Amid anxieties over online learning and a dangerous surge in coronavirus cases, Los Angeles Unified School District parents are being asked in a new survey to make a critical decision: Will you send your child back to school when campuses reopen?

The inopportune timing — as health authorities describe dark scenarios about the weeks ahead — is unavoidable. L.A. Unified, like districts throughout the state, must brace for the worst: the possibility of another hard shutdown of campuses. But they must also simultaneously prepare for the complex task of fully reopening campuses that have been closed for 10 months.

The survey, which must be returned by Sunday, is expected to provide the first comprehensive data on where the parents of some 465,000 students stand amid a growing debate over school safety and the extent to which political leaders are prioritizing the importance of reopening campuses.

Parents in the nation’s second-largest school district are being asked on a very personal level to weigh the same issues confounding health experts, educators and political leaders: How safe are schools? What are the risks? What’s best for my child?

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