Saturday marks one year since the Long Beach Unified School District closed its campuses due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Although schools won’t be open before that anniversary, it’s official that they’ll start reopening soon after now that TK-5th grade cleared the final regulatory hurdle today: The Long Beach Health Department has approved the LBUSD’s plans for reopening elementary schools.

Per the California Department of Public Health’s reopening guidelines, a district’s local health agency—in this case the city health department—had the final approval on school reopenings. While it was the LBUSD’s decision to close down on March 13, 2020, they’ve required reopening clearance from a variety of bodies including the CDPH, Los Angeles County, and now the city’s health department.

With the final green light issued, plans will carry on for the March 29 reopening of grades TK-5.

For middle schools and high schools, reopening would occur in April if LA County falls out of the “purple tier” of coronavirus restrictions, something that appears imminent. Assuming that plan also gets the green light from the health department, seniors would go back April 19, middle schools April 20, and other high school students on April 26.

Like with elementary schools, the LBUSD is surveying families of 6th-12th grade students to see who wants to come back to school in person, and who wants to remain in distance learning through the end of the school year. Those surveys will close tomorrow with results likely to be discussed at next week’s LBUSD Board of Education meeting on Wednesday.

The district also clued information-hungry parents in on its plans for next year, confirming that they “expect to run full-day school programs and offer families an option for distance learning.”