The pending reopening of K-12 campuses is suddenly at risk because of the ongoing surge of coronavirus cases, and all public and private schools must prepare for students to continue learning entirely from home, Los Angeles County’s top public health official has told local education leaders.
This sobering message was delivered Tuesday by county Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer, in what she termed an “off the record” phone call with district superintendents and others that was not intended for the media or the public. The Times obtained a recording of the call.
“Every single school district at this point needs to have plans in place to continue distance learning for 100% of the time,” Ferrer said told officials from both public and private schools. “We would be irresponsible if we didn’t say to you that you have to have the back-up plan ready.”
Ferrer also said she remained hopeful that campuses could reopen as anticipated and said administrators should continue to develop those plans as well. There are 80 school districts in L.A. County serving about 1.5 million children. And even if campuses cannot reopen to start the school year, the delay might be for weeks rather than a longer period.
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“I think it’s completely appropriate to move forward with our plans as we had anticipated before — hoping that there would be opportunity to allow for children and teachers and staff to get back into their buildings, to really have the enriched educational experience that everyone is so desperate for,” she said. “That also has huge implications for working parents.”
All the same, “it would be foolish, given where our numbers are, for school districts not to have that [distance learning] plan in their back pocket,” she said.
The county is planning to release more detailed guidelines for reopening campuses this week. They will include requiring all teachers and students older than 2 to wear face coverings at virtually all times. There will be rare exceptions for students at risk of a serious medical consequence. In those cases, however, others in contact with that student would be required to wear a medical-grade protective face covering.
Students also must be six feet apart in classes. In spaces where this is impossible, an alternate plan would be to set up partitions between desks.
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The debate over how and when to reopen schools was amplified this week by President Trump, who said all campuses should reopen for students five days a week. Nothing like that is being seriously considered for most students in California, where school systems are working out hybrid schedules, in which students would be on campus part-time in small groups, while working the rest of the time at home, both online and offline.
A coalition of teachers unions and education organizations quickly responded to Trump, saying that while reopening remains the goal, the effort should be guided by scientific and medical recommendations and that additional federal aid is needed for schools to manage increased costs. While school systems already received a substantial portion of federal coronavirus-related funding approved earlier this year, a larger aid package is currently stalled in Congress.
The Trump administration also has pressured colleges and universities to return to a more normal schedule. In addition, the administration announced this week that non-citizen students could not remain in this country if their coursework was delivered in an online-only format. Many universities, including the UC system, have a large enrollment of international students.
Trump’s back-to-campus argument is based on the importance of restarting the economy by allowing more parents to return to work while also benefiting students, many who have suffered under distance learning. The health risks, said the administration, can be adequately managed.
There is broad agreement among experts that the near-worldwide school shutdown has harmed students academically and psychologically. Schools in some countries have reopened, but there’s debate over what conclusions to draw from these examples.
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Key Florida state officials have sided with the president, threatening to withhold funding from school systems that don’t reopen. Arizona, led by a Republican governor and Trump ally, could comply substantially with the president’s exhortations for the fall, but recently closed all state campuses until Aug. 17. Hospitals in parts of that state are at risk of being overwhelmed with coronavirus patients.
Ferrer told school leaders that said she was concerned that a similar situation could evolve locally, which would ultimately influence whether it would be sensible to reopen schools.
“We’re being realistic about how much this county can afford to have another million people out and about when we have as much community transmission as we have right now,” Ferrer said.
She added that she did not expect the outlook to improve in the next two weeks because of recent and widespread noncompliance with health directives on social distancing and wearing face coverings. But there still was time to reverse negative trends before the start of the school year.
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L.A. Unified is scheduled to begin its academic year on Aug. 18. Supt. Austin Beutner said Monday that the district has made no decision on whether the district will offer a hybrid schedule or whether classes will remain exclusively online. He’s said that a key factor could be whether state and local officials could take charge of necessary testing for the coronavirus and contract tracing.
Ferrer offered limited encouragement on that front Tuesday, saying the sheer number of schools made it impossible for the county to take the lead.
“It’s highly likely that in most of your school settings over the course of the next year, you will experience a positive case,” Ferrer said. “We are here to be a source of support, but there’s thousands of school buildings in L.A. County, and we’re really going to rely heavily on every school district to have good plans in place.”
She also said it would not practical or effective to launch a widespread, school-based testing program at this time.
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“Certainly if you have three cases in your building … you’re required by law to notify us, and then we’ll be part of an active investigation,” Ferrer said.
