Sergio Garcia is quick to the scene. He puts on a scuffed firefighter jacket, grabs an oxygen mask and crouches down on hot concrete to start chest compressions on a dummy body. 

At the Los Angeles Unified School District鈥檚 career technical education showcase, under an outdoor canopy in blistering Southern California heat, the fire academy student demonstrates CPR to other students who might also be interested in joining. 

Sergio represents one of 23 high schools and six middle schools that showcased a range of career technical education at L.A. Unified, including 15 comprehensive three- or four-year programs that prepare students for industries through real-world experience. The showcase, held last month at the , a private health equity foundation, featured student projects, live demonstrations and skill-based challenges, is part of the district鈥檚 鈥淒ream It, Achieve It!鈥� initiative that pairs students with local industry leaders.

鈥淲ith my degree, I鈥檇 rather know I鈥檓 going to help people,鈥� said Sergio, a senior and fourth-year deputy chief at the fire academy at Banning High School who is on track to earn a fire science degree at a technical college. 鈥淎lthough it is very physically demanding, the fact that you鈥檙e doing good in this world is a bigger gift than anyone could ever ask for.鈥�

Building technical and team-building skills 

At another canopy at the showcase, students cheered a remote-controlled battle of two robots, vying for the prize of a 3D-printed bot, while Madelynne Arevalo helped set up a mini flight simulator. Madelynne, a senior at Fremont High School in Los Angeles, is in the robotics program and is designing a rocket launch for her aerospace engineering project.

鈥淲e also compete with other high schools, and the competitions are really fun,鈥� Madelynne said. 鈥淚鈥檓 really proud of all the models (we made), even if they鈥檙e not the final ones we end up using.鈥�

Madelynne remembers designing an elevator system in a robot she worked on for a competition. Although she and her team chose a more time-efficient robot for the event, she said she learned how to develop new technical and team-building skills in a high-stakes environment. 

鈥淚t was a lot of our own ideas and a lot of collaboration,鈥� Madelynne said, 鈥渁nd I thought that even if it doesn鈥檛 work, at least the process was nice.鈥�

In recent years, L.A. Unified has significantly expanded career technical education to about 435 pathways, from engineering and technology to business and construction, serving nearly 40,000 students. About 1,000 students completed internships in the 2024-2025 school year, and CTE programs have about a 97% graduation rate. 

鈥淐TE careers are the fastest growing careers in the United States, more than students going to a four-year university,鈥� said Jaime Medina, a firefighter and teacher in L.A. Unified鈥檚 firefighting program. 

Israel Urbina, a junior at Washington Preparatory High School in Los Angeles, is a third-year student in the photojournalism program. At the showcase, he displayed a photo in which he manipulated light to create different designs, objects and shapes, including one that spelled out his name. 

鈥淩ight now, my thing in photography is light painting,鈥� Israel said. 鈥淚 did a video about it in my photography class, and it鈥檚 about all my light paintings and the different ones I鈥檝e done and the different people I鈥檝e done it with.鈥�

Ken Kerbs, a photojournalism teacher at the school, described Israel as nearly an 鈥渆xpert鈥� on light painting. Through years of honing techniques related to perspective, reflections, texture, light and shadow, Kerbs said most of his students leave the program with greater curiosity about the world and a sharper eye for detail. 

鈥淲hat that says to me is that teaching them the basics is to be sensitive and have a different sensibility about their environment,鈥� Kerbs said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what makes me come to school in the morning.鈥�

Blessed Thomas-Hill, a senior at Washington Prep, worked with Israel on a film about light painting and wrote poetry for the film鈥檚 narrative. She said she chose the photojournalism program because of Kerbs, who helped teach her to be more comfortable expressing herself.  

鈥淚鈥檓 an introvert, and talking with people, I really struggle with that a lot,鈥� Blessed said. 鈥淚 got to know a lot of great friends this year. I鈥檝e got to get closer to more people. It鈥檚 made me more sociable.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Students 鈥榬ise to the occasion鈥� 

Blessed said she wants to be an artist and plans to incorporate photography in her personal art. She remembers a field trip to Cal State Northridge, where she learned about a photographer鈥檚 protest of immigration raids through his photos of L.A. communities, which inspired her to commit to art. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 really inspiring in a way because it shows that you鈥檙e not just alone in your community,鈥� Blessed said. 

Madelynne said she plans to continue studying robotics and will pursue a college degree in biomedical engineering. Because she had not committed to robotics until her senior year, she felt she was behind many students who had started coding in middle school. 

鈥淎t first, I didn鈥檛 believe in myself. I didn鈥檛 think I was smart enough to do something as complicated as engineering,鈥� Madelynne said, adding that the robotics program led her to Girls Build, a club where girls learn to code and build machines together. 

鈥淪preading the positivity around has helped me believe more in myself,鈥� she said. 

Sergio, the Banning High fire academy student, said he initially struggled with how physically demanding his training was, but that he learned to build speed and strength with each simulated fire alarm drill. 

鈥淚鈥檝e also learned that when it comes to rising to an occasion, I rise to that occasion. Whether it be someone鈥檚 in trouble, I help protect people,鈥�&苍产蝉辫; he said. 鈥淭his academy has brought out leadership in me, the discipline, the social skills that I wouldn鈥檛 have learned any other way.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Sergio said he also plans to become certified as a diesel mechanic, because the firefighting program has allowed him to combine two of his interests.  

鈥淚 love the whole firefighting part, but I鈥檝e also always loved working on cars. I figured if I鈥檓 going to be a mechanic, I might as well do it for a better cause,鈥� Sergio said. 鈥淲orking on fire engines, so when those firefighters go out and save those lives, I can say I helped with that.鈥�

This story was originally published on EdSource.

In February, the telehealth company , including clinicians who worked directly with students and families, leaving about 500 employees. 

The company lost one of its biggest customers, the Los Angeles County Office of Education, last year. It shortened its contract with the Chicago Public Schools because of “challenges securing funding,” a spokeswoman said. And several districts across the country have also either ended their business with Hazel or have contracts that expire later this year. 

they are 鈥渞estructuring鈥� the company to put it in a better position as it pursues more stable sources of funding, like billing Medicaid and private insurance, now that the federal relief funds some districts used have expired. Company spokeswoman Emilie Fetterley said no additional layoffs are expected 鈥渁t this time鈥� and that many states and districts plan to renew their contracts. 

But according to internal memos, by a news outlet covering mental health, CEO Iyah Romm said the company was losing 鈥渢oo much money鈥� to meet its goals. Since the expiration of the Los Angeles contract, the company has even, at times, absorbed the cost of services, Fetterley said. 

Some say the company faces a difficult road ahead.

There is a 鈥渕assive need鈥� to address student mental health and behavior issues, said Adam Newman, co-founder of Tyton Partners, a consulting firm focused on the education sector. Until the relief funds ran out, 鈥渢here were enough dollars in the system for schools and districts to find ways to underwrite these types of programs. But the risk has always been: What’s the durable funding model?鈥�

In Missouri, the Ferguson-Florissant district, outside St. Louis, ended its business with Hazel last year.

鈥淭hey were great to work with,鈥� said spokeswoman Onye Hollomon. Hazel served about 2,000 students in the district, which used COVID relief funds to pay for the program. 鈥淥nce that phased out, we had to make that cut.鈥�

Los Angeles spent more than $28 million in one year to make Hazel available to the county鈥檚 80 districts, according to GovSpend, a data company tracking payments to government agencies. It funded its deal with the company by tapping a $389 million . Between March 2022 and May 2024, 804 schools in the county referred 9,337 students for services, according to data Hazel provided to the county. Of those, 4,162 students received at least one visit, with students participating in an average of six visits. Fetterley said once a student is referred to Hazel, parents don鈥檛 always follow through with a visit or may seek help elsewhere.

In addition to taking a loss on services for some students since last year, Hazel has relied on billing insurance, including Medi-Cal, the state鈥檚 Medicaid program, and contracts with individual districts. Leaders are currently negotiating contracts with districts for next school year. 

Hazel is also one of eight providers approved for a new program that allows 700 districts throughout California to be reimbursed for services by Medi-Cal or private insurers. It participates in a similar in Iowa, and in Nevada, the Clark County School District uses Medicaid funds to pay for Hazel services, but that ends in June. A spokesperson said the board has not yet decided whether to renew it.

鈥楳ade their mark鈥�

Telehealth programs, delivered through schools, were expanding long before the pandemic. They offer families convenient access to a remote doctor or therapist while preventing students from missing school for appointments that often turn into full-day absences. Hazel Health, founded in 2015 by health care executive Josh Golomb, was part of that growth. 

鈥淭elehealth providers have made their mark in school-based health care,鈥� said Nirmita Panchal, a senior policy manager at KFF, a nonprofit focusing on health policy. 鈥淭hey eliminate transportation barriers, where students may not be able to physically get to a provider.鈥�

During the pandemic, when learning and work suddenly went virtual, telehealth programs for schools . of school-based health centers showed that during the 2020-21 school year, more than 80% of respondents offered telehealth services, up from 19% in 2016-17. 

The financial landscape has since changed. A lot of districts are now cutting budgets to close deficits. GovSpend, which doesn鈥檛 capture all district spending, shows a decline in payments to , a similar company, since 2023, while , another virtual mental health provider, saw a more stable influx of funds from 2024 to 2025. 

Among providers, however, Hazel Health stands out. The company, which serves 6,000 schools in 21 states, initially focused on primary health care, with physicians prescribing over-the-counter medications for routine symptoms like stomach pain or headaches. In 2021, the company broadened its model to provide mental health services and respond to 鈥渞ising unmet student needs and limited access to care,鈥� Fetterley said. 

In Florida鈥檚 Duval County schools, Brittany Beimourtusting reached out to Hazel last school year when she was going through a divorce. Her middle child, she said, was having trouble adjusting.

鈥淚t was a single-parent household all of a sudden, and I thought, 鈥楬ow am I supposed to get him to get help because I think he could use therapy,鈥� 鈥� she said. The provider, she said, met with him about five times and helped him open up about what he was feeling. 鈥淚t was definitely worth it.鈥�

But when Superintendent Christopher Bernier looked for ways to save the district some money last year, a $1.4 million payment to Hazel was on the list.

鈥楢 connected system鈥� 

Four years ago, the startup鈥檚 future looked bright.

It attracted over $50 million from investors, including Fiore Ventures, founded by Walton family heiress Carrie Walton Penner. As recently as last year, Hazel was still eyeing growth. It made two acquisitions, including , which offers family therapy, to further expand mental health services. 

鈥淭ogether, we are building a connected system that supports children from their classrooms to their kitchen tables,鈥� wrote Andrew Post, then 贬补锄别濒鈥檚 president, in October. But he has since resigned, writing this month that it was time to turn to the 鈥渘ext chapter鈥� in his career.

贬补锄别濒鈥檚 was supposed to run through the end of 2027. Now it will end on June 30. Still, district officials said the layoffs have had no impact on the services students receive. In a pilot program that began in March 2025, the district made mental health services available to 84 high schools. As of January, 420 students had taken advantage of the program, the district said.

In December, Destiny Singleton, the honorary student member of the Chicago Board of Education, told members that students don鈥檛 always feel comfortable talking to school counselors about personal issues because those staff members are often focused on academic performance and preparing for college. That鈥檚 why talking to an outsider can be helpful. But she added that students at the district鈥檚 larger high schools are often unaware that Hazel is even an option.

Some Chicago parents, however, are wary of Hazel and say families don鈥檛 always know what they鈥檝e agreed to when they consent to allowing their child to meet with a Hazel provider. In to Chicago district leaders last year, student privacy advocates said they were concerned about whether Hazel properly secures students鈥� private information. 

The company鈥檚 acquisition of Little Otter, , raises red flags because Rebecca Egger, its CEO, formerly worked for Palantir, a federal contractor known for using AI to assist the Department of Homeland Security in its . 

In a response to Chicago officials, Romm, the CEO, wrote that Hazel does not 鈥渟ell, share, or use student data for any commercial purpose,鈥� and that it 鈥渄oes not have any relationship with Palantir, commercial or strategic.鈥�

Fetterley, the company spokeswoman, also said Hazel is in the early stages of rolling out chatbots to 鈥渟implify administrative tasks like scheduling for parents and clinicians,鈥� but that AI will never be a 鈥渟ubstitute for our human providers.鈥�

Even so, some districts see a much higher demand for in-person rather than virtual clinicians. In Broward County, Florida, where Hazel provides medical services, but not mental health support, 179 students completed a telehealth visit between August and December last year, according to district data. Over that same time period, more than 134,000 students visited a school clinic.

鈥淧arents want nurses,鈥� Cynthia Dominique, chair of the District Advisory Council and a parent in the district, told the school board in March. As a nurse practitioner, she questioned how a provider working remotely can diagnose and treat most common symptoms, like congestion or a sore throat.

鈥淚 can’t ask the registrar from the front desk, 鈥楥an you look in the kid鈥檚 mouth and tell me what you see?鈥� 鈥� she told 社区黑料. 鈥淭hey don’t know what they’re looking for.鈥�

For district leaders, however, 贬补锄别濒鈥檚 ability to keep kids from missing school provided an effective selling point.

During a 2023 meeting, Duval County School Board Member Darryl Willie said the program had saved the district 4,000 鈥渃lassroom hours鈥� during the 2021-22 school year.

鈥淲e’re talking about making sure we’re focused on reading, writing and math,鈥� he said. 鈥淭he only way we can do that is if students are in school, in classrooms, sitting in seats.鈥�

Disclosure: Walton Family Foundation provides financial support to 社区黑料.

Embarking on a treasure hunt for the art and artifacts held by the Los Angeles Unified School District is no small feat. 

The nation鈥檚 second-largest school district is home to 389,000 students and roughly 100,000 pieces of art, including paintings, sculptures, maps and murals.

The art can be found in schools and district buildings across the district鈥檚 over 700-square-mile terrain. It is part of its Art & Artifact Collection, which began sometime in the 1850s and morphed into a multi-million-dollar collection today.

Sure, the collection holds school records 鈥� classroom materials, photos, yearbooks. But it also has ancient Mesopotamian cuneiform tablets dating back to 2100 BCE. Sculptures of 鈥淒on Quixote鈥� by Salvador Dal铆 from 1979. A 1931 鈥淏ugs Bunny & Friends鈥� by the animator Chuck Jones shows Bugs Bunny, Wile E. Coyote, Daffy Duck and The Road Runner reading a book entitled 鈥淗istory of the 9th St. School.鈥�

The collection predates the official formation of LAUSD in 1961. The city was served by the Los Angeles City School District and the Los Angeles City High School District, which later . Most of LAUSD鈥檚 notable pieces are donations from alumni, former administrators and members of the larger Los Angeles community. A 2008 appraisal estimated the value was more than $12 million, according to a 2022 district document obtained by EdSource.

