What Does Purple Tier Mean For Southern California Schools?

Power lines in Aguanga (Kyle Grillot/LAist) A student at Lee Elementary School in Los Alamitos enters school on the first day of hybrid classes. (Chava Sanchez/LAist) Governor Gavin Newsom announced on Monday that all of Southern California is back in in the state’s most restrictive – or “purple” – coronavirus tier starting today.

So what does that mean for schools? A quick recap: when a county is in the purple tier, that indicates that there is “widespread” risk of spreading the coronavirus. When counties are in this tier, they are generally not allowed to reopen K-12 schools. For example, L.A. County has been in purple since the tier system was released, so there haven’t been any widespread campus reopenings.

There are two exceptions to this: while in purple, counties can decide to allow for small groups of students who need in-person learning the most – like students with special needs or students who are learning English, or their public health officials can consider waivers to reopen elementary schools. Once a county makes it to the red tier – which indicates “substantial” risk, but is less restrictive than purple – and remains there for two weeks, K-12 schools have permission […]

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