery of meals to families in need.

The school district in Arbuckle purchased hundreds of WiFi hotspots over the summer from multiple internet providers to cover families in different service areas. In Woodland, nearly all the district’s parking lots have been outfitted with WiFi coverage. Sac City Unified’s parking lots also have wireless coverage, though the district provides neither desks nor school supplies outdoors.

Earlier this year, Sacramento Regional Transit outfitted 10 buses with wireless hotspots and parked them in neighborhoods with low internet access, including at some Sac City Unified schools. That pilot program, which served 140 locations each week, ended in July.

Educators and families are worried that thousands of children are falling behind in Sacramento, and that they’ll never have a chance to catch up.

“The district has not been honest and truthful with the public and itself about its historical failure to provide quality education for all kids,” said Carl Pinkston of the Black Parallel School Board.

While thousands of families struggle, wealthier parents often have reliable internet and extra laptops at home for their children. Families have joined pods so their children can learn with peers around a kitchen table. Others can afford additional one-on-one tutoring to ensure their children don’t fall behind.

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https://www.sacbee.com/news/equity-lab/article246147275.html