鈥淟AUSD history is Los Angeles history,鈥� said Cintia Romero, the archive and museum鈥檚 curator and archivist. 鈥淲e have all the people here; we have all kinds of buildings; we have all kinds of architecture; we have all kinds of cultures.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

It is rare for school districts to hold on to such artifacts, says Brenda Gunn, the president-elect of the Society of American Archivists.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 very common at all,鈥� Gunn said. 鈥淚 think what typically happens is that the school districts don鈥檛 really invest in any sort of preservation. It鈥檚 not often that a school district has an archivist, and if they do have any preservation efforts, it鈥檚 usually by a nonprofessional.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Treasures at school sites 

School officials also collect items unearthed at school sites during renovations 鈥� such as old fire alarms 鈥� as well as yearbooks and photographs that document LAUSD history. Los Angeles Unified says it maintains 鈥減rofessional standards for archival care and are intended to ensure that important pieces of the district鈥檚 history are maintained for future generations.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

鈥淪chool district records are like a continuous public diary of shifts in neighborhoods, how the school district has approached its curriculum, how did it manage desegregation or any big social and cultural events,鈥� Gunn said. She added that some might also be interested in viewing them for something more personal, like understanding family genealogy. 

There鈥檚 little the LAUSD archive turns down. The main criteria is whether the art can serve in an educational capacity or as a teaching aide, Romero said. While LAUSD does sometimes loan pieces out to other institutions, it is 鈥渘ot in the business of buying or selling artwork.鈥� And sometimes, she said, selling wouldn鈥檛 be in the 鈥渟pirit of the donors,鈥� some of whom were the original artists. 

鈥淚t doesn鈥檛 necessarily have to be valuable to be accepted. It can be a teaching aid,鈥� Romero said. 鈥淪o, everything kind of has value, really. Everything can be somewhere.鈥�

And it is. 

The 鈥淴鈥� on LAUSD鈥檚 treasure map sits in a warehouse at the school police headquarters in rows of boxes that house a large portion of the collection. That includes the district鈥檚  collection donated by Venice High School鈥檚 historic Latin Museum, which operated from 1932 to 1997, and is now defunct.

In a small museum at the LAUSD headquarters on S. 鈥嬧�婤oundary Avenue, there is a display mimicking a late 19th-century classroom. 

In the 鈥渃lassroom鈥� are wooden phonics teaching tools with scrolling letters, antique maps and silver-colored vessels once used during home economics classes. 

The classroom has a list of 鈥淩ules for Teachers 1872鈥� that sits on the front desk: bring 鈥渁 bucket of water and a scuttle of coal for the day鈥檚 session,鈥� take 鈥渙ne evening each week for courting purposes, or two evenings a week if they attend church regularly.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Preservation at schools 

But it is among the modern-day classrooms with digital tablets and smart boards where the rest of the treasure lies:

Typically, in most school districts, items just end up sitting idly by for years, succumbing to what archivists call 鈥渂enign neglect,鈥� Gunn said.   

鈥淭here are all kinds of places that this archival material will end up,鈥� Gunn said. 鈥淎nd staff are like, 鈥極h, I don鈥檛 want to throw this away, but it can鈥檛 be in my office, so I鈥檓 going to store it somewhere,鈥� and then it stays there until the next person.鈥�

For Gunn, the hope is that school officials may take the extra step to preserve art, documents and history. Leaving something in a storage closet or in a box and walking away is not enough, she says.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e not hurting anything. You鈥檙e certainly not throwing things away, but you鈥檙e not helping this; you鈥檙e not improving the situation of the records,鈥� Gunn said. 鈥淏ut, what you hope is that someone down the road will see them, open that door and say, 鈥極h, these are valuable. And, if we can鈥檛 keep them here, then maybe there is another archive that will take them.鈥欌��

In the case of the LAUSD archive, there have been several thefts, including a painting at Dorsey High School. Romero said that while there aren鈥檛 many details of the painting, the president of the school鈥檚 alumni association has since found it, and traded $25,000 worth of posters and plans to leave it to LAUSD. 

Today, the district maintains that school security procedures, including key access, protect the pieces. 

Ensuring public access

While LAUSD students might enjoy little treasures displayed on their school walls and in hallway display cases, it鈥檚 more challenging for members of the public to view items in the collection. 

In the 1980s, a formal inventory of art was curated. And in 2004, the collection was digitized, Romero said.

So, since 2018, Romero and her small staff 鈥� made up of a volunteer and a small cohort of interns from Cal State Northridge and LAUSD鈥檚 Downtown Business Magnet school 鈥� continued to digitize items and add them to a public , which can be viewed for free. 

This process of digitizing the archive is largely made possible by donations and grants, though Romero鈥檚 position is funded through LAUSD鈥檚 general fund, according to the district. 

But curating the collection isn鈥檛 just about LAUSD鈥檚 or Los Angeles鈥檚 past. It鈥檚 also about the future. 

Romero and her team also keep tabs on ongoing renovation projects at school sites that could reveal new additions. 

鈥淲e have so many schools, and each school has something,鈥� Romero said. 鈥淓very school has some kind of history.鈥�

We鈥檝e worked in education long enough to know that idea is not only wrong, it鈥檚 dangerous. And if educators let it guide the future of schooling, we鈥檒l hurt the very children we say we鈥檙e trying to serve.

For more than two decades, we have led , an Indigenous, community-based public charter school in Northeast Los Angeles. We started this school because we believe education is not just a service 鈥� it鈥檚 a sacred responsibility that communities carry together. It is how communities sustain themselves, how culture is carried forward and how children learn to protect the world they will inherit. It was never meant to be a marketplace.

Yet the U.S. educational system increasingly treats it as one.

Schools are pressured to compete for students, buy pre-packaged curricula from multibillion-dollar publishing companies and outsource major decisions to consultants with a focus on standardization. Anyone who has sat through those meetings knows how quickly the conversation shifts from students to numbers. We鈥檝e seen teachers, parents and even children reduced to data points.

These aren鈥檛 random shifts. They are all part of a growing push to marketize education.

You can see this trend in national politics as well. Recently, President Trump highlighted a meant to set up trust funds for children to invest in the stock market. It was framed as an investment in their future. But it also sends a message: that children鈥檚 opportunities will depend not on the strength of their education or the support of their communities, but on their relationship to speculative financial markets.

At the same time, efforts to dismantle the U.S. Department of Education would place schools even more at the mercy of market forces. Yes, schools need funding. Yes, a functioning economy matters. But if schools teach children that their futures begin and end with the stock market, they are failing them. Their creativity, their relationships, their roots in community and their future鈥攖hose are the things that actually carry them through life.

We know this because we鈥檝e watched it happen at our school.

For 23 years, Anahuacalmecac has drawn from Indigenous knowledge systems, systems that kept communities alive on this land long before California was called California. Our students learn Nahuatl, English and Spanish. They plant gardens and learn where their water comes from. They study their own histories, including the parts of California鈥檚 story that don鈥檛 make it into mainstream textbooks. They participate in cultural protocols. They learn that they belong to a community and that their choices matter.

This isn鈥檛 nostalgia. It鈥檚 preparation for the world they鈥檙e inheriting.

In parts of Los Angeles, kids grow up breathing unhealthy air and drinking water that isn鈥檛 always safe. Their families struggle with rent. Parks and open land disappear to development. The effects of climate change show up in severe weather and devastating wildfires, in asthma rates and in the daily lives of students. These crises aren鈥檛 limited to L.A., or even California. This is the reality for many children across the country 鈥� and the globe.

Schools can鈥檛 pretend these conditions don鈥檛 exist. Our job is not simply to help young people navigate crises; it鈥檚 to give them the tools and imagination to change them.

That requires something beyond training students for the workforce. It means teaching resilience, curiosity, cultural memory and responsibility to the places they come from. It means helping them recognize that their value is not determined by an economy, but by their ability to strengthen their communities and repair what has been harmed.

This approach isn鈥檛 just Indigenous. Denmark鈥檚 education system 鈥� a model U.S. policymakers often praise 鈥� focuses on creativity, collaboration and student well-being. Danish children aren鈥檛 pushed into competition at every turn or told that their future hinges on financial speculation. They are taught to think, to create and to care for the world they live in. The U.S. could learn from that.

At our school, we鈥檝e seen firsthand that when students understand who they are and what they carry from previous generations, they don鈥檛 run from hard problems. They move toward them with confidence.

So we have to ask: What if our public education system centered on children鈥檚 well-being instead of the demands of the market? What if schools invested as much in belonging and culture as they do in standardized tests and outside consultants? What if they trusted communities 鈥� and children 鈥� to shape solutions that actually address the problems they face?

The crisis in public education isn鈥檛 because families or teachers failed. It鈥檚 because its roots in colonial missions to civilize our ancestors, factory models of training wage laborers and Native American聽boarding schools committed to destroying culture and language still embody the illusion of democracy through government schooling.

Educators can choose to transform this reality.

When we all create schools grounded in dignity, culture, connection and care, we prepare young people not just to face the future but to shape it. And if we want a healthy society 鈥� one capable of meeting climate, social and economic challenges 鈥� there is no better investment than that.

After a four-hour closed session on Thursday, the Los Angeles Unified School District board recessed without announcing a decision on whether Superintendent Alberto Carvalho may be placed on leave a day after the FBI raided his residence and the district鈥檚 downtown Los Angeles headquarters.

The session will continue on Friday at 12:30 p.m.

Carvalho鈥檚 employment was the single item addressed during the closed-door special board meeting. Only a few members of the community spoke during public comment, and the room remained largely empty and quiet.

Board members were not available for interviews, and Carvalho wasn鈥檛 seen.

鈥淭he District continues normal operations across all schools and offices. We are grateful to our dedicated employees, families, and students for their steady focus and commitment to our school communities,鈥� the district board wrote in a  released shortly after Thursday鈥檚 closed session ended.

The federal investigation involves financial matters related to Carvalho himself, rather than the district, the Los Angeles Times reported.

If the board decides to place Carvalho on leave, it remains unclear who the board might appoint as interim superintendent.

Several districts have picked associate superintendents to serve as interim after placing their superintendents on leave amid active investigations.

As of 8 p.m. Thursday, Carvalho has not made any public comment. Further information on Wednesday鈥檚 raids has not been released.

鈥淲e expect LAUSD to provide full transparency and clear communication to educators, school staff, and the public,鈥� United Teachers Los Angeles, the district teachers union, said in a statement to EdSource.

鈥淯TLA educators and our school communities have long raised concerns about LAUSD rapidly increasing spending on education tech and outside contractors, while investment in classrooms and educators has declined.鈥�

A critical time for the district

LAUSD鈥檚 leadership shakeup comes at a critical time, as the district navigates budget challenges, potential strikes and the impacts of federal actions.

鈥淲e feel that this moment really calls for clear, strong leadership,鈥� said Nicolle Fefferman, a longtime LAUSD educator and cofounder of the Facebook advocacy group Parents Supporting Teachers. 鈥淎nd we want our elected school board members to make certain that that is what they are prioritizing.鈥�

Fall out with AllHere

Media reports so far have connected Wednesday鈥檚 raids with the company AllHere Education, which LAUSD entered into a $6.2 million professional services contract on July 1, 2023. Miami-Dade County Public Schools, where Carvalho previously served as superintendent, had also  with the company in the fall of 2022.

Los Angeles Unified initiated the  of its chatbot Ed, which was developed by AllHere, in March 2024. It was  to serve as a 鈥減ersonal assistant鈥� for students 鈥� capable of reminding them about assignments and exams, and informing them about cafeteria menus and bus schedules.

But three months later, the company鈥檚 founder and CEO Joanna Smith-Griffin left the company. Most employees were furloughed, and Smith-Griffin was arrested in November 2024 and charged with securities fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft.

In July 2024, Carvalho announced a  to conduct a review of what went wrong with the rollout. But its progress and outcomes don鈥檛 appear to have been publicly disclosed.

The home searched by the FBI in Southwest Ranches, Florida, in Broward County, is reportedly the residence of Debra Kerr, who is listed as an AllHere contractor in records related to the company鈥檚 bankruptcy case and who has ties with Carvalho from his time as superintendent in Florida. Her son, Richard Kerr, is a former employee of the now-defunct AI company who told 社区黑料 in 2024 that he pitched LAUSD on AllHere.

Parents Supporting Teachers is calling for the district to place Carvalho on administrative leave.

鈥淚t鈥檚 always been this lingering worry and this example of a theme of the lack of transparency and accountability that we recognize in the district,鈥� Fefferman said.

A storied past

In January 2025, the same parent group called for Carvalho鈥檚 removal following a 鈥渃haotic and dangerous scramble for families and staff鈥� in the wake of the Palisades Fire.

Carvalho鈥檚 contract was  in October, maintaining a salary of $440,000.

After serving as superintendent of Miami-Dade County Public Schools for 14 years, Carvalho took over as LAUSD鈥檚 leader in 2022. His start at the district began as students returned to physical classrooms from virtual learning due to Covid-19. As a result of the pandemic, he has focused on reducing chronic absenteeism and curbing pandemic learning losses.

But despite LAUSD鈥檚  in standardized test scores and efforts to improve student attendance, his time as the district鈥檚 leader has been riddled with controversies 鈥� from alleged  of arts funding to a  of cyberattacks and data breaches.

More recently, he has also received praise and backlash for  the Trump administration鈥檚 immigration crackdown. And last month, the district was  for allegedly discriminating against white students, which the U.S. Department of Justice recently sought to join.

鈥淚t is our hope that the investigation resolves quickly so that the school district can focus on its core mission of educating our children. While we understand the importance of full cooperation with any investigation, we also cannot overlook or undermine the work that Superintendent Carvalho has led to support our students, educators, and the district as a whole,鈥� said Evelyn Aleman, the organizer of the parent group Our Voice/Nuestra Voz.

鈥淓ducation is the foundation that builds stability and lifts families out of poverty鈥� we must stay focused on that mission and our students鈥� success.鈥�

The FBI raided the office and home of Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho on Wednesday morning, a move that shocked the Los Angeles and state education communities.

U.S. Justice Department officials said judicially approved search warrants were executed at the district headquarters in downtown Los Angeles and Carvalho鈥檚 San Pedro residence, according to published reports. A residence in Southwest Ranches, Florida, was also searched.

Federal officials said nothing Wednesday about a possible investigation. Carvalho was the superintendent of the Miami-Dade County Public Schools in Florida for 14 years before taking the job in Los Angeles in 2022.

Carvalho has not made any public statements as of 6 p.m. Wednesday.

In a , Los Angeles Unified officials said, 鈥淲e have been informed of law enforcement activity at Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters and at the home of the Superintendent. The District is cooperating with the investigation and we do not have further information at this time.鈥�

A source familiar with the school district, who spoke to EdSource on the condition of anonymity, said the raids involved a failed artificial intelligence company, AllHere, that the district contracted with for聽a chatbot called Ed聽meant to aid students.

 have also reported that the raids and possible investigation centered on the district鈥檚 relationship with AllHere.

