CA family relocates to Denver so child can attend school in person

SAN FRANCISCO -- Jen Sey and her husband moved their family from San Francisco to Denver so their son could attend school in-person. The decision to leave California was made over the course of about a week.

"We haven't fully moved," Sey said. "We're in an Airbnb, in a rental, so that my six-year-old could go to kindergarten. He's a kindergartener at Alvarado in San Francisco which is a bilingual elementary school, but he's never been to school. He's struggling with online learning and socialization and we got tired of waiting so we came."

Sey's son had his first day of in-person learning on March 1. The family plans to stay in Denver through at least the end of the school year.

"We're not officially moving from San Francisco," Sey continued. "We still have a home there. I've lived there for 30 years. I called the school and they said, 'Yes you can come Monday.' We packed our suitcases and we left and he went to school 12 hours later."

Sey is a mother of four and a longtime advocate of public schools. She told KGO, ABC7's sister station in San Francisco, that in-person learning at a private school wasn't going to work out for her child.

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"Well the private schools are full and there are waiting lists everywhere that's the first reason," Sey said. "My son goes to Alvarado and speaks Spanish and English and there really isn't that option in any other privates. We believe in public schools. We want our kid to be around lots of different people, lots of different kinds of families, and you just find that more in the public school system."

On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced an agreement reached with the state to bring most public school students back to classrooms by the end of March. At the time of the interview with ABC7 News, Sey had not been fully briefed on Newsom's plan but gave her initial thoughts.

"I am still somewhat distrusting," she said. "San Francisco has chosen at every step of the way to be more strict than what the state allowed, so I don't have a ton of faith if that's true for California." You know I'd love to be proven wrong. I will continue to push for open schools across the country. Just because my kid gets to go now that's not enough, too many kids don't."

Watch the full interview with Jen Sey below.

Jen Sey and her husband moved their family from San Francisco to Denver so their son could attend school in-person. The decision to leave California was made over the course of about a week.

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