The superintendent of the Los Angeles Unified School District announced Monday that students will not return to the classroom when the fall semester begins next month due to the increase in coronavirus cases in Southern California, reports CBS Los Angeles. LAUSD Superintendent Austin Beutner said the fall semester will begin on August 18, but student learning will begin only online, with students not returning to classes in person.
LAUSD employs approximately 75,000 people and serves nearly 700,000 students. It is the second largest school district in the country.
Along with LAUSD, the San Diego Unified School District will also begin its fall semester in a virtual format. The two districts issued a joint statement confirming the measure.
“Both districts will continue to plan a return to in-person learning during the 2020-21 academic year, as soon as public health conditions allow,” the statement read.
Beutner did not provide an estimate on when classes could resume in person.
“The right way to reopen schools is to make sure there is a robust testing and contact tracking system to mitigate risk for everyone in the school community,” Beutner said in a video Monday.
The announcement comes after United Teachers Los Angeles, the union representing some 30,000 LAUSD teachers, announced Saturday that 83% of its members had voted against the physical reopening of schools to students.
Several nearby districts appear to be inclined to offer students a choice. The Santa Ana Unified District in Orange County approved a plan under which students could decide whether to learn only online or under a hybrid model where they would be in the classroom a few days a week and meet in line the rest of the time. Under the hybrid model, no more than 15 students would be in class at one time.
Las Vírgenes Unified, which serves parts of Calabasas, Hidden Hills and Ventura County, announced a similar plan.
Schools across the state began operating remotely in mid-March, with students using programs like Zoom and Google Classroom to connect with their teachers and complete their courses during the spring semester. LAUSD closed the campuses on March 13.
New York City plans to reopen schools in September, but all students may not be able to enter every day, the mayor said. Meanwhile, Florida has mandated that schools reopen in August for all students five days a week.
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