The California Department of Public Health guidance for reopening schools for in-person instruction was recently updated to allow for a three-week window for reopening when a school is eligible. Under the prior version of the guidance that was issued on January 14, 2021, once a county reached the red tier, schools had to wait five days before they were eligible to reopen for in-person instruction. With the latest revision to the guidance, schools may reopen the day after their county has reached the needed threshold to allow reopening. This applies to counties that reach the red tier, in which case all schools operating grades transitional kindergarten (TK)–12 may reopen. It also applies for counties with a case rate that falls below 25 per 100,000, in which case grades TK–6 are allowed to reopen in the purple tier as long as certain criteria are met. The local educational agency (LEA) must submit its completed COVID-19 Safety Plan to the local health officer and state Safe Schools for All Team to start the elementary reopening process, which applies in the purple tier only.
The three-week window for reopening starts the Wednesday after a county meets the needed threshold. Once the three-week window starts, schools may reopen anytime within that period, even if the county falls back into the purple tier or if adjusted case rates increase beyond 25 per 100,000 during that time.
Instituting a three-week period to reopen allows for LEAs to move forward with planning and final preparations without feeling rushed to reopen within a few days because of the worry that the county case rates may rise above the threshold again. Hopefully this revision will provide some stability for LEAs that currently are waiting to reopen.