One year ago, Congress defunded public media. Now that we're 100% community funded, please become a sustaining member or increase your existing membership today.
In Most LA County School Districts, Masks Are Now Optional
FILE - Principal Juana Cortez adjusting a student’s mask at L.A. Unified's Montara Avenue Elementary School on Aug. 16, 2021.
(
Al Kamalizad
/
LAist
)
State and county-wide mask requirements for K-12 schools and child care centers expired over the weekend.
KPCC/LAist reviewed the most recent COVID-19 guidance from 62 of Los Angeles County’s 80 school districts. A majority of the county's school systems — a total of 56 districts which enroll at least 650,000 students — have already followed the lead of state and county officials to “strongly recommend,” but not require, masks on campus.
This includes Long Beach Unified, which is L.A. County’s second-largest and the state’s fourth-largest school district.
There are about 1.4 million students enrolled in L.A. County schools in total.
Because of a labor agreement with United Teachers Los Angeles, the L.A. Unified School District is now one of only a handful of L.A. County districts that continues to require masks. LAUSD will meet with its teachers union on Wednesday to discuss the future of the district’s indoor mask mandate.
We identified six districts that continue to require mask use indoors:
- LAUSD
- Inglewood Unified
- Culver City Unified
- The Garvey School District in Rosemead
- The primary and secondary school districts in El Monte
The El Monte Union High School District will keep its mask requirement until April 1, then reassess the policy monthly, said superintendent Edward Zuniga.
Sponsored message
Culver City students will have the option to go maskless indoors starting on April 18, according to a letter from superintendent Quoc Tran.
One year ago, Congress voted to defund public media, eliminating a critical $1.7 million from our budget every year going forward. But they couldn’t silence us, and we’re not going anywhere. LAist is now 100% community funded and that means we’re taking our future into our own hands and turning to you to keep local reporting strong.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
You come to LAist because you want independent reporting and trustworthy local information. Our nonprofit newsroom doesn’t answer to shareholders looking to turn a profit. Instead, we answer to you and our communities. We are free to follow facts wherever they lead and to hold power to account without fear or favor. Our only loyalty is to our readers and listeners and our mission: to inform, engage, and strengthen Southern California’s communities.
If this story helped you, please become a monthly member today to help sustain this mission. It just takes 1 minute to donate below.
Senior Vice President News, Editor in Chief
