Health officials in Los Angeles County say elementary school campuses are cleared to fully reopen for the first time in nearly a year because of dropping coronavirus rates.
The Los Angeles Times reports that despite that determination, schools in the Los Angeles Unified District, the nation's second-largest school system, will not be opening yet. District officials and the teachers union are negotiating over how what needs to be in place before schools can resume in-person instruction.
County Supervisor Janice Hahn announced on Monday that the county had reached the state of California’s threshold for reopening elementary schools.
The county had to maintain the coronavirus metrics for five consecutive days, which happened as of Monday. The key threshold is a seven-day average of daily coronavirus infections below 25 cases per 100,000 residents. On Monday, the official daily rate was at 20 cases per 100,000.
In-person instruction has been unavailable to the vast majority of about 1.5 million Los Angeles County students in public and private schools since March 2020.
