News Update

Los Angeles Unified schools will shut down Thursday amid Covid-19 surge

All in-person tutoring and special services at Los Angeles Unified public schools will be shut down effective Thursday as Covid-19 cases in the city continue rising. The order, announced Monday by Supt. Austin Beutner, affects students in kindergarten through 12th grades attending in-person tutoring, childcare services, as well as outdoor conditioning for students athletes. Staff currently working in schools will work from home if their job allows.

“This is greatly disappointing to all who have been working so hard to build a proper foundation for students’ return to campus,” Beutner said on Monday. “Clean schools, proper health protocols and COVID testing for all at schools make a difference, but they don’t provide immunity to the virus. We can’t create a bubble for the school community.”

The emergency campus shutdown comes one day after Los Angeles for the first time recorded 10,500 daily Covid-19 cases and on the first day of California’s regional stricter stay-at-home orders. It also comes as the district was beginning to slowly reopen campuses for students with high needs for in-person tutoring, which began early October.

The order will remain in place until the beginning of the next semester. All food relief efforts and Covid-19 testing, however, will continue.

In his prepared remarks, the Beutner also called for federal relief for schools that includes four elements: safe and clean school environments, school-based Covid-19 testing, mental health support for students and summer school for all students.