Plans by the Los Angeles Unified School District to open 40 Family Resource Centers to assist families affected by the coronavirus-prompted closure of district campuses were put on hold today, with the district unable to secure needed health and public safety approvals.
“At this time, state and local health and public safety officials cannot assure us it will be safe for the children and adults at the Family
Centers for us to provide care for children at these sites,” Superintendent Austin Beutner wrote in a statement to the district.
“We are deeply disappointed — we had an outpouring of support from the community and many thousands of employees signed up to serve at the centers,” he said. “But we said from the outset we would only open these if we could be certain it would be safe and appropriate to do so and, unfortunately, health authorities cannot give us that assurance. I cannot ask anyone to work at one of the centers, or open them to children, unless we can be assured of their safety.”
Beutner said the centers, which were expected to open Wednesday, will instead open on that day as “Grab and Go Food Centers,” 20 of which were already planned in addition to the 40 Family Resource Centers. The switch means a total of 60 Grab and Go centers will be available between 7 and 10 a.m. weekdays, beginning Wednesday, and each child will receive two meals.
A list of locations of the centers is online at achieve.lausd.net/resources.
