As Wildfires Die Down, Calif. Schools Look to Reopen

With the Santa Ana winds subsiding and wildfires being contained in hard-hit parts of Southern California, officials in some areas where schools have been closed for days—including San Diego—were making cautious plans to reopen next week.

“Some are trying to open back up on Monday, but it will depend on individual situations—where the wind blows, how bad it gets, how much of a handle they’ve got on the fire, whether they can move the forces together,” said Tina W. Jung, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Education, which has been in touch with all affected school districts during the fires.

At the peak of the crisis, authorities estimated that more than 300 schools had been closed and instruction disrupted in some way for 1.2 million students by the fires, which have caused an estimated $1 billion in damage from the Mexican border to north of Los Angeles. Although the situation had eased by week’s end, about 650,000 students remained affected, either because their schools were closed, or because they chose to stay home or...