Parents scramble for child care after San Diego Unified cancels classes Feb. 26

Parents of students at San Diego Unified will need to find child care on Feb. 26 after district officials announced they were canceling classes that day due to a labor strike.

Educators who are members of the San Diego Educator Association (SDEA) will be taking part in a labor action on that date as part of a statewide strike over special education pay and benefits.

In a news release sent out this week, SDEA said that “chronic understaffing and large caseloads are overwhelming educators and denying students with disabilities the support they are legally entitled to. SDEA leaders will outline the district’s ongoing contract violations, including the failure to adhere to caseload caps for years and the inability to provide accurate caseload data.”

Superintendent Fabi Bagula said in a statement sent out on Thursday that the district would “honor” the strike date.

“Families should begin to find alternative arrangements for their children for that day,” Bagula said. Closing schools for one day will ensure that students are not placed in situations where adequate supervision, instructional continuity, and campus safety cannot be reliably maintained. I am deeply committed to protecting instructional time and will ensure that this learning is fully recovered.”

Further complicating the issue is a scheduled make-up date for students on March 9 “to ensure students receive the instructional time and services to support their success,” according to the district. That date had been one of three scheduled non-instruction days on SDUSD’s 2025-26 calendar.

Before winter break, SDEA members voted to go on a one-day strike, the district said. The union has filed claims against some of SDUSD’s practices, but both parties are in negotiations.

“At yesterday’s marathon session, the district presented 22 proposals in total,” a SDEA newsletter read on Dec. 18. “Almost none of them are acceptable. Most reflect priorities that are deeply out of touch with the realities that educators and students face every day.

“After months of waiting, what we received was not progress — it was insulting. We know budgets are tight, but we also know that there are significant unallocated reserves.”

SDEA is asking for a raise (the district has proposed no raise for the 2025-26 school year and a raise next year contingent on state and federal funding) and better pay and protections for special education teachers, among other issues.

“Basically, the district’s counterproposal is to reject anything that might fill Special Education vacancies and keep exhausted and drowning Ed Specialists from quitting mid-year,” the union newsletter reads.

Bagula said the district would continue to work in good faith with the union, but that compromise was being left on the table.

“Our educators are among the highest paid in the region, receive comprehensive benefits fully funded by the district, and work in classrooms with some of the lowest class size ratios in the region,” she said. “We have put concrete solutions on the table that remain under consideration, and we remain committed to bargaining in good faith and reaching an agreement that keeps students at the center.”

According to Bagula, SDUSD’s salaries are 10% higher than the state average and special education teacher caseloads are less than the state maximum.