S.F. schools support kids whose parents are jailed

The Father’s Day celebration at San Francisco County Jail last month in many ways felt like any other: loving dads played Connect Four with their children, watched “Finding Nemo” and caught up on schoolwork and social life.

In other ways, however, it reflected the challenging, often painful realities of parental incarceration: The families had about one hour in a large meeting room, together with 20 other dads all dressed in orange jumpsuits.

Once the time was up, the guards came in; after emotional and rushed goodbyes, the men went back to their cells and the families were escorted out. This was the one opportunity they would have to see each other that week.

This celebration illustrated the critical importance of family contact visits. It also confirmed the need for public schools to better support children with incarcerated parents.

Nationwide, some 2.7 million children have an incarcerated parent; including 1 out of every 9 black children. According to a city of San Francisco estimate, 17,993 children in San Francisco had a parent who was incarcerated over the prior year. Most of these children are enrolled in San Francisco public schools.

Children with incarcerated parents can face profound social and emotional trauma but find few services. At school, they often feel isolated and stigmatized.

For that reason, the San Francisco Unified School District has launched an initiative, which includes training, curriculum, partnerships and services to better address the needs of students with incarcerated parents.

All of our social workers, nurses and counselors will receive specific training and resources, and a more in-depth staff training will be available for the first time this year, often delivered by youth themselves.

Together with One Family and Project What!, projects of the community organization Community Works West, we’ve introduced programming at targeted schools for students with incarcerated parents, offering them more direct support and expanded curriculum. Earlier this year, we held our first-ever set of student, parent and teacher conferences on site at the jail.

More support at school and stronger collaboration among parents, teachers and social workers is essential, but so is something much more direct: Less incarceration.

San Francisco is considering a number of reforms that could reduce the city’s incarcerated population, including closing County Jails Nos. 3 and 4 at 850 Bryant St., which are decaying and unneeded; reforming cash bail; and reducing the burden of fines and fees.

When a father awaiting trial is incarcerated, not for reasons of public safety but because he can’t afford bail, the effect on his children can be deep and long-lasting. The effect falls disproportionately on San Francisco’s black community because African Americans make up just 6 percent of the city’s overall population but account for 53 percent of the city’s jail population. This is shameful and deepens our challenges in closing the racial opportunity gap in our schools.

Next June, as the school district steps up support for children with incarcerated parents, it will again join One Family’s Father’s Day celebration. But in that year’s time, we hope San Francisco and California will implement reforms so that the fathers can be where they belong, celebrating at home with their children and families.