LAUSD entered into a $6.2 million professional services contract with AllHere to begin on July 1, 2023, for an initial two-year term. The contract had three one-year renewal options, according to district documents. District investigators began a probe a year later after learning the chatbot put students鈥� personal information at risk, 社区黑料 reported at the time.

The company has also contracted with Miami-Dade County Public Schools, but Carvalho has denied involvement in that contract, the Los Angeles Times reported.

LAUSD began its rollout of Ed, the chatbot, in March 2024, with initial implementation set to begin with  that the district had identified as being its lowest-performing. District board members, Gov. Gavin Newsom and Mayor Karen Bass were in attendance at the inauguration of Ed, along with partners from various universities and businesses.

Three months later, Joanna Smith-Griffin, AllHere鈥檚 founder and CEO, left the company, and most employees were furloughed. In Nov. 2024, Smith-Griffin was  in North Carolina and  in New York with securities fraud, wire fraud and aggravated identity theft. Her case remains open.

Carvalho was hailed as a rising leader ushering in a new era for Los Angeles Unified when he took over the district. He was reappointed last year and is paid more than $440,000 in salary, with his contract set to expire in 2030.

Carvalho 鈥渋s the leading urban superintendent in the nation,鈥� Dean Pedro A. Noguera of USC鈥檚 Rossier School of Education said on Wednesday. 鈥淗e is a proven leader. If Carvalho鈥檚 career is over, 鈥渢he timing for the district is terrible鈥� as it goes through layoffs and a fiscal crisis, Noguera said.

Los Angeles Unified and Carvalho have been repeatedly in the crosshairs of the federal administration during Trump鈥檚 second term.

The U.S. Department of Justice recently sought to join  filed by the 1776 Project Foundation, which sued the district in January, claiming discrimination against its white students.

 singles out LAUSD鈥檚 Predominantly Hispanic, Black, Asian, or other Non-Anglo program, which was established to curtail the effects of school segregation.

鈥淪tudents attending non-PHBAO schools are denied and directly blocked from these benefits because of the racial composition of their school attendance zone, which detrimentally impacts the quality of the educational experience and directly damages these students,鈥� the lawsuit alleges.

Carvalho has also maintained outspoken support of immigrant students and families, including those who are undocumented. He has  that he migrated from Portugal to the United States as an undocumented teenager. LAUSD passed a resolution in the 2016-17 school year declaring itself a sanctuary district, and the board reaffirmed that status in a resolution passed late 2024.

EdSource reporter Emma Gallegos and data journalist Daniel J. Willis contributed to this report.

The Los Angeles Unified School District is weighing layoffs that could reshape classrooms across the nation鈥檚 second-largest school district. 

The district鈥檚 board at next week鈥檚 meeting is expected to decide whether to cut jobs, as it faces a projected $191 million deficit in the 2027-28 school year if it keeps spending at its current pace. The deficits in LAUSD and other districts are driven largely by the loss of Covid relief funds, declining enrollment and rising costs.

Meanwhile, labor unions throughout the state are pushing many districts for pay raises and other changes, such as increased health care contributions in their next contracts.

鈥淲here you need to cut then is the classroom,鈥� he said. 鈥淏ecause you need fewer classrooms, you need fewer teachers, fewer aides, fewer of folks that are at the sites directly serving kids.鈥�

Los Angeles Unified is not alone among California鈥檚 school districts facing financial pressures. The  must close a deficit or face state receivership.  plans to implement job cuts to address its budget shortfall. 

鈥淟arge and small districts, urban, suburban and rural alike, are experiencing similar constraints,鈥� reads an open  from superintendents of eight California districts, demanding the state restructure the way it funds schools. 鈥淲hen nearly every school system in California is facing the same challenges, it is clear that the issue is not isolated decision-making, but the sustainability of the funding model itself.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

The superintendents who sent the letter, including LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho, cited ongoing challenges, such as enrollment declines.

LAUSD鈥檚 enrollment declined more than 3% to 389,000, down from roughly 402,500 between the 2024-25 and 2025-26 academic years. That outpaced both the state and country, according to a at January鈥檚 Committee of the Whole meeting. 

About 90% of LAUSD鈥檚 budget is spent on personnel. Fine said that with so much of the money being spent on staffing, it would be nearly impossible to balance the budget on the remaining funds. 

鈥淥ur priority will be to protect students, protect programs, protect schools, and, to the extent possible, protect workforce,鈥� Carvalho said at a Roundtable discussion with reporters in late January. 鈥淎nd within that priority, the protection of workforce begins with school sites. That is the balance that we want to establish, leading to the necessary fiscal solvency that we must continue to observe.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

If LAUSD moves forward with job cuts, laid-off employees would be notified by March 15, per state law.

Weighing in the potential cuts, LAUSD is expecting a $191 million deficit for the 2027-28 academic year, though several factors are at play, including the final governor鈥檚 budget. The district also said it plans to move forward with roughly $150 million in reductions to its central office. 

The current fiscal challenges come after two years of diminishing reserves to help replenish a multi-billion-dollar deficit. While the district teacher鈥檚 union has pointed to $5 billion in reserves as of July, LAUSD is expecting to burn through it in three years. 

鈥淭he danger in just trimming 5% here, 10% there is it leaves you sometimes with incomplete programs,鈥� Fine said. 鈥淚t may leave you with the inability to actually turn things into practice.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

The school board was originally expected to vote on the layoffs Tuesday, but postponed its regular meeting to Feb. 17 to allow for better preparation and engagement. The meeting鈥檚 comes after LAUSD unions issued a  asking that the vote be delayed and presented instead at a stand-alone meeting. 

Ongoing labor actions 

The discussion of layoffs comes as United Teachers Los Angeles, or UTLA, the union representing roughly 35,000 teachers,  a strike if a labor agreement isn鈥檛 reached. Meanwhile, SEIU Local 99, which represents roughly 30,000 workers, including special education assistants, cafeteria workers and custodians, is in the midst of a strike authorization vote. 

Before mediation began with UTLA in January, LAUSD said its bargaining proposals would cost $4 billion over a three-year contract, while SEIU Local 99鈥檚 would cost $3 billion through 2027-2028. 

LAUSD鈥檚 most recent  to SEIU Local 99 would increase wages by 13% over the next three years 鈥� starting with a 10% increase this year. Before mediation, the district offered UTLA a 4.5% raise and 1% bonus over two years. 

UTLA says that isn鈥檛 enough. With Los Angeles鈥� high cost of living, teachers are struggling financially, the union says. A showed that money is particularly important for Gen Z Black and Latino teachers in the district; a quarter of whom said they would leave their careers in education in search of a higher-paying job.

鈥淚鈥檓 a third-year teacher. I have a master鈥檚 degree from UCLA, which is the premier education school in the country, and I鈥檓 still living paycheck to paycheck. And I鈥檓 still unable to even think about one day owning a home,鈥� said Jon Paul Arciniega, a 29-year-old social studies teacher at Edward R. Roybal Learning Center in the Westlake area.  

鈥淚 still live at home,鈥� Arciniega said. 鈥淎nd if I want to think about things like getting my own place, starting a family, buying a home, right now, all of that seems untenable.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Uncertainty ahead 

Sandy Meredith, a psychiatric social worker covering 42 district schools, said she hopes a strike won鈥檛 be necessary, both because of the financial strain it would place on colleagues like Arciniega and because schools play a critical role in students鈥� daily safety. 

But at the same time, she said they鈥檙e struggling to support students 鈥� 20% of whom require mental health services 鈥� without the district providing the support and wages they see as critical to their success. She expressed frustration with the size of the district鈥檚 reserves, particularly when teachers and staff like her pay out of pocket to provide basic resources, such as toilet paper, for students. 

鈥淚 feel like I鈥檓 on an airplane,鈥� she said, 鈥渁nd I鈥檝e been told 鈥業鈥檓 sorry, but we can鈥檛 give you a mask to put on first. But go ahead and take care of the child.鈥� 鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Strikes are nothing new in Los Angeles Unified. UTLA last went on strike in 2019, leading to a historic  with 6% pay raises, smaller class sizes and investments in community schools. Four years later, in 2023, SEIU Local 99 went on strike, which resulted in a 30% wage increase. 

But teachers and staff say this year comes with much higher stakes. 

Members of UTLA鈥檚 leadership say educators and school staff play a bigger role beyond the school walls.  

鈥淲e鈥檙e dealing with families鈥� anxieties. Are they not being able to come to school because of their housing insecurity? Is there trauma with this addition of the ICE raids? There鈥檚 concerns about safety,鈥� said Margaret Wirth, a pupil services and attendance counselor who supports all of LAUSD鈥檚 Region South. 鈥淚s my child safe? For the child, is my parent safe? There鈥檚 a lot of different factors that make everything more heightened.鈥�

Pupil service and attendance counselors like Wirth help reduce chronic absenteeism. She said layoffs will mean her caseloads will increase. 

But at the same time, Fine said if a district is going to move forward with layoffs, the earlier, the better.  

鈥淭he earlier you cut, the better off you are, and you鈥檙e also not dangling this black cloud over your staff and the community,鈥� Fine said. 鈥淵ou get the discussion done, you forecast your gap right, and you make a decision on how to close that gap all at once, and everybody knows what the plan is.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

This was originally published on .

If San Francisco educators walk out, it will be the city’s first teacher strike in nearly 50 years. United Educators of San Francisco approved a walkout with the second of two nearly unanimous votes last week. Its bargaining team is to decide within 10 days whether it will strike. 

United Teachers of Los Angeles, which represents more than 35,000 educators in California鈥檚 largest school district, has been in negotiations since February 2025. Both parties clashed over pay raises and in December. A strike vote passed with a member approval on Monday. 

With 6,500 members, United Educators of San Francisco has been negotiating with the district since March. The union asked for a 14% pay increase for support staff and 9% for teachers over two years, along with improvements to health care coverage, special education teacher workloads and family housing. 

鈥淲e remain prepared to hear any real solutions the district may formally bring to the table that will stabilize our district for our students, educators and families,鈥� the union said in a Tuesday. 

The San Francisco Unified School District has a 2% yearly increase, totaling 6% over three years. It on Saturday that a $102 budget deficit makes it impossible to meet the union鈥檚 demands.

鈥淎ny raises above the current proposals from the district will force further cuts at school sites that will impact the district鈥檚 ability to serve all of its students long-term,鈥� the district .

The union that San Francisco Unified recently allocated $111 million to its rainy-day fund, 鈥渕oney members say needs to be directed back to classrooms and school sites.鈥�

In Los Angeles, the union is an 18% immediate pay raise with a 3% bump the second year of the contract. Los Angeles Unified two consecutive raises of 2.5% and 2% and a one-time payment of 1% of an employee鈥檚 salary. A strike deadline has not yet been set.

Cheryl Coney, the union鈥檚 executive director, wrote in a to the district that drastic raises are needed because more than 20% of members qualify for low-income housing and roughly one-third leave Los Angeles Unified by their fifth year on the job. 

The union the district can afford pay increases with a $5 billion reserve, but officials budget constraints recently worsened because of enrollment declines, the expiration of pandemic aid and increased operating costs. The district’s projects a $1.6 billion deficit by the 2027-28 school year.

鈥淲e recognize the real financial strain on educators and staff but must make difficult decisions to preserve classrooms, student services and long-term stability within finite resources,鈥� the district said in a Jan. 31 . 鈥淭his moment calls for collaboration between all parties to reach a sustainable resolution.鈥�

The Los Angeles and San Francisco superintendents joined representatives of five other school districts in a Monday that asked advocates, nonprofits and lawmakers to help campaign for more funding from the state. 

鈥淓ducators and staff deserve to feel valued and supported, and districts recognize and respect those realities,鈥� the letter says. 鈥淎t the same time, school systems cannot spend resources they do not receive, nor can local negotiations resolve statewide enrollment trends or the loss of temporary federal funding.鈥�

The strike votes in Los Angeles and San Francisco come amid a by the California Teachers Association, focusing negotiations in 32 districts statewide around : wages, staffing and student stability 鈥� meaning fewer layoffs and school closures. The also aims to pressure the state to improve school funding.

A from the statewide union found that 88% of educators identified insufficient school funding and low pay as serious issues for 2026.

Several California teachers unions already walked out of the classroom this school year or are close to striking. United Teachers of Richmond, located north of San Francisco, staged a in December. Five unions 鈥� Natomas, Twin Rivers, Rocklin, Woodland Joint and Washington 鈥� are at an impasse, along with Madera Unified Teachers Association in central California and Berkeley Federation of Teachers.

More than 90% of San Diego Education Association members recently a one-day unfair labor practice strike for Feb. 26. The union said it鈥檚 protesting as San Diego Unified鈥檚 repeated contract violations regarding special education staffing caseloads.

The schools have mostly reopened after prolonged closures, using temporary classrooms. But the fires, which killed dozens and left thousands homeless, have chopped enrollment by half at some of the affected schools.

鈥淔amilies went with schools that weren’t impacted by the fires,鈥� said Bonnie Brimecombe, principal of Odyssey Charter-South, which was destroyed in the Eaton blaze. 鈥淎nd then we have other people that are just nervous about coming back [because] it’s a lot to see and be a part of.鈥�

Odyssey South, located in the Altadena area of Los Angeles, reopened on three temporary campuses from January to June of last year including a Boys and Girls Club, an office in Old Town Pasadena, and classrooms at the nearby ArtCenter College of Design.

By fall, the main campus reopened in a school building that was formerly used by another charter, but many families chose other schools or left the area, with enrollment falling to 183 from 375. 

Despite the trauma, students were resilient, improving test scores and good classroom behavior, said Brimecombe.聽

鈥淚t’s just a complete surprise at how well the kids have gone through this process,鈥� she  said. 鈥淭he kids are happy, the kids are smiling, they are learning, they are fine. The kids are happy, happy to be back together.鈥�

Still, enrollment challenges persist, and the school has had to let go of a handful of teachers and teaching assistants. The school鈥檚 original building felt more like home, Brimecombe said, but kids who have stayed at the school are thriving.

Odyssey South has put new supports in place for students鈥� including an on-site counseling team that was expanded this year to increase access for students.

The school also brought in art therapists to run a series of sessions with different grade levels, and a counseling team that visits classrooms for structured sessions on topics that surface for specific age groups.

Teachers have also increased the number of field trips at the school to give students 鈥渉appy situations鈥� and positive experiences away from the fire-affected environment, Brimecombe said.

Odyssey South was able to maintain its previous levels of programming this year but may have to make cuts next year if current funding levels don鈥檛 persist, Brimecombe said.

That鈥檚 largely a matter of enrollment, since Odyssey South, like other public schools in LA., receives its funding on a per-pupil basis. With half of the school鈥檚 students gone, the future is uncertain.

Still, the principal is hopeful.

