Originally Published: 29 APR 21 14:08 ET

By Brian Hickey

STOCKTON, California (KCRA) -- Thousands of students in the Stockton Unified School District have the opportunity to return to in-person learning on Thursday as the district opens its doors for the first time since the pandemic started.

To get kids back at their desks, the district adopted a hybrid model of learning. The students will spend two days at school and the other three days at home with distance learning for the final four weeks of the school year.

To accommodate social distancing, the students have been divided into two cohorts with group A attending school on Monday and Tuesday, while group B will go to school on Thursday and Friday.

When they are not in the classroom, students will continue with distance learning.

A third, all-distance-learning plan was offered to families not wanting to send their kids back to school yet.

Out of 23,000 families that responded to the back-to-school survey, about half said they wanted their kids back in school for the remainder of the year, according to the district.

The school said desks have been spaced out, shields set up and sanitizer is widely available across the campus.

Everyone on campus will be required to wear a mask at the district's 56 school sites.