Manhattan Beach: Elementary Schools In Orange County May Reopen

MANHATTAN BEACH, CA — In Orange County, some 24 elementary schools have received state waivers to reopen in-person instruction, according to City News Service. These reopenings contrast sharply with Los Angeles County, where no K-12 school is set to reopen with in-person instruction, including the Manhattan Beach Unified School District, whose students begin distance learning when schools start their fall schedule on Wednesday, August 26.

The OC reopenings are not a done deal until the county is removed from the state watchlist, however, officials think they will be removed soon. California state rules allow schools to reopen when their county is off the state watch list for 14 days. Since many OC schools have a start date of September 6, they may have enough time to meet the state's reopening requirements.

State and county public health officials must approve any waiver for a school to reopen. Right now, waivers are only under consideration for elementary schools that present a plan of high safety standards. The waiver program for elementary school students takes into account the difficulty distance learning may present for younger students.

Wednesday was the first day Orange County met all of the requirements to be taken off the state watchlist. Los Angeles County has not met those requirements yet, however, Dr. Jeffrey Gunzenhauser, the county’s chief medical officer, said just this week that elementary schools could be closer to applying for waivers if COVID-19 cases in LA County continue to decline, according to the Los Angeles Times.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health yesterday reported on multisystem inflammatory syndrome in children (MIS-C), "a condition that affects children under 21 years old across the country who may have been exposed to COVID-19 or had COVID-19. Different body parts can become inflamed, including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes, or gastrointestinal organs and there can be lifelong health impacts.This brings the total cases of MIS-C in L.A. County to 25 children," the county said in a news release.

While no deaths have been reported from MIS-C in LA County, a total of 25 cases have been reported. "Twenty-eight percent of the cases were between the ages of 0 and 5 years old, 44% were between the ages of 6 and 12 years old, and 28% were between the ages of 13 and 20 years old. The majority of cases (68%) were Latino/Latinx," according to Public Health.

Los Angeles County continues to meet five of the state’s six requirements for removal from the state watch list. The one metric still eluding LA County is a drop in cases below 100 per every 100,000 people in the county.

RELATED: Orange County Marks One Day Closer To Leaving State Watch List

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