A relative handful of Los Angeles Unified School District campuses will welcome students back this week, exactly one year and one month since the COVID-19 pandemic forced the state’s largest school district into online-only mode.

The beginning of LAUSD’s reopening marks a huge turning point in efforts to resume in-person instruction in California’s K-12 schools. This week, students at 72 LAUSD elementary schools and early education centers will begin coming back to campuses in waves. LAUSD kindergarteners and first graders at these campuses will return on Tuesday. Second and third graders will join them on Wednesday. The oldest elementary students will return on Thursday. This is just LAUSD’s soft opening: there are more than 700 elementary schools in LAUSD, and most of them will reopen next week. Middle- and high schools reopen the week of April 26.

Today on AirTalk, we’ll check in on how things are going at LAUSD schools where kids are returning for in-person learning and hear from parents about how they and their kids are feeling about it. Join the live conversation by calling us at 866-893-5722.

Guest:

Kyle Stokes, education reporter for KPCC/LAist covering K-12 education; he tweets @kystokes