It wasn’t problem free and frustrations flared through the day, but as formal instruction began Thursday in Los Angeles public schools, students, parents and teachers attempted to project a positive face on the difficult work of distance-learning amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Also on Thursday, L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner provided new details on how the district’s nascent COVID-19 testing and contract tracing would work. These plans became slightly more pressing when a county health official suggested that positive health trends could soon permit the potential reopening of elementary schools.

In thousands of classrooms, hundreds of thousands of tiny faces appeared on screen for online classes, provoking worry among some teachers about how they will get to know and inspire their students in a virtual setting.

The district did not release figures Thursday on attendance or enrollment, although several classes observed by The Times were missing only a few children. Thursday‘s snags tended to be technical, whether it was user error, programmer error, beginners bad luck or system overload.

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