Today I visited one of our elementary schools to support families and staff as they prepare for the new school year. But rather than the classroom tours or gymnasium meetings that usually accompany the final days before students swarm the halls, masked school staff members were distributing carefully bundled devices and materials to a socially distant line of families. 
 
As Covid cases continue to surge across the country and here in California, Los Angeles is unfortunately not able to begin reopening schools. As a district, we are doing everything we can to provide the best possible distance learning for our kids and work with our City and County partners to limit the spread of this virus so school can safely resume soon. Distance learning won’t be perfect—as we know there is no replacement for the in-person classroom environment—but earlier this week the LA Unified Board voted on an agreement with our teachers to ensure that this year’s instruction will be far better than last spring. After hearing feedback from families about their biggest challenges when we made the emergency transition to distance learning last March, I pushed for a deal with the following improvements to meet the needs of our students and families: 

• Daily, synchronous instruction with teachers

• Daily small group or advisory time to personalize learning and provide support

• Consistent schedules for a more structured school day

• An “all hands on deck” approach with support staff and substitutes filling holes and providing additional support

• Attendance tracking to ensure we are reaching all of our students 

• Ability for administrators to supervise and observe virtual classrooms to provide feedback

• Clear, articulated time to support English Learners and students with disabilities 

• Options for our teachers for where to teach and flexibility in the afternoon hours for lesson planning 

We are also working to secure additional supports that will help keep students learning, like prioritized content standards and model lessons, professional development supports, a tutoring pilot, and more.

Even a perfect distance learning plan wouldn’t change the fact that our students need to be in school to learn and thrive, both academically and socially. While we continue to prepare campuses for the day we can welcome our school communities back safely, I will keep pushing for more flexibility for schools to innovate, iterate, and share best practices to keep our kids learning and make sure they’re ready to get back to the classroom as soon as they can. 
 

We’re still all in this together, apart.