鈥淔amilies are coming back,鈥� Brimecombe said. 鈥淭hey’re just not back yet.鈥滶nrollment problems also persist in the Palisades, where three schools were burned, said LAUSD school board member Nick Melvoin, who represents the area.

Palisades Charter High is holding up the best, with about 2,500 students, down from about 2,900 pre-fire. Marquez Elementary has about 130 students, a little less than half of pre-fire enrollment. Palisades Elementary has about 300 students, down by about 100 from pre-fire levels.

Students returned to Marquez Elementary into portable, temporary buildings in the fall. Palisades High students are returning to their school building on Jan. 27, and Palisades Elementary students continue to attend school at their co-location site at Brentwood Science Magnet.

New, rebuilt facilities for all three schools should be completed by fall 2028, 鈥渂ut all three schools are kind of a slightly different journey from now until then,鈥� said Melvoin.

鈥淭he families that have been displaced, that are in other parts of L.A. and the country, are either coming back eventually or not,鈥� he said of enrollment drops. 鈥淪ome families who were not satisfied with the co-located option or didn’t want to be back in the Palisades just yet because of environmental concerns, are still in other schools.鈥�

The district is giving flexibility in where families choose to enroll, said Melvoin, who expects enrollment in the displaced schools to improve.

鈥淲e’re going to have some new enrollment for the coming months, as people realize like, 鈥極h, I’m moving back to my house,鈥� or 鈥榤y insurance money ran out, and so now I’m back in the Palisades,鈥� and there’s only a few schools that are open,鈥� said Melvoin.

Besides environmental concerns, Melvoin said, families that are staying away due to a lack of infrastructure in the fire-scorched area, and because of trauma.

鈥淭he burn scar is still there,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou’re still driving past a number of destroyed buildings and houses. There are just some families who aren’t ready to put their kids back there yet.鈥�

Many families are hopeful because schools are returning, construction is visible, and some businesses are coming back, said Allison Holdorff Polhill, a district director who works in Melvoin鈥檚 office and longtime Palisades resident who lost her home in the fires.

Virtually all residents were under鈥慽nsured, and there is still a strong need for federal money, grants and loans to cover rebuilding gaps, said Holdorff Polhill, and people are frustrated by slow government planning and being scattered in rentals or forced into assisted living.

鈥淓very single friend’s home burned to the ground,鈥� said Holdorff Polhill. 鈥淧eople are still traumatized by what happened.鈥�

LAUSD has set aside $604 million for the full rebuilding of the impacted areas in the Palisades, including the three burned schools, LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said.

The money will provide for the full rebuilding of Marquez Elementary, which was destroyed, plus new buildings and improvements to existing ones at Palisades Elementary, where about 60% of the campus was burned.

At Palisades High, about 30% of classrooms were destroyed and the remainder are being rebuilt. 

The school is famous for being a popular filming location for Hollywood movies such as Carrie, Freaky Friday, and Teen Wolf, and for notable alumni including J.J. Abrams and will.i.am.

Pali High students have been attending classes in a former Sears department store building while construction is underway to repair fire damage. 

The school鈥檚 campus is scheduled for reopening when work is completed later this month. 

Carvalho said the district is still working to recover about $500 million of the expected construction costs from insurance companies.

鈥淭he rest we will seek FEMA reimbursements, which we believe we are absolutely legally entitled to,鈥� Carvalho said. 鈥淲e hope that the federal government will not play games, political games as we seek these reimbursements.鈥�

In addition to these investments, the district will spend in excess of a billion dollars, all funded through Measure US, a $9 billion bond referendum approved by voters in 2024, to build higher levels of fire resilience at schools across the district.

鈥淭hat means anything from replacement of filtration systems, the acquisition of air purifiers, new filtration systems for schools, HVAC systems, and replacement of roofing structures and windows with materials that withstand fires,鈥� Carvalho said.  

LAUSD has installed more than 230 air quality sensors on school buildings, covering every campus in the district, Carvalho said.

The sensors detect nauseous fumes, particulate matter in the air, and also measure temperature and wind speed, enabling school officials to make emergency decisions in case of fires, he said.

鈥淧revention is the best solution for fires,鈥� said Carvalho. 

Avery Colvert was an eighth-grader when the Eaton Fire tore through Altadena, California, a year ago this month, reddening the sky and destroying nearly 10,000 structures. It was the second natural disaster she鈥檇 survived; she was just 14 years old. Her family had lost their home in Nashville, Tennessee, to a flash flood in 2021, before they moved west. 

This time, the catastrophe spared her house, but consumed her school. Familiar with the psychological toll such devastation can take, Avery posted an , which burned for over three weeks. She asked for items to help her 鈥渇riends feel confident and like themselves again!鈥� 鈥� 鈥渃lothes, personal items, beauty and hair care 鈥� stuff WE need.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

The plea, posted just three days after the fire broke out on January 7, 2025, quickly went viral. It has since garnered over 28,000 likes; earned support from celebrities such as Paris Hilton, Charli XCX and Meghan, Duchess of Sussex; and led to the creation of the nonprofit, an organization that, Avery said, gives girls permission to ask for what they need without apology. 

鈥淚 always hear teenage girls say, 鈥極h, I’m sorry,鈥� like they feel they need to apologize for asking for too much,鈥� Avery, 15, now a ninth grader, said. 鈥淎t the beginning [of recovery], there was a lot of stigma around asking for help. Girls, after they lost their homes, they felt like it was embarrassing.鈥�

But they don鈥檛 need to apologize or feel embarrassed 鈥� for asking for help or stating their preferences, Avery said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 OK to say, 鈥業 like this sweater instead of that one.鈥� Girls are allowed to have opinions.鈥�

Avery founded Altadena Girls with her mother, Lauren Sandidge. Sandidge said that no one seemed to be focusing on the teen girl experience in the wake of the wildfire, which occurred in tandem with the massive Palisades Fire 30 miles away in Los Angeles. Through a pop-up boutique, Altadena Girls has supplied clothing, shoes, beauty products and hair care to more than 5,000 girls and their families. The organization has distributed more than a million items in total. Last year, it hosted a prom for over 300 girls, and it also provided back-to-school supplies and social-emotional support for 500 more. 

In October, Altadena Girls celebrated a major milestone: It opened an 11,000-square-foot community center offering free programming in nearby Old Town Pasadena. 

What began as a social media request for donations turned into a movement that revealed how inclusive disaster recovery can be when girls are centered rather than marginalized.

Avery didn鈥檛 write her viral post with an endgame in mind. 

鈥淚 don鈥檛 even know what I was thinking,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 was going through so many emotions at the time that my body just kind of went into fight-or-flight mode. It was like, 鈥業鈥檓 just going to do this, and this needs to be done right now.鈥欌��

Twenty-four hours after her post appeared on Instagram, donations began pouring in, as well as offers for help from stylists, makeup artists and fashion designers. Many of these professionals didn鈥檛 just give away products. They also volunteered their time and labor to the fire-impacted girls. 

Sandidge recalled kneeling over, sorting through boxes of donations. 鈥淓very time I looked up, there was someone with more donations,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd then they would stay. They could tell I was overwhelmed, and they would just stay.鈥�

Woven through Altadena Girls is this sense of community. The organization is more than just about distributing goods to teen girls in need. It鈥檚 about creating a space where they feel supported. Sandidge said her own family 鈥� she also has a son 鈥� felt stabilized by this as the wildfire left them uncertain.

鈥淚t got us through those moments where we didn鈥檛 know what was going to happen,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he fires were still burning. Everyone felt that way.鈥�

Through its permanent brick-and-mortar space, which opened on October 11, 2025 鈥� International Day of the Girl 鈥� the hope is that Altadena Girls can continue bringing the community together. 

鈥淚t was really cool, really exciting,鈥� Avery said. 鈥淚 still can鈥檛 believe we did it.鈥�

The center includes music and podcast studios sponsored by Fender; quiet rooms for studying, journaling or one-on-one conversations; a free boutique offering hygiene products, clothing and school supplies; and a gathering area for community events.

The most popular space is the Sliving Lounge, a glittery pink room of nearly 1,000 square feet filled with collaging stations, Polaroid cameras, karaoke, movies, books and vision boards. The name of the space, sponsored by Paris Hilton and her nonprofit, 11:11 Media, is a portmanteau of the words 鈥渟lay鈥� and 鈥渓iving.鈥�&苍产蝉辫; 

鈥淚t鈥檚 definitely our most popular thing,鈥� Avery said. 鈥淓veryone ends up there.鈥�

Avery wanted it 鈥渢o feel like a girly explosion,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd they delivered.鈥�

Journey Christine, a 12-year-old actress who lives a block away from the Altadena Girls community center, said she visits most weekends. She called the center 鈥渁 blessing鈥� to Altadena and Pasadena, parts of which the fire also ravaged. 鈥淚t鈥檚 like my new home away from home,鈥� she said. 

Altadena Girls鈥� dance workshops 鈥� run in partnership with Dance and Dialogue, a non-profit organization that provides intergenerational, multicultural programming 鈥� are especially meaningful to Avery. A dancer herself, she has watched girls return to dance night after night.

鈥淚鈥檝e seen them grow. They got really good,鈥� she said. 鈥淒ancing is so healing for me, and I鈥檓 glad other people get to discover that.鈥�

Youth are not required to participate in any activity to spend time at the community center. 鈥淵ou can come in and learn guitar,鈥� Sandidge said, but the priority is that their basic needs are met 鈥�  they鈥檙e fed, they鈥檙e safe, they鈥檙e relaxed. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 when people can make good decisions.鈥�

After the fire, Journey has grappled with having classmates, steady presences in her life, move to different neighborhoods and communities. At Altadena Girls, she has been able to catch up with peers who relocated. 

鈥淭here are still people who haven鈥檛 moved back yet,鈥� Sandidge said. 鈥淭here are emotional needs that don鈥檛 go away just because the headlines do.鈥�

Avery believes the fire didn鈥檛 just create new needs. It exposed existing ones, such as a lack of 鈥渁 third space鈥� for teen girls to meet during the digital age, with phones and social media replacing physical gathering spaces. 鈥淔or some teenagers, the internet is their third space,鈥� she said. 鈥淏ut I think it鈥檚 important that we have a physical space that鈥檚 accessible to everyone.鈥�

That Avery鈥檚 advocacy led to the center鈥檚 creation has felt empowering for Journey. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really inspiring,鈥� the seventh grader said. 鈥淚t shows other kids that just because you鈥檙e young doesn鈥檛 mean you can鈥檛 make a difference.鈥�

Avery鈥檚 belief that dignity is a core component of recovery has led to national recognition. She became the youngest winner of the , and Senate District 25 named Altadena Girls . At the 10th Hollywood Beauty Awards, which recognizes the artistry that influences beauty in film, television and on red carpets, she received . 

Avery鈥檚 request for beauty and hair care resonated on a profound level.

鈥淪he wanted to give something that wasn鈥檛 just socks and T-shirts,鈥� said Pamela Price, the awards鈥� senior executive producer. 鈥淪he wanted to give girls something that brought a little happiness during an uncertain time. People might think it鈥檚 superficial, but it鈥檚 not. Hair, makeup, skincare 鈥� those things affect how you feel. Avery was thinking about mental health.鈥�

Journey said simple cosmetic items can make a world of difference for young girls. 鈥淧eople might think losing your favorite lipgloss, eye liner, pair of jeans or hoodie is petty, but it鈥檚 not because those things help boost confidence,鈥� she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 how we represent ourselves. It鈥檚 our sense of style. Avery and Altadena Girls get it.鈥�

Avery still remembers the discomfort she felt when she received gift cards in front of her classmates after the Tennessee flood that destroyed her home. 鈥淚 felt embarrassed. Guilty.鈥� That memory inspired her to prioritize the dignity of teen and tween girls in the wake of the Eaton Fire. 

A year later, her nonprofit isn鈥檛 attracting the same level of national attention it did immediately after the disaster. Sandidge said that she understands the waning focus, having lived through a similar dynamic after the Nashville flood. 鈥淚t鈥檚 naturally what happens,鈥� she said. 鈥淓veryone comes around. There are headlines. People want to help. And then the intensity dies down.鈥�

But the long-term needs of disaster survivors related to mental health, stability and belonging don鈥檛 simply vanish, she said, a notion that research bears out. A in the International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health found that direct exposure to wildfires significantly raised the risk of PTSD and depression six months afterward.

As Altadena Girls enters its second year, maintaining its momentum and making it more accessible are top of mind. The center is currently open three evenings a week, with plans to expand to full-time hours. 鈥淲e want to keep it free,鈥� Sandidge said. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 not free to run.鈥�

The organization is also forming a teen advisory board, a critical step, according to Avery. 鈥淚t has to be for girls, by girls,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e need their feedback.鈥�

In time, Sandidge hopes the space allows girls to plan their futures without the shadow of the wildfire and the trauma that accompanied it. 鈥淚 want them to make decisions based on who they are,鈥� she said. 鈥淣ot what they lost.鈥�

was originally reported by Nadra Nittle of . .

As more people鈥檚 lives are upended each year due to climate disasters communities 鈥� and our political leaders at the local, state and federal levels 鈥� must do more to ensure the needs of children and families are met during these emergencies.

During wildfires and other disasters, we continually see the familiar pattern of school closures, child care disruption, families moving into temporary housing and routines essential to children鈥檚 sense of safety abruptly severed. Communities and political leaders at every level must confront a hard truth: Our emergency systems were not designed with children in mind. 

During wildfires, schools and child care systems are among the first institutions to fail. Children are displaced from classrooms, separated from trusted adults and thrust into shelters or hotel rooms never designed to support their physical, emotional or developmental needs. Studies show that stress brought on by exposure to natural disasters can have an outsized impact on children and lead to lifelong trauma. This trauma can lead to socio-emotional impairments; health-risk behaviors, such as alcohol and drug abuse; and even early death, according to the published in 2011 by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and Kaiser Permanente. 

This past year has made it clear that local jurisdictions can no longer rely on federal disaster systems to carry the full burden of recovery. As the future of entities such as the Federal Emergency Management Agency becomes more uncertain, states, cities and counties must assume greater responsibility for protecting their most vulnerable citizens. 

This starts with treating schools as critical infrastructure. While schools became formally recognized as part of critical infrastructure 鈥� specifically within the Education Facilities subsector in 2003 under Homeland Security Presidential Directive-7 (HSPD-7) 鈥� they are not allocated commensurate resources and protections for security as other designated critical infrastructure. 

The Covid-19 pandemic underscored the central role that schools play in economic stability, as widespread closures rapidly disrupted labor markets and productivity. Treating schools as critical infrastructure would align education with other essential public systems that underpin public health, safety and economic performance; as such, it merits long-term investment.

Second, schools need contingency plans that ensure continuity of in-person education when normal operations are disrupted. After the LA wildfires, many schools scrambled to set up alternate sites or transitioned to online learning. Students are still making up from the pandemic, and it is unclear whether those losses can be stemmed. Online learning should be used only when all other options have been exhausted, given the devastating impacts on student learning. The planning needs to begin now, not after disaster strikes.  

