From novices to advocates: Stanislaus County parents want more computer science classes in schools

Stanislaus County parents and computer science advocates participated in a two-day event that focused on the role families can play in the effort to increase access to and participation in computer science. Parents received certificates on April 13, 2026, at the UCLA Luskin Conference Center in Los Angeles.

Photo courtesy of Rudy Escobar

Over the past year, at the Stanislaus County education office in Modesto, about a dozen parents have met monthly for two-hour sessions to learn computer skills. 

The parents are part of the migrant community in the Central San Joaquin Valley. Not all have had a traditional K-12 education or college experience with access to digital tools. For example, they have smartphones, which they used mostly for texting, calls and WhatsApp. And until recently, some lacked basic computer skills.

At the sessions, the parents first learned the basics of technology, such as email communication and how to use computer apps, such as Google. Later, sessions shifted to what their children are — or are not — learning in school about computer science and technology.

Rudy Escobar, a longtime advocate for bringing computer science education to socioeconomically disadvantaged communities in the Central Valley, runs the sessions. He works as the coordinator of computer science and STEM, or science, technology, engineering and math, at the Stanislaus County Office of Education. There, he provides professional development to educators and engages families in the courses. He also trains parents in advocacy as a leader for Computer Science for California, or CSforCA, a nonprofit that promotes increased access to computer science at the local, regional and state levels.

The goal of the parent sessions, Escobar said, is to help close the digital divide and empower families to advocate for computer science classes in their schools and communities. 

“We are trying to move the needle in any possible way that we can,” said Escobar. “We want to empower them to understand what it is and how they can motivate their kids to go into those fields, and then to also advocate in their schools.”

The parent sessions are part of a decadelong push in California to expand access to computer science education, especially in rural areas and low-income communities where students are less likely to take such courses. Advocates, such as Escobar, say that involving parents is key to expanding computer science education.

In California, the birthplace of the technology industry, 58% of the state’s high schools offered a computer science class in the 2024-25 school year, according to a national report on computer science access. That’s up from 39% in 2016.

But national data shows that course offerings for computer science remain uneven, with students from racial and ethnic minority groups, those who live in rural areas or those considered low income are less likely to have access to classes. Across California, 44% of rural schools offered a class compared to 63% of urban and suburban schools in 2024-25. 

Kelly Solis, a stay-at-home mother of two students in middle and elementary school in the Patterson Joint Unified School District in Stanislaus County, is one of the group participants. Prior to the classes, she had limited exposure to technology, in part because of her lack of English language proficiency.

The classes “taught me some very important and basic things that many parents need to know, such as how to create an email account, send an email, use a computer, use the keyboard, understand the main parts of a computer,” Solis said in Spanish. Latino families in the Patterson school community could benefit from access to courses focused on technology, she says. 

Avelina Perza, a stay-at-home mother of three students, ages 11, 13 and 16, also attended the sessions with Escobar. The classes taught her about the apps used to communicate with educators at her children’s schools in Patterson Joint Unified.

The district offers two computer science classes at the high school level but none at the middle school level, where two of Perza’s children are enrolled. Advocates of computer science education say it’s important to expose students to computer science in elementary and middle school grades to develop interest before high school.

“Not many students have the opportunity to have those classes,” Perza said. 

The district does provide STEM-related activities, such as robotics, in its after-school enrichment programs at elementary schools. 

Coming together as a group

Photo courtesy of Rudy Escobar

Mirna Macedo, who also lives in Patterson, is a mother of one high schooler and two college students. She had no knowledge of recent technological advancements, such as artificial intelligence, or AI, until the sessions with Escobar.

The parents are now learning how to advocate for increased access for both their children and their community at ongoing workshops and events.

Macedo wants to bring computer skills training to other parents. “But we need a place; we need computers; we need internet,” she said.

Macedo also wants to see computer science in schools in early grades, and Perza said she hopes for more funding for the subject. Perza said she’s been talking with the administration at her children’s middle school about adding classes.

Neil Vento, the communications coordinator at the Patterson district, said parents interested in offering input on key decisions should attend advisory meetings. 

“We are ready to sit down, hear them out and see what we can do to make sure that we can provide the educational resources that will help them and their families and students thrive,” he said.

Escobar said the Patterson parents have drafted letters to be sent to principals, the school board and the superintendent to ask for a curriculum that teaches students digital literacy, coding and AI.  

“You see it in affluent schools — they’re teaching a whole pathway of computer science because the parents are the ones that are demanding that,” Escobar said. 

For parents, the experience has not only given them new technology skills but has taught them how to advocate for change that will create more opportunities for their children and communities.

“We want to bring this not just to our community, (but) to the whole Valley,” said Macedo, “because it’s really needed.”