On November 3rd, the Corona-Norco Unified School District became the first school district in Riverside County to obtain a waiver allowing for kindergarten through 6th-grade students to return to campus with numerous safety precautions in place. The district has created a hybrid schedule in which 2 separate cohorts would be created. Cohort 1 would consist of roughly half the student body and the students in this cohort would physically enter the classroom in the morning Monday-Thursday. The second cohort would physically return to the campus in the afternoon on Mondays-Thursdays. Fridays would be a day in which both cohorts attend school at the same time virtually.

To supplement the in-person learning, students are expected to complete work virtually in the time they are away from school. Year-round elementary schools are currently scheduled to return on Monday, January 4th, 2021, and the traditional elementary schools are scheduled to return Monday, January 11th, 2021. Both of these dates are subject to change, but the district hopes to welcome students as close to those dates as possible. Because of the waiver, Corona-Norco can send elementary school students back on campus no matter what COVID19 tier the county is in. However, the waiver does not apply to intermediate and high schools as the state has different requirements for upper-level schools to return. In order for them to return, the county must return to the red tier and stay in the tier for at least 2 consecutive weeks. Time will only tell if the number of COVID19 cases decreases, allowing intermediate and high school students to return in person during the 2020-2021 school year.