Third, practice is key to success. Emergency plans often fail children not because they are poorly written but because they are never written with children in mind. Children experience disasters differently than adults, and procedures designed without them can inadvertently heighten fear and trauma. Age-appropriate drills, school-based tabletop exercises and responder training in developmentally appropriate communication can dramatically improve outcomes. 

Local governments can formally integrate school districts, child care providers and pediatric health systems into emergency planning rather than treating them as afterthoughts once a crisis unfolds. Practicing with children builds familiarity, reduces panic and accelerates recovery 鈥� not just for young people, but for entire communities.

Finally, funding structures must reflect the realities families face after disasters. While billions are allocated for fire suppression and mitigation, far fewer resources are earmarked for sustaining schools, child care and pediatric mental health in the months and years that follow. Local and state governments should establish dedicated funding streams for child- and family-centered recovery 鈥� supporting school continuity, mental health care and family stabilization 鈥� since these investments can reduce long-term social and economic costs.

Implementing a family-centric disaster response model isn鈥檛 just a moral imperative. Adverse childhood experiences lead to an economic burden of  of dollars annually in the U.S, much of it absorbed by taxpayers through Medicaid and Medicare spending, special education, disability programs and lost lifetime tax revenue. When disaster responses destabilize children, short-term emergencies are converted into long-term public liabilities, driving government inefficiency and reactive spending. These failures also spill into insurance markets, increasing claims, and deepening reliance on federal backstops that distort risk pools and shift costs to the public.

In an era of escalating disasters and constrained budgets, policies that protect family stability during crises are not social add-ons but high-return investments: reducing future taxpayer exposure, stabilizing insurance systems and limiting the need for costly federal intervention after the fact.

The one-year mark of the Los Angeles wildfires should not serve as a memorial to what was lost, but as a reckoning with what must change. Disasters will continue to test our systems, but allowing children to bear the brunt of those failures is a policy choice, not an inevitability. Protecting children during emergencies necessitates radical change. If we fail to act, we are not merely accepting risk: We are knowingly passing preventable harm and long-term costs onto the next generation.

A year ago, Tanya Reyes watched in disbelief as the Eaton fire incinerated her Altadena home. As her three daughters listed everything they had lost in the days that followed, Reyes kept reminding them that what mattered most was that they still had each other. 

A year later, Reyes is struggling. The steadiness she once summoned for her children has been worn down by chronic back pain, brought on by the strain of moving every few months, and the emotional toll of rebuilding her family鈥檚 life while working her teaching job, supporting pregnant and parenting teens. 

Reyes is a teacher at McAlister High School in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and is among thousands of Los Angeles-area residents who watched their way of life destroyed as fires tore through neighborhoods and schools. Today, life is about finding equilibrium in a new normal, with many still putting the pieces of their old lives back together.

鈥淚鈥檓 very much a go-getter and a doer,鈥� she said. 鈥淎nd my body is saying, 鈥楴o, you can鈥檛.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

The 2025 fires cut a wide swath of destruction that the region is still grappling with. Thirty-one people died. Over 100,000 people were displaced.

School communities were hit particularly hard. More than 16,000 structures were destroyed, including eight school campuses in the Pasadena Unified School District and Los Angeles Unified. 

Evacuations put both districts on hold, temporarily halting instruction for roughly .

In the year since the fires, both districts have been on the road to recovery, making progress on plans to rebuild and renew their communities. They have also provided support to students during the year of upheaval.

鈥淥ver the past year, the school communities devastated by the January 2025 wildfires have demonstrated extraordinary resilience and strength,鈥� Los Angeles County Superintendent of Schools Debra Duardo told EdSource. 鈥淲hile the Eaton and Palisades fires tragically claimed lives, destroyed homes, and disrupted the sense of security and daily routine that students depend on, we have come together to rebuild, support each other and heal.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Reconstruction

Throughout the region, school sites are reminders of the fires鈥� destructive path. Tons of fire debris have been removed, and rebuilding efforts have started taking shape. In many respects, the two school districts have rebounded, but in different ways.

Los Angeles Unified has made headway in rebuilding Marquez Charter Elementary, Palisades Charter Elementary and Palisades Charter High School. 

Rebuilding the schools in LAUSD is estimated to cost up to $600 million. But the school district is able to count on rebuilding funds from a 2024  passed by voters. 

At Marquez Charter Elementary, enrollment is down to 130 students from 310 before the fires 鈥� some are attending other schools in the area or have left the region entirely. But in late September, those who remained were able to  to their original campus in portable classrooms. Their permanent campus is expected to be built by 2028, for $207 million.

Just over a mile away, nearly 3,000 Palisades Charter High School students will  to campus this month in portable classrooms after spending the past year attending classes in a renovated . Their new campus is expected to cost $267 million to rebuild and is slated to open by the end of 2029.

It鈥檚 a different story 35 miles away in the school communities of Pasadena Unified, where long-standing financial challenges compound fire recovery. District officials also look to a $900 million bond measure passed in 2024 to help restore its five campuses lost to the fire. But money is still tight. The district has struggled financially for years and has been  to avoid a county takeover. 

As the district recovers from the fire, its financial struggles have made recovery difficult. In November, the district  $24.5 million from next year鈥檚 budget as part of a larger $30.5 million reduction. Roughly $17.2 million of those cuts were in staffing, from teachers to gardeners and librarians 鈥� some of whom had been directly impacted by the fires. About 40 teachers were ultimately laid off. 

Compounded losses 

While both districts were able to relocate campuses 鈥� and keep students together in the same classes with the same teacher 鈥� within weeks of the fires, some students 鈥� particularly foster and homeless youth 鈥� struggled. 

In the Altadena area, about 225 children and youth in foster care were living in the region impacted by the Eaton fire, the majority of them school age. Some live in congregate care settings, such as group homes, while others stay with relatives.

Within three months of the fire, 36 students had relocated outside the area, moving an average of 16 miles away, according to an , a research center focusing on youth in the child welfare system.

As recovery continues, Taylor Dudley, the center鈥檚 executive director, noted that while some school-based services, such as support for students with disabilities, were initially delayed as schools took account of the losses, they were eventually provided more consistently as schools stabilized. But, she is concerned that students may begin to see other services 鈥渄rop off鈥� with time.

For example, if a student鈥檚 home is now safe to return to, the child might be reenrolled at the school they attended before the fire. Dudley noted that a transition of this nature raises many questions for a foster student, who may not have a constant advocate by their side: Who will ensure all their credits will transfer from their previous school? Will their transportation plan be upheld? Will their individualized education plan (IEP) transfer in full, with all services continuing? 

Meanwhile, the healing process has continued for students in the area who were homeless before the fires or who lost their homes. Nearly 300 homeless students in Pasadena Unified were enrolled by the first Wednesday in October, known as Census Day, during the 2024-25 school year, according to an EdSource analysis of the state鈥檚 most recently available data. About 10,800 were enrolled in the Los Angeles Unified School District. 

The state initially made it easier for families to enroll their children in new schools by removing the typically required documentation. Jennifer Kottke, the homeless liaison for the Los Angeles County Office of Education, spent months after the fires consulting with schools, working around processes to verify residency and determine which district a student belonged to. Students experiencing homelessness have the right to immediate enrollment at any moment at any school, she said. 

Some families who were suddenly homeless after the fires 鈥渨ere having a hard time because they鈥檝e never seen themselves as being the ones in need,鈥� Kottke said. 鈥淭hey鈥檙e the ones who provided for those who were in need.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

These families had previously been 鈥渢he givers,鈥� as Kottke noted. Some initially declined resources, from basic hygiene products to computers to food, because they believed other families might need them more, she said.

Meanwhile, as the year unfolded, some students in fire zones faced another crisis: immigration raids in the late spring. Both situations, one immediately after the other, targeted students鈥� sense of safety, said Lisa Fortuna, who chairs the Department of Psychiatry and Neurosciences at the University of California, Riverside.

鈥淭here鈥檚 so much threat to self and to one鈥檚 close loved ones, the people you鈥檙e dependent on, the places and things you depend on as your home, as your resources in the community,鈥� said Fortuna. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a cumulative loss.鈥�

Adjusting to the new normal

Despite a quick surge in counseling and psychological support for students, the emotional fallout from the fires is ongoing. The occasional fire drill or nearby house fire can reignite feelings of fear and loss for students, said Gabriela Gualano, a teacher librarian at LAUSD鈥檚 Paul Revere Charter Middle School.

鈥淲e had to definitely front-load to the kids: 鈥楬ey, this is what鈥檚 happening. It鈥檚 just a drill. We know you鈥檝e done this before. The district just wants to make sure that we鈥檙e able to do this in a timely manner, so we鈥檙e going to get through it,鈥欌�� Gualano said. Some students have developed a dark humor around the fires, she said, while others avoid the topic altogether. 

How schools in the region will mark the Jan. 7 anniversary of the fires varies.

At Pasadena Unified schools, a moment of silence will usher in the anniversary. 

Some schools in the L.A. Unified area do not have elaborate plans to commemorate Jan. 7.

Some Los Angeles campuses might opt to plant a tree or take students on a walk, but only activities that heal, said Julianne Reynoso, Pasadena Unified鈥檚 assistant superintendent of Student Wellness and Support Services.

Meanwhile, Wendy Connor, a retired first grade teacher at Marquez Charter Elementary, said the school doesn鈥檛 plan to do anything on the anniversary. Maintaining a sense of normalcy is still the priority, she said. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 been a collaborative, iterative process,鈥� said LAUSD school board member Nick Melvoin, who represents schools in the Palisades. 鈥淚 think we鈥檝e done a lot of right by our students, which is most important, but always, always more to do.鈥�

The district is making 鈥渟ure we keep our eye on the ball when it comes to the permanent rebuild,鈥� he said.  

Meanwhile, teachers say they鈥檝e had to grapple with decades of losses that can鈥檛 be replaced. Connor tries to remember what her room looked like, the place where she taught for 38 years when she and her students fled: 鈥淪omebody鈥檚 backpack is open on their desk; all the chairs are out or pushed around instead of just sitting all straight normal. It鈥檚 all wacky.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

The grieving continues for teachers, she said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not things that you can turn to the district and say, 鈥榃ill you buy me this?鈥欌�� she said. 鈥淵ou (used to) have samples of every art project all put together in a binder up on the shelf 鈥� and now you don鈥檛 have any of it.鈥�

For teacher Tanya Reyes and her family, the past year鈥檚 struggles have made her reflect on how the community can best move forward after the devastation. Reyes stressed the importance of remembering 鈥渨ho the roots of Altadena were.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

She, her husband, and three children have moved three times 鈥� from one family or friend鈥檚 home to the next, and finally into a new rental home roughly 6 miles from Altadena in Sierra Madre. 

Reyes鈥� family is slowly coming to terms with what they lost this past year when their home burned, including a daughter鈥檚 stuffed tigress. Over the past year, the family鈥檚 pet bearded dragon died. But life moves on, and their new space is morphing into a semblance of home.

As the year progressed, Reyes learned that the recovery process means taking it slower.

鈥淚 feel humbled as someone who is a doer and a mover and a goer to really have to sit back and be still,鈥� Reyes said. 鈥淭here is a mourning or a grief in my body that I don鈥檛 even have awareness of, but it鈥檚 showing up.鈥�

This  was originally published by EdSource.  for their daily newsletter.

The district recently reignited its dormant nonprofit, the , hiring a new executive director to court dollars from corporations and foundations. The effort has brought in some $26 million so far, including from well-known players in L.A. entertainment and business, on its way to a $100 million goal for the foundation鈥檚 first five years. 

A renewed focus on raising private money for school districts across the country comes as student needs are growing and leaders worry about shifting federal policy, education philanthropy officials said. 

鈥淲hat’s occurring right now is that those that don鈥檛 have them are forming foundations, or reforming them if they鈥檝e gone dormant,鈥� said Mike Taylor, head of the National Association of Education Foundations, who said he鈥檚 been fielding calls since the summer from school districts looking to navigate the uncertainty around federal funding and leverage community resources.

In Los Angeles, the initial fundraising push has helped families impacted by last year鈥檚 wildfires and supported the district鈥檚 neediest schools.

鈥淚 want to level the playing field,鈥� said Sadie Stockdale Jefferson, who came in to lead the LAUSD foundation this summer after serving in a similar role for Chicago Public Schools and running a University of Chicago think tank focused on public education. 鈥淲e鈥檙e taking the best of what we know works to improve education and ensuring those initiatives reach the schools and classrooms that need them the most.鈥�

A major initial focus of the foundation will be on what LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho calls 鈥減riority schools,鈥� with lagging academic performance and the highest student needs in a district that educates everyone from the wealthy elite to families experiencing homelessness or poverty.

Jefferson recently saw a breakdown of private support to district schools by region and said she realized: 鈥淭he disparity is shocking,鈥� adding she wants foundation money to primarily support campuses without their own parent-run fundraising efforts. 

The philanthropic money is still a drop in the bucket in the district’s more than . But it represents a potential new revenue stream at a time when LAUSD continues to shed students and run a deficit. 

Carvalho is looking to the foundation to support students in ways the district can鈥檛, like sending homeless students off to college with a new laptop, or providing emergency cash to families impacted by the wildfires. 鈥淪ometimes the need is acute,鈥� Carvalho said, with foundation money typically being deployed quickly and with less bureaucracy. 

Many of the needs Carvalho ticked off as foundation priorities are those students face outside the classroom. But he said he鈥檚 also open to private money supporting the district academically, particularly in the priority schools. District support for priority schools involves teacher coaching, strengthening curriculum and providing tutoring. 

鈥�Government dollars will only go so far, and there are unmet needs that often foundations can address and support,鈥� Carvalho said.  

The foundation has also taken on music education, riding off the popularity of 鈥淭he Last Repair Shop,鈥� an Oscar-winning short film about the highly skilled team that keeps scores of district-owned instruments working for LAUSD students. Jefferson said she鈥檚 hoping to replicate a sponsor-a-school program she ran in Chicago, offering businesses a way to directly help local schools. 

Using private money for public education can be controversial, particularly when funders are seen as exerting too much pressure or pushing for school reforms like charter schools.

Carvalho and others involved in Los Angeles鈥檚 fundraising say they鈥檙e aiming to avoid that tension as they address critical needs in the district of 400,000 students. 

Of the nation鈥檚 13,000 school districts, around 6,000 have foundations, the majority volunteer-run, Taylor said. The focus of district foundations has evolved, he said, from being thought of as a vehicle to buy extra books or classroom materials. The needs and challenges have deepened since the pandemic. Philanthropic money now goes toward building partnerships for workforce development, supporting teacher retention and addressing student mental-health challenges, Taylor said.

LAUSD鈥檚 foundation has recruited board members from local business, education and philanthropic organizations.

