OAKLAND — A small majority of elementary school families in the Oakland Unified School District want the option of sending students back to physical classrooms this spring, according to a survey by the district.

After almost a year of online distance learning forced by stay-at-hone health orders to curb the spread of the coronavirus, about 58% of families with students in transitional kindergarten through fifth grade are ready to send their kids back to school while about 42% want to stick with the distance learning through the rest of this academic year.

That was of the 92% of school families who responded to the survey. Another 8%, or 1,612 families, did not respond to the survey.

The district sent out the survey last month so it can figure out how many students would participate in a hybrid learning model that allows them back into classrooms a few days a week. District staff sent emails and texts and made calls to the elementary school families over a two-week period to conduct the survey.

The responses varied among individual schools and geographic areas of the city. In northwest Oakland, almost 73% of families indicated they want to return to the classroom, while those in other neighborhoods, including East and Deep East Oakland, were more evenly split.

At Crocker Highlands Elementary, Thornhill Elementary and Peralta Elementary, more than 80% of families preferred a return to on-campus learning, while the majority of families at Reach Academy, La Escuelita Elementary, Lincoln Elementary and the Global Family School indicated they wanted to remain in distance learning. Other elementary schools were more evenly split in their responses.

A higher percentage of White families indicated they wanted to return to classrooms than other groups. The survey showed that 76% of White families preferred in-person learning, compared to 52% of Black families, 48% of Latino families and 44% of Asian families.

While about 63% of families said they did not have a preference for returning to either full or half days, about 12% said they definitely want to return for full days and 11% for half days.

The school district has not announced what specific dates the kids who opted for in-person education can return, although the school board sent a letter to families in late February saying it’s critical to open campuses this month.

A state bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom has offered financial incentives for schools that offer in-person classes by April 1 to students with special learning needs and in certain grades, depending on where their counties rank in the state’s color-coded tier reopening plan.

Meanwhile, Oakland Unified will get about $250 million of the $15.3 billion in assistance going to California schools from the just approved $1.9 trillion federal American Rescue Plan Act, an analysis by EdSource shows.

According to plans discussed so far by the district, elementary school students would be the first ones back in classrooms within small groups of socially distanced cohorts on a modified schedule, along with high-need and special needs students, unhoused students and students without easy access to distance learning.

A letter sent to families and signed by the school board last month said that for middle and high school students, “our current thinking is instruction may remain primarily in distance learning until the end of the school year, but all students should have the option of in-person socio-emotional and academic support, and extracurricular activities.”

Bargaining between the teachers’ union and school district leaders is ongoing, and the district will send out more specific updates next week about programming and additional plans, Chief Academic Officer Sondra Aguilera said in the survey results message to parents.