In a reversal from recent pandemic-era school years, Los Angeles schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho is urging students to come to school sick — at least if they are just a little sick — to combat high rates of absences that officials fault for harming mental health and holding back learning.
If a student has a fever, however, they need to stay home.
For parents and employees, the reversal is a sort of cognitive whiplash for a school system that took pride in having among the strictest school safety protocols in the nation: mask mandates, 10-day illness quarantines, weekly COVID-19 testing — and directives to keep students home at any sign of illness.