Board Chairman Michael Fleming, the president of the David Bohnett Foundation, said he was drawn to the role after hearing Carvalho鈥檚 vision for an organization that could move fast and target specific goals, including investing in the priority schools. 

He鈥檚 also committed to bridging the divide between public and private funding. 鈥淭here is this innate distrust sometimes between a government entity and philanthropy, and vice versa,鈥� Fleming said. 鈥淭hey each see the world very differently and say: 鈥榊ou don鈥檛 understand the way we operate.鈥� I think that鈥檚 false.鈥�

Enthusiasm for private investment in public school districts has fallen in and out of favor over the decades. Initial waves of corporate and foundation money aimed to revolutionize education.  

鈥淲hen things don鈥檛 dramatically get better, the energy and resources and attention ebb,鈥� said Jeffrey Henig, a professor emeritus at Columbia鈥檚 Teachers College who has followed education philanthropy. Many private foundations doubled down on charter schools, which then made school districts wary of partnerships. In Los Angeles, a nonprofit launched by LAUSD leaders in the 2010s later merged with an entity that backed charters, putting it at odds with the district it initially set out to help. 

Henig sees today鈥檚 philanthropists more focused on supporting strong school leaders, rather than looking to fundamentally disrupt the way education is delivered. 

That shift makes sense to Erica Lim, a senior program officer at the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation. Broad, along with the foundations of “Two and a Half Men” co-creator Chuck Lorre and L.A. Clippers owner Steve Ballmer, to the LAUSD foundation to support its priority schools.

Lim said she was encouraged by the stability Carvalho has brought to LAUSD since he joined in 2022 after a string of short-tenured leaders. The former Miami-Dade Public Schools superintendent now has a contract to keep him in the L.A. job until at least 2030.

鈥淲e鈥檙e not looking to backfill or solve really systemic budget issues,鈥� Lim said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 for district leaders to solve.鈥� Instead, Broad wants its investments to help kick-start new initiatives or scale programs that show promise. 

Carvalho said the district won鈥檛 be turning to philanthropy to fund core areas of the budget. That said, he could see the foundation being used as a stopgap if, for instance, the federal government cut off longstanding funding to support English language learners. 鈥淭hat would be a legitimate support from the foundation,鈥� Carvalho said, 鈥淲hich could be a likely scenario in the months to come.鈥�

In reviving the foundation, Carvalho changed the bylaws to give himself less power over its board, a move he saw as helping ensure its independence. Jefferson works with the LAUSD Education Foundation board to direct funds, with district input. 

Fleming, the board chair, said he鈥檚 looking for the foundation to outlast the many prior attempts and avoid drama. 鈥淲e simply want to get resources for the schools and for students,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 it.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Duque, who has taught at the award-winning, urban planning-themed LAUSD in West Hollywood for 18 years, was one of four teachers named as finalists by the state education department for the 2026 California Teachers of the Year in October. She was the only LAUSD teacher to receive the honor.

Duque works hard to create a free-flowing vibe in her first-grade classroom to promote the creativity of her students, describing the scene as the 鈥渂est kind鈥� of messy.  

鈥淚t’s a place where my students are able to wonder, to be curious, to take risks, to be able to make things with their hands and minds,鈥� said Duque, who has been a teacher in Los Angeles Unified since 2000.聽

鈥淚t鈥檚 a place where you can tell learning is happening,鈥� she said of her classroom. 

The veteran teacher鈥檚 freewheeling approach is apparent in her classroom but there鈥檚 a method to the mayhem. Everything her students do is somehow tied back to the school鈥檚 theme of urban planning and urban design, topics Duque admits could be heady for her 6-year-old students, were it not for her approach to the subjects, which links them to kids鈥� everyday lives. 

On a recent school day, students in Duque鈥檚 class were drawing pictures of designs for a new community space in Griffith Park after she noticed a news report about the city鈥檚 struggle to repurpose the area .听听听

Students drew pictures of their ideas for the space, coloring construction paper using markers and drawing their visions for forests and lazy rivers that could be installed in L.A.鈥檚 historic park.  

In subsequent parts of the project, Duque said, students will create three-dimensional models of their ideas for the part using recycled materials such as cardboard and paper.  

鈥淲e’re making an arcade that’s called Fun Time, and then we put a petting zoo next to it called Pig Pig,鈥� said Ben, a student in Duque鈥檚 class, who was working on a drawing with a few classmates. 鈥淚 wonder if it will really happen.鈥�

Duque often pulls ideas for lessons from real-life events in L.A., finding the sprawling and diverse city offers no shortage of inspiration for classroom activities tied to urban planning.聽

鈥淚 just keep my eyes and ears to the news, and I just see what’s happening in our community, and I just get ideas from there,鈥� she said. 

A favorite lesson from a few years ago was based on an experience the teacher had while walking her dog in Griffith Park, when a coyote approached the two and nearly attacked Duque鈥檚 pet. 

are common in L.A. and such experiences aren鈥檛 unusual, but this event inspired Duque to create a lesson for students to create outfits for pets to repel predatory coyote attacks.

Students created costumes for pets that featured things known to deter coyotes, such as flashing lights. One student liked the project so much she created a picture book about the lesson with her parents, a copy of which Duque keeps displayed on the wall in her class.聽

鈥淚t’s another example of how I really look at what’s in our city, what’s in the news, and what’s relevant to kids and our lives,鈥� the teacher said. 

Duque鈥檚 relentless curiosity and enthusiasm make her a natural leader among her colleagues at Rosewood, said the school鈥檚 principal, Linda Crowder.

鈥淪he is a lifelong learner,鈥� Crowder said. 鈥淪he gets something and she runs with it.鈥�

LAUSD鈥檚 chief financial officer in an interview last week said declining enrollments and the end of pandemic relief funds have forced the district to take cost-cutting measures.  

Schools have already been notified of how much they will have to cut from their budgets. The cuts will go into effect starting in August. 

LAUSD officials in June had predicted a $1.6 billion deficit for the 2027-28 school year. But an updated version of the budget  last week eliminates the deficit by using reserve funds plus cost-cutting measures over the next two years. 

The planned cuts to school budgets will begin in the 2026-27 school year, with school consolidations and staffing reductions planned for the following school year, said LAUSD Chief Financial Officer Saman Bravo-Karimi. 

鈥淲e have fewer students each year, and in LAUSD that鈥檚 been the case for over two decades,鈥� Bravo-Karimi said. 鈥淭hat has a profound impact on our funding levels. Also, we had the expiration of those one-time COVID relief funds that were very substantial.鈥�&苍产蝉辫; 

The district recently contracted with the consulting firm Ernst and Young to create models for closing and consolidating schools. While school officials wouldn鈥檛 say which schools or how many would be closed, the district has clearly been shrinking. 

Enrollment last year fell to 408,083, from a peak of 746,831 in 2002. Nearly half of the district鈥檚 zoned elementary schools are half-full or less, and 56 have seen rosters fall by 70% or more. 

Bravo-Karimi said in the current school year the district will spend about $2 billion more than it took in from state, local and federal funding. The trend of overspending is expected to continue next year and the year after that, he said.

The district鈥檚 board in June approved a three-year budget plan that included a $18.8-billion budget for the current school year. The plan delayed layoffs until next year, and funded higher spending in part by reducing a fund for retirees鈥� health benefits. 

According to , the district will save:  

• $425 million by clawing back funds that went unused by schools each year聽
• $300 million by reducing staffing and budgets at central offices聽
• $299 million by cutting special funding for schools with high-needs students
• $120 million by cutting unfilled school staffing positions
• $30 million by consolidating schools聽聽
• $16 million by cutting student transportation聽

Bravo-Karimi said the district gets virtually all of its money through per-pupil funding from the state. Since enrollment in the district has fallen steadily for decades, and then sharply since the pandemic, funding is down significantly, he said.

Most zoned L.A. elementary schools are almost half empty, and many are operating at less than 25% capacity.聽Thirty-four schools have fewer than 200 students enrolled; a dozen of those schools once had enrollment over 400.听听听聽聽

The drops have prompted LAUSD leaders to talk about closing or combining schools, a controversial step that other big U.S. cities  or considering. 

Bravo-Karimi said the district would assess the needs of communities and the conditions at local schools before it makes any decisions about school closings or consolidations. 

鈥淭hat process needs to play out before any decisions are made about potential consolidation of school facilities,鈥� he said.

Bravo-Karimi said other factors, including ongoing negotiations with labor unions, and changes to state funding, will further impact the district鈥檚 budget in the coming months. 

Marguerite Roza, director of the Edunomics Lab and Research Professor at Georgetown University鈥檚 McCourt School of Public Policy, said the cuts planned for LAUSD are 鈥渞elatively mild鈥� compared to overall size of the district鈥檚 budget and cuts being considered at other  and the rest of the country. 

鈥淚 don鈥檛 think the people in the schools are going to notice that there鈥檚 a shrinking of the central office or that they鈥檙e using reserves,鈥� said Roza. 鈥淯nless you鈥檙e one of the people who loses their transportation or if you鈥檙e in one of the schools that gets closed.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

But, Roza said, many of the cuts taken by LAUSD can only be made once, and the district still faces profound changes as enrollments continue to fall and downsizing becomes more and more necessary. 

鈥淭his really should be a signal to families,鈥� said Roza of the planned cuts in the district鈥檚 latest budget. 鈥淎fter several years of really being flush with cash, this is not the financial position that LA Unified is going to be in moving forward.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

LAUSD Board Member Tanya Ortiz-Franklin, who represents LAUSD鈥檚 District Seven, which includes neighborhoods such as South L.A., Watts and San Pedro, said the district will work to shield kids from the impact of budget cuts. 

But, Ortiz-Franklin said, the district hired permanent staffers with one-time COVID funding, and now some of those staffers will have to be let go. 

Still, LA Unified聽has made strong gains聽since the pandemic, she said, and the district must聽work hard to preserve its upward trajectory despite financial headwinds.聽

鈥淲e would love to share good news, especially this time of year,鈥� said Ortiz-Franklin. 鈥淏ut the reality is, it is really tough.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

School leaders across LAUSD received preliminary budgets for the next year over the last few weeks, said Ortiz-Franklin. Some schools in her district are facing cuts of up to 15%, forcing them to make tough decisions on which staffers to keep and who to let go. 

Several hundred additional layoffs will be announced in February, she said, when the district makes another assessment of staffing needs. 

鈥淲e don鈥檛 know the total number yet, and we don鈥檛 know which positions yet,鈥� said Ortiz-Franklin.

Its most recent contains the blunt admission that, 鈥淟.A. Unified currently has a structural deficit whereby in-year expenditures exceed in-year revenues. As revenues continue to decrease due to enrollment decline and loss of one-time COVID funds, expenditures have not been reduced proportionately.鈥�

How did a district with $18.8 billion in revenue this year get to the point where it is projecting a $1.6 billion deficit by 2027-28?

The problems start on the revenue side. Namely, the district keeps losing students. According to it reported to the federal government, Los Angeles Unified served 495,255 students in 2018-19, the last full school year pre-pandemic. By 2023-24, that number had fallen to 419,929. That鈥檚 a decline of 75,326 students, or 15.2%.

That 15% decline is key to understanding the next few data points because the district did not reduce the number of staffers at anywhere close to the rate at which its student population declined. During the same period that it lost 75,000 students, it cut its teaching ranks by just 251. That represents a decline of 1.1% on the teacher side, compared with the 15.2% loss in student enrollment. It had a similarly small decline in non-teaching staff.

Effectively, Los Angeles reduced its student/teacher ratio over this time period from 22.5 to 19.3 students per teacher. As 社区黑料 reported earlier this year, about three-quarters of districts across the country have reduced their student/teacher ratios in similar ways over the last few years, but Los Angeles had one of the bigger drops.

As it served fewer students, the district also failed to adjust the number of schools it operates. In 2019, it had 785 district-run and charter schools. Five years later, despite the 15% decline in the number of students it served, it operated the exact same number of schools 鈥� 785.

In practice, by not responding to the enrollment declines, the district now operates a lot of partially vacant schools. Between 2019 and 2024, 224 Los Angeles schools lost 25% or more of their students. It is far from the only district with very small schools, but it does have a particularly large number of them. In 2024, 52 Los Angeles district schools served under 100 students and another 68 had less than 200 students.

The Edunomics Lab at Georgetown University has compiled across the country, and that data suggest that many small schools become very expensive to operate. For example, Marina del Rey Middle School in Los Angeles served 716 students in 2013-14. Ten years later, it taught only 369, at of $38,780. Similarly, Crescent Heights Elementary went from educating 384 students in 2013-14 to just 192 a decade later and now spends $37,967 per pupil.

So, how is the district proposing to get its back into balance? For now, it’s starting with accounting tactics like limiting the amount of money schools can carry over from one year to the next, closing unfilled school staff vacancies and cutting central office operations. It also hints that it will 鈥渃onsolidate鈥� campuses and programs but doesn鈥檛 say exactly what that will mean. Elsewhere in the document, the district says it expects to save $130 million this year by cutting 1,291 teacher positions 鈥� a 7% reduction. 

These cuts are necessary in part because the district projects it will lose another 35,000 students, a further 9% drop, by 2027-28. The one-time federal relief funds allowed Los Angeles to temporarily ignore the imbalance between revenues and spending it had accrued thanks to a bloated payroll and an unwillingness to deal with the messy business of closing or consolidating schools.

But it now has to resolve that deficit, and district leaders will face some tough decisions in the years ahead as they attempt to bring their budget back into balance while continuing to build on their recent academic gains.

The election of a progressive mayor who has said he wants to end mayoral control of New York City schools might seem like a bellwether.

The next largest school systems, Los Angeles and Miami-Dade County, have been run by elected boards for years. Chicago is transitioning to a fully elected board after decades under mayoral control.

But don鈥檛 .

New York City Mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani hasn鈥檛 laid out clear plans, and his references to 鈥渃o-governance鈥� could mean a lot of things, including an ongoing role for the mayor.

Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, another progressive, supported a when she ran in 2021, but once she was in office.

Chicago Mayor Brandon Johnson, a former teachers union organizer, has in support of union priorities.

And in Indianapolis, some community groups are in an increasingly fractured school system.

Many large cities have repeatedly overhauled their school governance of the previous model. Now a new set of existential threats 鈥� declining enrollment, looming school closures and layoffs, persistent academic challenges, and threats from the Trump administration 鈥� are reviving conversations about who can claim to exercise legitimate power over schools.

Who gets to make decisions on behalf of students and families feels particularly high stakes in this moment.

Yet there is little evidence that voters consistently prioritize student outcomes at the ballot box, whether they鈥檙e voting for mayors or school board members. Nor is there strong evidence that any particular system consistently delivers better results for students, better financial management, or more responsive leadership.

