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Students In Some Big LA County School Districts Start Returning To Campus This Week

School bus parking lot near downtown Los Angeles. (Damian Carr via Unsplash)

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Elementary students in L.A. County’s second-largest school district — Long Beach Unified — will start returning to campuses this week. That’s one of several school district reopenings I’m tracking.

Districts that are reopening this week include these:

  • Long Beach Unified campuses will reopen to students from transitional kindergarten (TK) through fifth grade today. Students who don’t choose to remain in distance learning mode will spend two-and-a-half hours with their teacher, either in the morning or afternoon. “The return to in-person classes includes asymptomatic screening for staff and students,” said Superintendent Jill Baker in a video message last week
  • The Hart Union High School District, which serves Santa Clarita, is reopening campuses for blended learning on Monday — with buildings operating at reduced capacity: “There will be less students in the classroom,” Superintendent Mike Kuhlman said in a video message.
  • Glendale Unified students in transitional kindergarten (TK) through second grade will return Monday. Students in third to sixth grade will go back to campuses on April 5. Like in Long Beach, students in Glendale will operate on a “hybrid” schedule, with returning students “alternat(ing) between on-campus and distance learning in small cohorts.”
  • Norwalk-La Mirada Unified is also welcoming grades TK-2 back on Monday — but the rest of the elementary grades will return to campuses Wednesday.
  • Rosemead Unified is yet another school system reopening for grades TK-2 on Monday, with the remaining elementary school students returning in mid-April
  • All Downey Unified elementary students will return to campuses on Monday.

With these additions, districts serving around one-quarter of L.A. County’s elementary students will have exited full distance learning mode.

In Orange County, the vast majority of elementary students have been learning in person at least part of the time for weeks.

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