Tracking school reopenings in California

By Los Angeles Times Staff

Updated June 1, 2021

56%

of elementary students returned

41%

of secondary school students

The latest

After an academic year hampered by the pandemic, many districts started offering more robust summer school. The programs can be explored using the state's database.
Through the spring most school districts reported their status every two weeks. When the school year ended, many stopped providing their reopening plans. This page will no longer update but may revive in the future.

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How many students can return?

Schools rapidly opened their doors for instruction in April, with nearly 90% of public school districts returning to in-person or a hybrid instruction.

About 5.3 million of the 6.1 million students in the state have the option to return, according to estimates The Times derived from data that school districts provide to the state.

Can students return?

Yes

In-person Hybrid

Distance

Track coronavirus vaccinations in California

Explore the data tracking the state’s COVID-19 vaccine supply to see how and where it has been distributed so far.

Many students are staying at home

Despite most districts offering students the option to come back to school, many are opting to stay at home. In districts like Los Angeles Unified, students in areas less affected by COVID-19 are returning at higher rates.

Have students returned?

Yes

In-person Hybrid

Distance

California Department of Education

What’s going on with school?

What do kids need? Get 8 to 3, a newsletter dedicated to the questions that keep California families up at night.

Some areas have more students back in school

Students are choosing to return to campuses at a higher rate in the state's rural northern counties — especially in the upper grade levels.

Look up your school district

Look up a school district and its opening status for elementary and secondary schools. Districts safety plans are hyperlinked in the table below.

Enrollment figures do not include charter schools that may fall within district boundaries. Districts without reopening status on the CDPH website are not included.

Tracking the coronavirus outbreak

Follow the latest data on the spread of COVID-19 in California with our coronavirus tracker.

Tracking the coronavirus

About the numbers

This page was created by Sean Greene, Iris Lee and Matt Stiles.

This page combines attendance numbers of public school districts, charter and private schools that are provided by the California Department of Public Health. The data are collected from local education agencies by the state on second and fourth Mondays. This page updates daily as state officials update this information. Not all schools have filed completed or timely updates on their opening status, and more updated information may be available from districts directly.

A school serving up to grade 6 would be considered elementary. For schools that serve any of grades K-6 and any higher grade they are considered both elementary and secondary i.e. K-8 school or school serving grades 4-8. Schools that only serve grade 5 and higher would be considered secondary only, according to CDPH.

State officials in February began releasing data about school districts where some form of in-person instruction was an option, in adherence to public health directive issued by the Governor's office. In April, the state released an expanded survey which now includes number of students participating in-person instruction, in response to a new legislation passed in March.

The complete Times database on COVID-19 is available to the public on Github, a popular website for hosting data and computer code. The files will be updated daily at github.com/datadesk/california-coronavirus-data.

Learn more about The Times count by reading this list of frequently asked questions or by reading this interview with members of our team.