LAUSD To Start New School Year Aug. 18 Despite Major Uncertainty

LOS ANGELES, CA — Los Angeles Unified School Districts will start the new school year Aug. 18, Superintendent Austin Beutner announced Monday. But it's unclear what the 2020-21 school-year will look like.

No one knows for sure what the COVID- 19 pandemic will bring in the summer or throughout the new school year, but Beutner has insisted that the district must have coronavirus testing and contact tracing in place to be able to reopen classrooms.

"The timing remains uncertain because the science is still uncertain," Beutner said. "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."

Classrooms won't reopen before the end of the school year in Los Angeles, and district officials are currently exploring virtual graduation ceremonies for high school seniors and plans for online summer school.

Online summer school will begin in mid-June, and classes will focus on students who are having the greatest struggles with studying, said Beutner. There will be rudimentary instruction, he added. Not long into the shutdown, officials realized that many students didn't have Internet access and a sizeable number were not engaging in online learning.

Beutner said making sure students are engaged has been one of the biggest challenges of the district with its online classes, and he said students' families must play a "critical role" in helping their students learn.

Parents have also been offered training to help their children with the online instruction.

Teachers are also working to develop music classes and other extracurricular instruction, Beutner said.

"The transition to online learning is our moonshot. It's that important and that difficult," Beutner said earlier. "And like the astronauts on the Eagle, we'll all benefit from the learning when all are safely back home, or in the case of our students, safely back in the classroom."

Beutner said almost all LAUSD educators have completed 10-hour training for teaching online and about half have signed up for additional 30- hour training, which begins Monday.

"We've connected almost all of our secondary school students, providing them with a device and internet access, and in another week or 10 days, we will reach that goal for elementary school students. The emphasis now is to help teachers take their talents online," Beutner said.

The superintendent wrote on Twitter that the district is working with UCLA to plan for a "safe reopening," but there is no timeline as to when LAUSD will have students return to its facilities.

LAUSD has been providing classes online since mid-March. Since then, LAUSD has provided more than 15 million meals to students who depend on the district's Grab and Go food centers.

City News Service and Patch Staffer Paige Austin contributed to this report.