鈥淚t鈥檚 like getting dirty and changing clothes and expecting to smell good without taking a bath,鈥� said Jonathan Collins, a professor of political science and education at Teachers College, Columbia University. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 what you鈥檙e doing when you change your governance structure.鈥�

School closures put focus on who makes decisions

Education reform policies such as expanding school choice, closing low-performing schools, and welcoming charter schools have been supported by both mayors and elected school boards, sometimes under threat of state takeover. Those changes have reshaped communities in complicated ways.

New schools proliferated, and students got more opportunities. At the same time, the connections between neighborhoods and schools have frayed, competition for students and funding is fiercer, and multiple entities are now responsible for school oversight. These new realities are testing old ways of running schools.

In Indianapolis, the mayor already authorizes charter schools independently from Indianapolis Public Schools, which is run by an elected board. than district-run schools. Legislation from earlier this year that would have failed, but a state-created advisory group, chaired by Mayor Joe Hogsett, is charged with figuring out how city schools should share buildings and transportation services.

The Indianapolis Local Education Alliance is also considering proposals that would in school governance, including appointing most or all of the board.

Historically, groups associated with education reform have . Yet the Mind Trust, an influential pro-charter nonprofit that supported an appointed board in the past, hasn鈥檛 taken a position yet. Several potential Indianapolis mayoral candidates for 2027 are charter skeptics and supporters of an elected board.

Cleveland, where , is grappling with similar challenges.

As in Indianapolis, a large share of the district鈥檚 school-age children attend charter or private schools after decades under the , and enrollment in district schools has plummeted. Supporters of mayoral control sometimes , but Mayor Justin Bibb鈥檚 is causing some community members to demand a greater voice.

reported an exchange at a recent community meeting between Bibb and teacher Sarah Hodge.

鈥淎re you gonna go with us on the plan to make sure that the voters are re-enfranchised to vote for their school board?鈥� Hodge said. Bibb responded that voters can seek a new system if they wish, but he has full confidence in his appointed board and in schools CEO Warren Morgan.

The ability to push ahead with a school closure plan is one of the benefits of mayoral control, said Aaron Churchill, Ohio research director for the Thomas B. Fordham Institute, a center-right think tank. He contrasted Cleveland with Columbus, where the elected school board has moved more slowly in response to many of the same pressures.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e controversial, they鈥檙e hard to do, and it does take leadership,鈥� Churchill said. And there is still a democratic check on the process. People vote for the mayor, he said, and most people know who their mayor is 鈥� unlike their school board members.

Hodge has a very different view. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not bold to upset the entire city,鈥� she said in an interview.

She believes an elected school board would listen to parents and ultimately come up with a better plan for what she agrees are necessary closures.

Hodge is working with a small group of other teachers and activists to . But Ohio鈥檚 Republican trifecta state government is unlikely to go along willingly.

Hodge and other Cleveland activists have watched conservative groups like Moms for Liberty exert their influence on school boards. She wonders why people in Cleveland have fewer rights.

鈥淚f the people of Cleveland want to make an idiotic decision, that鈥檚 our right,鈥� she said. 鈥淪ince when do legislatures get to tell people, 鈥榊ou don鈥檛 get to vote. You鈥檙e too terrible to make decisions for yourself?鈥欌��

Voters often don鈥檛 care much about test scores

If mayoral control of schools is undemocratic, elected school boards raise their own questions about representation.

Most school board members are elected by small numbers of voters who don鈥檛 have children themselves and who aren鈥檛 . Once in office, they , surveys show.

Vladimir Kogan, a political science professor at Ohio State University, said that鈥檚 because voters don鈥檛 give them any incentive to do so.

Voters in school board elections might care about home values, taxes, jobs, or 鈥渟ymbolic virtue signaling that they are [on] team red and team blue,鈥� Kogan said, before they care about how well schools are serving students.

School board elections are one of the few places parents can pull on the levers of power, said Keri Rodrigues, a Boston parent and president of the National Parents Union, an advocacy group. But they can turn out to be 鈥渄emocracy in name only.鈥�

It doesn鈥檛 have to be that way, said Scott Levy, author of 鈥淲hy School Boards Matter.鈥� Many school board members would benefit from more training, including on how to understand academic data and budgets.

鈥淚f you look at education reform efforts, you can find every permutation except investing in school boards,鈥� he said.

But if school boards don鈥檛 spend enough time on schooling, it鈥檚 not clear that mayors who do reap big benefits.

Kogan points to former District of Columbia Mayor Adrian Fenty. Public opinion polls at the time showed under his controversial appointed chancellor, Michelle Rhee. But he : that accompanied the overhaul of D.C. schools.

鈥淩eformers have a wrong theory of change about mayoral control,鈥� Kogan said. 鈥淭he idea is that mayors are more visible, and it鈥檚 easier to hold them accountable. That assumes that voters care about academics.鈥�

Progressive mayors want a role in schools

Fights over who gets to control schools often reflect racial and political divisions. Predominantly white business interests, Black- and Latino-led community groups, and teachers unions wrestle for influence. Republican legislatures try to control Democrat-led cities.

Mayoral control spread in the 1990s and 2000s as white flight and shrinking tax bases undermined school systems. Mayors, the thinking went, could elevate the importance of education, marshal resources, and insulate governance from the influence of teachers unions.

Some of these political assumptions have eroded as voters choose more left-leaning mayors.

In last year鈥檚 鈥� held amid a that 鈥� the mayor鈥檚 union-backed allies picked up only four of the 10 elected seats. But with 11 appointees on the 21-member board until 2027, Johnson still controls the school board.

During recent union contract negotiations, to hire more staff and cover a larger share of pension costs, which district leaders feared would be financially unsustainable. The , not the board, to .

Wu, Boston鈥檚 progressive mayor, became a firm believer in mayoral control once she was in office. During a , a caller reminded Wu that the idea of an elected school board 鈥済ot more votes than you.鈥�

Wu pointed to frequent superintendent turnover and the recent threat of state takeover to argue against the idea.

鈥淲e need to have a focus on stabilizing and getting our school facilities up to date and mental health supports and some of the academic changes that we鈥檙e making,鈥� Wu said.

Voters haven鈥檛 penalized Wu 鈥� she .

New York parents, community groups want more say

Mayoral control in New York City is up for renewal in 2026. If Mamdani goes to Albany and advocates for less authority, he鈥檒l be the first New York mayor to do so.

When Bloomberg, a billionaire businessman, successfully lobbied for mayoral control in 2002, people were concerned not just about student achievement but basic safety. Some of the city鈥檚 local community boards, which ran 32 regional school districts, were corrupt or dysfunctional.

Bloomberg gained the sole ability to appoint the chancellor and the majority of the city鈥檚 school board. He adopted a that included charter school expansion and greater school accountability. Test scores and other metrics improved. New York City represented a 鈥渧ictory lap for mayoral control,鈥� said Collins, the Columbia professor.

But Bloomberg also introduced Lucy Calkins鈥� now-discredited . Outgoing Mayor Eric Adams, who was elected on a public safety platform, 鈥� but the rollout . Now Mamdani, who ran on affordability, may give schools and teachers more autonomy.

鈥淭hat whiplash is a real problem,鈥� said Jonathan Greenberg, a Queens parent and member of the Education Council Consortium, a coalition of parent leaders. 鈥淪o much of the really deep-seated changes we think need to happen take more than two years or more than four years.鈥�

Mayoral control , with the school board, known as the Panel for Educational Policy, expanding and exerting more independence.

Finding the right balance for an exceptionally large and complex school system may not be easy. The coalition is proposing a short extension of mayoral control 鈥� but with the mayor no longer appointing the majority of school panel members.

Greenberg hopes that policy experts can help the city design a system that allows for community control and a healthy central system that can do things at scale.

Low voter turnout in both mayoral and school board elections should be treated like a crisis, Collins said. A better system would allow for more meaningful participation, and not just at the ballot box.

Unless more people are engaged, Collins said, 鈥渢here鈥檚 going to be a small fraction of people who decide who serves, and the people who are serving are going to be disconnected from the true needs of the folks who are sending their kids to school.鈥�

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

Every 4-year-old in California can now go to school for free in their local districts. The new grade is called  鈥� or TK 鈥� and it’s part of the state鈥檚 effort to expand universal preschool.

In 2021, Gov. Gavin Newsom and the state legislature  in a $2.7 billion plan so that all 4-year-olds could attend by the 2025-26 school year. (Prior to this, TK was only available for kids who missed the kindergarten age cutoff by a few months). While it鈥檚 not mandatory for students to attend, districts must offer them as an alternative to private preschool.

As a free option, it can save parents a lot of money. Parents  how sending their kids into a school-based environment compares to a preschool they might already know and like, as well as other needs like all-day care, and .

One big question we鈥檝e heard: What do kids actually do and learn in a TK classroom? Educators say it鈥檚 intended to emphasize play, but what does that mean?

To help parents get a better sense of this new grade as they make their decisions, LAist reporters spent the day in three different classrooms across the Southland. Here are five things we saw children do.

Get used to the structure and routines of school

For many students, transitional kindergarten is their first introduction to a formal school preschool setting. Crystal Ramirez sent her 4-year-old to TK at Marguerita Elementary School in Alhambra, so he could get used to the rhythm and rigors of school.

鈥淚 didn’t wanna put him straight into kindergarten when he was five, six, so he at least knows a routine, already,鈥� she said. 鈥淣ow, as soon as he sees that we鈥檙e in school, he loves it.鈥�

TK students, like other elementary school students, follow a schedule: morning bell, recess, lunch, second recess and dismissal. They鈥檙e also learning how to listen to instructions or stand in a line. Some are learning to go to the cafeteria for lunch.

鈥溾�奍 wanna make sure that their first experience in a public school setting is one that is joyful, where they feel loved, where they feel welcomed, where they get to really transition nicely into like the rigor of the school,鈥� said Lauren Bush, a TK teacher at Lucille Smith Elementary in Lawndale.

Claudia Ralston, a TK teacher at Marguerita Elementary, said it can be hard for young kids to get up early and leave their moms and dads. But seven weeks in, many of her students have learned their routines already. She helps with the morning transitions by turning on soft instrumental music in the classroom, and allowing them free play until they regroup on the mat to discuss the day.

鈥淭hey’re four years old. I want them to feel safe at school, know that this is a special place for learning and that they play,鈥� she said.

Learn how to socialize and communicate

In TK,  learning is a big part of the curriculum. That鈥檚 a fancy word, but it just means they鈥檙e learning how to be in touch with their emotions

At Price Elementary in Downey, the teacher has her kids give an affirmation: “I am safe. I am kind. I matter. I make good choices. I can do hard things. All of my problems have solutions!” (They also have these sentences on classroom wall signs.)

The children also learn how to interact with their peers. In some schools, there are no assigned desks so the kids can learn how to share the space.

鈥溾�奣hey’re able to problem solve. They’re able to use communication to get their needs, regulating their emotions. They do better than students who come in without this experience,鈥� said Cristal Moore, principal at Lucille Smith Elementary.

On the playground, a student named Ava told teacher assistant Lizbeth Orozco that another student pushed her.

鈥淗ow did that make you feel?鈥� Orozco asked.

鈥淢补诲!鈥�

Orozco encouraged Ava to express her feelings to her classmate.

鈥溾�奧e give them options of how to solve a problem and then they go in and solve it themselves,鈥� Orozco said. 鈥淚f they need extra help, they always come back and we can help them.鈥�

Arguing over toys can be a common occurrence in a TK classroom. At Price Elementary in Downey, educators help kids work through a solution. On a recent morning, one 4-year-old used two tongs to pick up paper shapes in a sensory bin, leaving another kid upset.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 the rule about sharing?鈥� asked Alexandria Pellegrino, a teacher who gives extra support for one TK classroom.

The boy handed over a tong to his peer. 鈥淭hank you so much for being a good friend,鈥� Pellegrino said.

鈥淸It鈥檚] 鈥奱bout being kind friends and making friends and using our manners. So we do build that foundation at the beginning of the year,鈥� said Samantha Elliot, the classroom鈥檚 lead instructor.

At the end of the day in Alvarez鈥檚 Lawndale TK class, she counts up the stars next to each student鈥檚 name earned throughout the day 鈥� earned for positive behavior like being kind, solving problems, trying something challenging, or showing effort in other ways. Ten stars earns a small prize from the treasure chest.

鈥淚f we don鈥檛 get something today are we going to get mad?鈥� Alvarez asked the class.

鈥淣o!鈥� they responded.

鈥淚鈥檓 not going to cry!鈥� one boy piped up, followed by his classmate and a 鈥淢e too!鈥� from another student.

鈥淭hat鈥檚 [a] positive attitude,鈥� Alvarez said. 鈥淏ecause tomorrow you can get more stars!鈥�

Get exposed to numbers, shapes, letters

In Elliot鈥檚 TK class, students use their own little lightsabers to trace letters in the air.

鈥淭hey’re learning the letter, the sound, and then a little action to go with it. They’re wiggling and moving and they’re also learning those letter sounds and they don’t really realize, so it’s incorporating instruction,鈥� she said.

There鈥檚 no mandated curriculum in TK, but instruction is supposed to align with the state鈥檚 . 鈥淜indergarten is basically where the state standards go and kick in. There are standards in TK, but it’s a little bit different,鈥� said Tom Kohout, principal at Marguerita Elementary.

Students might put playdough into letter molds, or the teacher might pull out toys from a bag that all start with a letter 鈥淓.鈥� Kids will play with little plastic toys that connect 鈥� or 鈥渕anipulatives鈥� 鈥� that can help them recognize numbers and patterns.

鈥淚t鈥檚 play with a purpose,鈥� Ralston said. 鈥淭hey’re just being introduced to the numbers, the colors, writing. But again, we’re not doing worksheets.鈥�

Build fine motor skills

Molding pretend cakes with kinetic sand. Connecting small LEGO bricks. Cutting playdough. It might not seem like much, but children this age are still learning how to use their bodies.

鈥淭earing paper is really hard and it’s a really amazing fine motor skill for them because the same muscles you use to tear paper are the same muscles that you use to hold a pen or a pencil,鈥� said Lauren Bush, a TK teacher at Lucille Smith Elementary in Lawndale.

鈥淵ou see kids playing with dinosaurs. I see kids sorting by color, doing visual, you know, eye hand coordination and visual discrimination. I see them using their fine motor skills,鈥� she said.

At lunch, kids learn how to open up a milk carton or open a packaged muffin. At PE, they learn to balance on a block or walk in a straight line 鈥� learning spatial awareness.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e learning how to run, stop, things like that and playing because their bodies are so young,鈥� said Principal Kohout.

Learn independence

For some kids, it might be the first time where mom and dad aren’t there to help carry their backpacks or . TK is meant to help focus on their independence, though aides can help.

TK classrooms are also usually set up with play centers, so kids can have the choice to explore on their own.

鈥溾�奍 want them to be independent, to be able to solve their problems, you know, with assistance,鈥� Ralston said.

Samantha Elliot, the TK teacher in Downey, says she encourages kids to talk to their teammates first to figure out an activity before going to a teacher.

