Education

With millions of students stuck at home learning remotely, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued comprehensive guidance to help school leaders decide how to safely bring students back into classrooms, or keep them there.

California has developed its own plan for returning students to school called the Safe Schools for All Plan. To see more about this plan, visit the state's website.

San Diego Unified School District says it plans to launch hybrid instruction for all grades on April 12th, which would allow students to split their time between virtual and in-person learning. In preparation, the county started vaccinating district employees on March 1.

Both elementary and secondary schools are permitted to stay open in California as long as the county remains out of the "purple tier", the state's most restrictive COVID-19 tier. According to the latest CDC guidelines released on March 19, elementary grade students can sit as close as 3 feet apart. Middle and high schools have stricter criteria, and most of them will need to practice 6 feet of physical distancing.

Most districts expect to reopen classes by the start of the 2021-2022 school year.

Search the table below to see plans for your school.

Full-time in-person learning

These students are scheduled to receive 100% of their instructional program from a teacher who is in the same physical location as the students. Virtual instruction and/or independent learning are not used in this learning format. School enrichment programs (ASES/ASSETS), childcare programs, individual assessments, and other special services that do not involve a teacher providing instruction to students in the same physical location as the teacher are not considered in-person learning.

Hybrid learning

Students in hybrid learning are scheduled to participate in a mix of in-person and distance learning in any proportion.

Distance learning

Students in this learning format do not regularly receive instruction from a teacher who is physically located in the same place as their students. Cohorts/schools that have been temporarily shifted to distance learning for quarantine are reported as part of distance learning totals until they return to in-person learning.

— San Diego County Office of Education

The interactive map below, launched by the state of California, shows a snapshot view of the status of school reopenings across California.