California's two largest public school districts, Los Angeles and San Diego, revealed Monday that students will start school with online-only learning next month. The superintendent of LA schools, Austin Beutner, said in a tweet that the continued rise in coronavirus cases puts the health and safety of students and teachers at risk.
"Unfortunately, COVID-19 continues to spread in the Los Angeles area, and the virus is going to impact how we start the new school year," said Beutner. "The health and safety of all in the school community is not something we can compromise."
Update on July 13th
— Austin Beutner (@AustinLASchools) July 13, 2020
Actualización del 13 de julio pic.twitter.com/HhbvV6zYfu
The Los Angeles and San Diego unified school districts said they'll provide expanded online education training for teachers and students. The districts will also offer more online support options for parents with the aim to make it easier for them to participate in their child's learning.
Over the course of the pandemic, the two school districts have provided 47 million free meals and 250,000 computers to students in need. Both districts plan to continue to provide meals to families in the fall.
The school year will start on Aug. 18 in Los Angeles and Aug. 31 in San Diego. Both districts plan to return to in-person learning during the 2020-21 academic year when public health conditions allow.
California rolled back reopening efforts on Monday due to a surge in cases. As of Monday, there are more than 3.3 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the US and more than 135,000 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University.
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