Long Beach Unified, which serves more than 70,000 students and is the third largest school district in the state, announced this morning that its campuses will be closed starting Monday. The closure is currently scheduled to last until April 20.
The decision came as a growing number of school districts began shuttinh down their campuses, most notably L.A. Unified, which is the nation's second largest school district. LAUSD officials said today it will close schools for two weeks, starting Monday, which affects some 500,000 students.
Here's the announcement from LBUSD officials:
After careful deliberation, the Long Beach Unified School District has decided to close schools beginning Monday, March 16. School will resume Monday, April 20. The closure is an extra measure of protection to help prevent the spread of the new coronavirus, or COVID-19.
We do not have any presumptive or confirmed cases of the new coronavirus in our schools, but we are taking this step to help protect public health. This closure includes our Friday, April 10 Admission Day holiday and our spring recess from April 13 to 17. Schools are an essential service and crucial to our communities.
We are facing an unprecedented health crisis in our community, and new information is surfacing rapidly. It is likely our community will be seeing many more cases of COVID-19 in the coming weeks and months and this will require a measured, sustained response.
We are exploring with our local, regional and state partners what we can do to support our students and families during this difficult time. We will be setting up ways to continue the learning process, and to provide meals for our students who rely on them. We are considering what, if any, childcare options we can extend to families during this unplanned closure.
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