New guidelines aim to prioritize schools reopening in California.

Keeping up with California's rules for reopening schools can feel like it requires an advanced class in and of itself. New metrics and guidelines for how and when reopening can happen have been a moving target.

During a presentation to the Monterey County Board of Supervisors on Feb. 23, Monterey County Superintendent of Schools Deneen Guss explained the latest changes and criteria for reopen schools for in-person classes. Those changes were updated at state level on Monday, Feb. 22.

Districts in Purple Tier counties—those with the highest rates of Covid-19 (including Monterey County)—cannot reopen in-person classes for grades seven-12 no matter their specific case rate. (Under previous set of rules, if the case rate fell to fewer than 7 per 100,000, they could reopen.) That means as long as Monterey County remains in the Purple Tier, reopening middle and high schools is off the table. 

The guidelines for K-6 schools remain the same; elementary schools may reopen if the county's case rate is below 25 cases per 100,000 people.

Overall, the state's tiering system (known as the "Blueprint for a Safer Economy") is being applied to school reopening rules. 

Districts in Red Tier counties—that's the next least restrictive, after the Purple Tier, based upon incidence of Covid-19 and the testing positivity rate—grades from transitional kindergarten all the way to 12th grade can reopen. (The same goes for Yellow and Orange Tier counties.) 

Before reopening, a school is required to create and publish a Covid Safety Plan (CSP) and to submit it to local and state health officials. A CSP must be posted five days prior to resuming in-person instruction. 

Once Monterey County gets to the Red Tier, K-12 will be able to reopen as well, with a CSP. Updated metrics per the state's blueprint are released weekly, every Tuesday. 

As of Feb. 25, the adjusted case rate in Monterey County is 18.4 new Covid-19 cases per 100,000 population per day. To get to the Red Tier, it needs to fall to 7 per 100,000.

In an earlier system, schools could apply for waivers to reopen. (That system is no longer in use.) Fourteen out the 18 schools in Monterey County that had applied for waivers in the earlier system have already reopened, and can remain open as long as they have a CSP posted online. The other four, which had received waivers but hadn't reopened before the waiver system ended, have to go through the process of first submitting a CSP in order to reopen, like other schools.

In addition to the new guidelines, starting on March 1, 10 percent of the vaccines California receives each week from the federal government will be set aside for childcare and K-12 employees, Gov. Gavin Newson announced on Feb. 19. Under this plan about 75,000 vaccines will be set aside per week.