Public schools sitting in the California counties hardest hit by COVID-19 will have their classrooms closed until those areas can get the spread under control. As you're likely aware if you know what time of year it is (and, really, nobody would blame you if you didn't) most/all of those counties may start the coming school year with remote learning only.
“The virus will be with us for a year or more, and school districts must provide meaningful instruction in the midst of this pandemic,” said the state's Governor, Gavin Newsom, in a statement. “In California, health data will determine when a school can be physically open -– and when it must close –- but learning should never stop. Students, staff, and parents all prefer in-classroom instruction, but only if it can be done safely.”
Bloomberg adds that the counties currently not meeting the state's requirement to open classrooms back up contain more than 70 percent of California's population.
Notably, school districts in San Diego, Sacramento, and Los Angeles had already made public their decision(s) to only offer remote learning when classes start up again. This decision comes in spite of calls from the Trump administration to fully reopen schools/classrooms.
In the past 24 hours, California has reported 9,986 new cases of COVID, which is up by more than 1,000 cases from the day before. In that same span, they've also attributed 130 new deaths to the disease. Both the new case and new death figures total up to the third highest numbers for a single day in California since the pandemic began.
At the moment, 33 of the state's 58 counties are on a "monitoring list" that indicates the fight against the virus is trending in the wrong direction. Schools that reside in counties on this list are ordered to remain physically closed until their county stays off the list for 14 straight days.
As for counties not on this list, staff and students in the third grade and above are still required to have on a mask/face covering when they attend school in-person. As for students in the second grade or younger, they are strongly encouraged to mask up, though it's not a requirement. School days will open up with "symptom checks" that include temperatures being taken. Also staff are required to stand six feet apart from one another, and students are asked to do the same though (obviously) that could be tough to enforce.
On account of the state's surge in new virus cases (which has drastically increased deaths, and the occupations of hospital/ICU beds) reopening plans were scaled back. This included the state deciding to (re)close indoor restaurant areas, bars, gyms, places of worship, hair salons, and more in a majority of California.
