Several county health departments decide against accepting waivers to reopen schools in person

LOS ANGELES - With the fall semester approaching, some California county health departments are deciding against issuing waivers to reopen schools in person, following state guidelines.

County Health Dept. deciding on waivers for schools

Will your kids elementary school be open for in person learning this fall?

The California Department of Public Health issued new guidelines recommending counties with rates at or above 200 cases per 100,000 residents do not extend waivers for the reopening of classroom instruction.

The San Bernardino County Department of Public Health will not issue any waivers for the fall semester. As a county, their numbers are around 250-280 positive cases per 100,000, according to the Emergency Manager for the San Bernardino City Unified School District, Eric Vetere.

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"In our county, especially in San Bernardino City, the cases are at record high numbers so we know that the state has closed all schools until the county can come off the watch list for 14 days straight. At which time, our school board can make the decision to reopen and clearly the county, just looking at the data, they're not in a position where we can safely reopen schools at any level at this point," said Eric Vetere.

Vetere said when schools do reopen, they are following state guidelines for reopening in the San Bernardino USD:

"The recommendations that we're following are the face coverings, the social distancing. We're arranging all of our classrooms now to meet the 6-foot distance between the students and the teacher. We're having to reconfigure our classroom spaces, our auditoriums. We're having to look at lunch lines and how to serve meals so really we're starting from the ground up on what does this looks like. Our priority is the safety piece first. We want to make sure that before we bring our staff and students back that it's safe for us to do so. We don't want to bring them back and then have someone get sick," said Vetere.

Vetere is a parent and acknowledges and understands the struggles parents are facing with school uncertainty.

"I have five children of my own, four are in school and so personally we see it from both ends. We see it as educators as the Emergency Manager for the school district and also as parents. Our kids need to be back in school. Our kids need to be back in the classrooms. We know that. The kids want to be there. The teachers want them there and the parents want them there, but we want to make sure it's done in a safe environment. I don't want my kids going to school and catching something. It's just not worth that risk right now," said Vetere.

Vetere said the district is working to make sure technology is not an issue for their students. The district purchased 60,000 headphones with microphones on Tuesday to ensure kids can focus while learning at home.

The Los Angeles County Department of Public Health also released a statement saying they will not offer waivers. LA County's case rate is currently 355 per 100,000.

Riverside County Public Health released a statement saying their department will also not issue any waivers at this time because the county does not currently meet the state's threshold to begin accepting waivers.