Los Angeles will start 2020-21 school year in August, but campuses may still be shuttered
Los Angeles School Superintendent Austin Beutner says the 2020-21 school year will start on Aug. 18 as scheduled, but no decision has been made on whether campuses will reopen for in-person classes by that date.
The Los Angeles Times reports that the district also will begin an expanded summer school session will begin in mid-June online.
The decisions about reopening campuses are complicated, Beutner says.
“The timing remains uncertain because the science is still uncertain,” Beutner says. “At a minimum, a comprehensive system of testing and contact tracing will need to be in place and the implications of the testing widely understood before schools can reopen. We are in regular discussions with state and local health authorities and are also working alongside a team of UCLA experts in infectious diseases, virology, epidemiology and testing.
The expanded summer school will help students make up for disruption caused by the March 16 closure of the nation’s second-largest school system. But the summer-school session will not be taking place on campus.
“Our plan remains to finish the school year with online instruction and offer summer school to every student,” Beutner says “We’ve made no decisions about the opening of school facilities...and will not until the science and health authorities tell us it is safe and appropriate to do so.”
The current school year, which has continued through online distance learning, will end June 12.
Summer school has been gradually and substantially diminished in recent years due because of budget cuts, but Beutner says it will again be available to every student.
