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.”

For its part, the district said that its “negotiators have already offered solutions that SDEA negotiators are still considering.”

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.