Millions of students in California are back in their physical classrooms for the new school year as in-person learning resumes.

In this week's "In Focus SoCal," host Tanya McRae sits down with Assemblyman Patrick O'Donnell to talk about the governor's vaccination and testing mandate for all educators, as well as AB 104, which aims to help students who struggled with remote learning change low grades to a "Pass" or "No Pass."

"So let's say that letter grade might drag down your GPA. This gives you the opportunity to go credit. Again if you pass that class, not to harm students' GPAs that are headed into their college application period," said O'Donnell, chair of the Assembly Education Committee. ​

He also discusses funding that the state is giving to school districts to boost resources available to struggling students, including the expansion of mental health services, after-school programs and learning acceleration programs.

Spectrum News 1's Aziza Shuler meets one freshman at CSU Northridge who is excited to start her college career on campus, and says that it will help her get the extra help she will need in certain subjects.

Jeff Freitas, president of the California Federation of Teachers joins the conversation and tells McRae the concerns that educators are having heading back to the classrooms amid the pandemic.

"Everyone is cautiously optimistic," said Freitas. "Our priority has been on safety, making sure that we were safe, the communities, the students, the workers were safe."

Fretias and other union leaders have been touring campuses throughout the month of August to meet with teachers and students, and to have conversations as the new school year begins amid the pandemic.

Spectrum News 1's Ariel Wesler also visits Grover Cleveland Charter High School on the first day of class to see how teachers are feeling about the upcoming year and to get their thoughts on the vaccination and testing mandate.

Send us your thoughts to InFocusSoCal@charter.com and watch at 9 a.m. and noon Sundays.