With classes about to start in many of Los Angeles County’s 80 school districts, many parents have questions about sending their unvaccinated children back in-person.
During a Wednesday night town hall, education and public health officials from L.A. County and the state tried to reassure parents that schools would be safe for their kids.
“We’re confident that schools have done an excellent job of following all the mitigation strategies to prevent the spread of COVID,” said L.A. County Superintendent of Schools Debra Duardo.
Duardo emphasized the safety protocols that would be in place. Masking will be mandatory on all L.A. County campuses, public and private, regardless of vaccination status.
“We know that schools have had very little spread of COVID,” Duardo said.
Despite officials' reassurances, many parents wanted to know why schools are resuming in-person classes amid a surge of COVID-19 cases and the highly contagious Delta variant.
L.A. Public Health Director Barbara Ferrer said vaccinated staff and older students on campus would be a good thing for kids too young to receive their own COVID-19 jabs.
“In L.A. County, over 60 percent of the entire population now has received at least one dose of the vaccine. Among 12 and older, it's 70 percent in L.A. County,” said Ferrer.
“Those vaccines are super powerful, so we are going to really benefit from all of the vaccinated people that are surrounding us and that are surrounding our children that aren’t yet able to get vaccinated.”
The panel urged parents to get all children over 12 vaccinated before classes start.