Los Angeles and San Diego schools won't reopen this fall

Two of the largest school districts in the country won't be getting back to normal in the fall.

Both the Los Angeles Unified School District — the second biggest in the country — and the San Diego Unified School District announced Monday their classes would go fully online when school resumes next month. The decision comes as California continues to see COVID-19 cases surge, after largely avoiding a massive outbreak earlier in the pandemic.

"We all know the best place for students to learn is in a school setting," LAUSD superintendent Austin Beutner told the Los Angeles Times. But "we're going in the wrong direction" and can't reopen "until it's safe and appropriate." Just a day earlier, the United Teachers Los Angeles union voted overwhelmingly to keep schools closed until coronavirus infection rates slow. California has continued to hit record new infection rates over the past few weeks, with Los Angeles proving to be the epicenter of case spread in the state.

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New York state also released its guidelines for reopening schools on Monday, but has yet to make final decisions on what classes will look like. Schools in areas that are in the state's fourth phase of reopening by August 1 will resume in-person classes in some form, while those where the rate of COVID-19 infection is greater than nine percent will stay closed. New York City, the country's largest school district, will at most reopen schools for three days a week, its guidelines released last week say.