The nation’s second-largest school district announced it will start the new school year in August, but it remains to be seen if school buses will return to normal operation for students.
The Los Angeles Unified School District’s 2020-2021 school year is scheduled to start on Aug. 18. But no decision has been made if school buildings and facilities will open, and school buses will transport students.
Superintendent Austin Beutner on Monday said a comprehensive system of testing and tracing needs to be in place before schools can safely reopen.
“It is the science and only the science, which can provide the safe foundation for the safe return of our school community,” he said, adding that the district is working with a team of medical experts from the University of California, Los Angeles.
The current plan, he added, is to finish the current school year with online education, with summer school starting in the middle of June, the first time in the district’s history that all students would be eligible to partake in the extra session.
Beutner said more than 15 million meals have been provided to the community at district grab-and-go centers, and school mental health experts have worked with “thousands.”
Related: California Student Transporters Gear Up for Potential Early School Year Start