鈥淚t’s just gaining the confidence and building that independence from basically the start of the school year,鈥� she said.

Parent Crystal Ramirez has already noticed a change in her 4-year-old this year since starting school. 鈥溾�奫He鈥檚] socializing a little bit more, talking a little bit more, trying to express himself as well.鈥�

For four consecutive days last month, a group of Los Angeles County students was suspended after a fight broke out in their classroom inside a juvenile detention facility.

This is according to Stacy Nu帽ez, an education attorney representing one of the students, who said her client was among those suspended and questions why he was penalized before the facility called a meeting to discuss other behavioral interventions.

The Los Angeles County Office of Education can interrupt education services, even those legally required under an Individualized Education Program, if there is 鈥渁n immediate threat to the safety of youth or others,鈥� according to a  with . A second settlement with Los Angeles County, including its Probation Department, Department of Mental Health, and Department of Health Services, was also entered at the time.

But exactly how an 鈥渋mmediate threat鈥� is defined is unclear and appears to be 鈥渃ompletely discretionary,鈥� Nu帽ez said.

This lack of clarity on the legal settlement with the county education department, often referred to as LACOE, is just one of the reasons advocates say education access for detained youth must be prioritized in ongoing court hearings to decide whether L.A. County鈥檚 juvenile halls should be placed into a receivership.

Saying it is 鈥渢he only option left to ensure the safety and wellbeing of the youth currently in its care,鈥� California Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a request in July to grant full operational control of the county鈥檚 juvenile detention facilities to an appointed receiver. He also said the county is 鈥渟ubstantially compliant with just 25% of all requirements鈥� in the 2021 settlements.

After several court hearings on the receivership request, L.A. County Superior Court Judge Peter A. Hernandez has listed education as one of five core reform areas, along with staffing, room confinement, use of force and data management. The next hearing is on Friday.

The county鈥檚 education department declined an interview to discuss the status of the settlement stipulations.

鈥淥ver the past four years, we鈥檝e made substantial progress across multiple areas of the agreement, even while managing significant operational changes, including the closure of Central Juvenile Hall and the opening of Los Padrinos,鈥� Elizabeth Graswich, LACOE鈥檚 executive director of public affairs and communication, wrote in a statement to EdSource. 鈥淎s with many complex, multi-year agreements, some areas required additional time to fully implement.鈥�

Prioritizing education

Full operational control under receivership would include management of its Probation Department, which contracts with the county education department for services to students enrolled in schools within detention facilities. The most recent enrollment  shows 532 students enrolled across seven juvenile detention facilities, with at least 225 in juvenile halls.

It鈥檚 this memorandum of understanding between the departments, plus how closely they must work on a regular basis to ensure students receive an education, that makes changes to one department nearly inextricable from the other.

Despite this, advocates say education is not always a priority in discussions about reforms to the juvenile justice system.

鈥淚t鈥檚 kind of a theme that education is a secondary thought 鈥� but I think the point is really valid that young people spend a majority of their waking hours in school each day when they鈥檙e in a facility, so we should really be focusing on that,鈥� said Megan Stanton-Trehan, a senior attorney with Disability Rights California.

When Stanton-Trehan represented detained students during the initial years of the settlement with LACOE, staff would sometimes say her clients refused special education services, only to later learn her clients weren鈥檛 always clear on what the services were.

The settlement requires that the county 鈥渄ocument efforts to send youth to the classroom on the same day that the youth refuses to go to school, except when there is an immediate threat to the safety of the youth or others.鈥�

But Nu帽ez agreed that, to this day, it still isn鈥檛 always clear whether students actually refused services or how the alleged refusal is documented.

鈥淚f I go visit a client and they don鈥檛 come out to see me, all I鈥檒l be told is 鈥榯hey refused,鈥欌�� said Nu帽ez, who was recently told a client didn鈥檛 want to meet with her. It was only when she pressed further that she was told the client was in the middle of completing a test.

This was published on .

This school year, the Los Angeles school district has lost more than 13,000 immigrant students, mostly Hispanic, school officials said, with students fleeing in the months since U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement stepped up activity in Los Angeles in March.

The nation鈥檚 second-largest district now enrolls about 62,000 English learners, according to new figures obtained by 社区黑料, down from more than 75,000 immigrant students in the 2024-25 academic year.   

鈥淪ome children are just choosing not to go back to school, especially those who are immigrants,鈥� said Evelyn Aleman, founder of , a parents鈥� group which advocates for L.A.鈥檚 Spanish-speaking and low-income families. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 because they know that immigrant children have been arrested or detained by ICE.鈥�

In the 2018-19 academic year, the district enrolled more than 157,000 English learners.  The downward trend of these students represents a stunning turnaround for a district that in 2003 was nearly half immigrant kids. It comes amid a districtwide decline in enrollment.  

L.A. is not the only city seeing declines in immigrant enrollment since ICE cracked down. Denver, Miami and San Diego have also . 

Since January, school officials, municipal leaders and state lawmakers have sought to present a brave face against the immigration crackdowns promised by President Donald Trump. Even before the ICE raids began, they issued guidance and rolled out tools and policies, and proposed legislation to limit federal immigration enforcement.

But the fear of ICE became real for many families, Aleman said, after federal agents in April showed up at two LAUSD schools seeking 鈥榓ccess鈥� to young students. 

The federal agents鈥� school visits 鈥� with as many as four appearing at one time looking for information on children in grades one through six 鈥� were considered the first reported cases of Homeland Security authorities attempting to enter a U.S. school. 

School staffers turned the agents away in both cases, but outside of school grounds at least two LAUSD students have been arrested and held by ICE, Aleman said.  

鈥淚t isn’t because they don’t want to be in school,鈥� said Aleman. 鈥淎 big concern for families is that they’re going to be separated [by ICE]. Rather than see that, many are choosing to self-deport, or children who are high schoolers are choosing not to return.鈥�

Instead, Aleman said, kids are staying home where they feel safe, or in some cases going to work outside their homes.  

According to LAUSD figures, the drop in immigrant students this year means LAUSD now enrolls about half as many of those kids as it did before the pandemic. 

Besides the ICE raids, factors including rising housing prices, falling birth rates and a tight local economy have also contributed to the exodus of immigrant students, said LAUSD Board Member , who represents , which includes neighborhoods such as South L.A., Watts and San Pedro.  

鈥淧eople are having less children, and traditionally, in Latino families, there are more children. So that鈥檚 one area,鈥� said Ortiz-Franklin. 鈥淎nd, obviously, the in Los Angeles is ridiculous.鈥�

Recent fears around immigration enforcement and the future of public assistance, such as SNAP benefits, are also likely driving down immigrant populations, Ortiz-Franklin said. 

shows the immigrant students in 2003 accounted for about 45% of enrollment, with more than 325,000 English learners enrolled there. Since then, the number of immigrant students has fallen sharply.

But the ICE raids that began in L.A. this year have given immigrant families more reason to be concerned about sending their kids to school 鈥� or leave the city entirely. 

To bolster immigrant students鈥� sense of safety, LAUSD officials have established 鈥榩erimeters of safety鈥� around campuses and instructed school staffers to refuse ICE agents entry, unless warrants are displayed.

The district has created its safe zones around schools by warning families to stay away when volunteer sentries spot ICE agents nearby. A free legal defense fund has been created for families facing enforcement.

Other measures include free busing to class, legal clinics for families, and remote lessons for when all else fails.

In a statement, a district spokesperson said LAUSD鈥檚 overall enrollment 鈥渃ontinues to reflect a long-term downward trend observed across large urban districts in California and nationwide.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

鈥淢ultiple factors contribute to these shifts, including declining birth rates, changes in housing affordability, and family migration patterns,鈥� the spokesperson said. 鈥淚n addition, increased federal immigration enforcement efforts have had a chilling effect in many communities.鈥�

LAUSD officials and researchers said it鈥檚 difficult  to pinpoint where immigrant families are going when they leave. During the pandemic, L.A. superintendent Alberto Carvalho said some of these families had left the state for Texas and Florida for economic reasons.

Dean of the USC Rossier School of Education Pedro Noguera said LAUSD will face challenges in attracting more immigrant families, even with the measures to protect students from ICE raids.

鈥淭hey’re taking a lot of extra steps to try to reassure the population, but it’s limited as to what they can do,鈥� Noguera said.  鈥淚t’s a combination of several trends, all heavy at once, that is producing this significant decline,鈥� adding LAUSD may soon have to make tough choices due to its shrinking class sizes.

Smaller class sizes have already prompted district leaders to consider measures such as closing schools or converting unused campus buildings for housing. 

Overall enrollment in LAUSD鈥檚 massive, 1,500-school system has cratered since its peak in 2002, when 746,831 students attended classes. This school year the district  enrolled 392,654 students, a drop of roughly 4% from last year鈥檚 count of 409,108, school officials said.

Enrollment this term has also failed to hit targets set during the budget process earlier in the year, indicating the losses are steeper than officials expected.

Julien Lafortune, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California, said such declines are impacting districts around the state, of immigrant students.

鈥淭he growth of Los Angeles and other districts was driven by a lot of immigrants coming in, and then, on average, having more kids than the average native-born person,鈥� he said. 鈥淣ow, we’re seeing kind of the inverse of that. Kind of a bust after the boom.鈥�

Seeing all that data was interesting. But they were just numbers in a spreadsheet until we decided to out the results. And that geographic analysis revealed some surprising findings. 

For example, we found that, based on our metrics, two of the three highest-performing schools in California happened to be less than 5 miles apart from each other in Los Angeles. 

The Charter School came out No. 1 in the state of California. With 91% of its students in poverty, our calculations projected it would have a third grade reading rate of 27%. Instead, 92% of its students scored proficient or above. Despite serving a high-poverty student population, the school’s literacy scores were practically off the charts.  

PUC Milagro is a charter school, and charters tended to do well in our rankings. Nationally, they made up 7% of all schools in our sample but 11% of those that we identified as exceptional. 

But some district schools are also beating the odds. Just miles away from PUC Milagro is our No. 3-rated school in California, Hoover Street Elementary. It is a traditional public school run by the Los Angeles Unified School District. With 92% of its students qualifying for free- or reduced-price lunch, our calculations suggest that only 23% of its third graders would likely be proficient in reading. Instead, its actual score was 78%. 

For this project, we used data from 2024, and Hoover Street didn鈥檛 do quite as well in . (Milagro .)

Still, as Linda Jacobson reported last month, the district as a whole has been making impressive gains in reading and math over the last few years. In 2025, it reported its highest-ever performance on California鈥檚 state test. Moreover, those gains were broadly shared across the district鈥檚 most challenging, high-poverty schools. 

Our data showed that the district as a whole slightly overperformed expectations, based purely on the economic challenges of its students. We also found that, while Los Angeles is a large, high-poverty school district, it had a disproportionately large share of what we identified as the state’s 鈥渂right spot鈥� schools. L.A. accounted for 8% of all California schools in our sample but 16% of those that are the most exceptional. 

All told, we found 45 L.A. district schools that were beating the odds and helping low-income students read proficiently. Some of these were selective magnet schools, but many were not. 

INTERACTIVE

Map of Los Angeles Area Bright Spots

Some of the schools on the map may not meet most people鈥檚 definition of a good school, let alone a great one. For example, at Stanford Avenue Elementary, 47% of its third graders scored proficient in reading in 2024. That may not sound like very many, but 97% of its students are low-income, and yet it still managed to outperform the rest of the state by 4 percentage points. (It did even a bit better in .)

Schools like Stanford Avenue Elementary don鈥檛 have the highest scores in California. On the surface, they don鈥檛 look like they鈥檙e doing anything special. But that鈥檚 why it鈥檚 important for analyses like ours to consider a school鈥檚 demographics. High-poverty elementary schools that are doing a good job of helping their students learn to read deserve to be celebrated for their results.

But look at the odds you face if you鈥檙e not white or Asian. In L.A, only 3% of Hispanic elementary students and 4% of Black students attend a school where 7 of 10 kids are reading at grade level. This shocking data comes from the California Department of Education.

My organization, Available to All, is a nonprofit watchdog that defends equal access to public schools. Our analysis of state data shines a light on the 456 zoned elementary schools in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the K-5 or K-6 schools that are the default assignment for hundreds of thousands of L.A. children. Over 190,000 children attended these schools in 2023-24, the last year for which data is available. Of these 456 schools, only 39 have 70% of their students reading at grade level. At 105 of these schools, fewer than 30% of kids are reading proficiently.

What is absolutely crucial to understand is that discrepancies of this size can exist only if a government entity enforces them. Imagine for a moment two post offices. At one, 70% of letters and packages get delivered as promised. It鈥檚 not great, but we鈥檒l call it pretty good. At the other post office, 3 out of 4 packages get lost or damaged, and only 25% arrive on time and in their original condition.

As soon as this data became public, people would stop going to the bad post office. Hundreds of people would drive to the pretty good post office, even if it was much farther away. Long lines would form outside the door. The bad post office would have to improve or face an empty lobby.

So the question is this: How does LAUSD enforce these discrepancies? How does it prevent tens of thousands of families from lining up outside the doors of those few elementary schools where most of the kids can read? The answer is attendance zones. The district draws a meandering line around each elementary school, determining who is and who isn鈥檛 allowed to attend.

The problem is, of course, that these coveted schools are located in some of the priciest parts of town. The lines typically encircle expensive single-family homes that are on large lots. What鈥檚 more, the home prices in these zones are distorted because the house comes with exclusive access to a desirable public school. 鈥淚 know it sounds expensive,鈥� the real estate agent will say, 鈥渂ut if you buy a home in this zone, you won鈥檛 have to pay for private school.鈥�

These are quasi-private schools for wealthy Angelenos, but they鈥檙e operated on the public鈥檚 dime. Our research has shown that Los Angeles is one of many cities where coveted elementary schools have attendance zones that from the 1930s. Once again, families in less wealthy areas are boxed out, especially African-American and Hispanic kids, as well as working- and middle-class people of all races.

What鈥檚 incredible is that such exclusivity is possible in a system that has so many half-empty schools. f of L.A.鈥檚 elementary schools 鈥� 225 of 456 鈥� have seen enrollment drop by more than 50% in the last 15 years. You would expect that, with so much overcapacity, families would have their pick of public schools.

Even the highest-performing schools are below their full capacity. In the 39 elementary schools with over 70% of kids reading at grade level, enrollment is down by over 7,000. That鈥檚 7,000 seats that could be available to students who are currently assigned to failing schools, often within a mile or two.

California鈥檚 1994 requires the district to make open seats available to students who live outside school attendance zones. But LAUSD has treated this policy as voluntary, as recently as 2018 that it is their choice whether to report open seats. Thus, these 39 schools reported only 58 open seats for this school year 鈥� less than 2% of what we鈥檇 expect to see based on their historical enrollment.

Of the 39 high-performing elementary schools, 15 of them are 鈥渁ffiliated conversion charters,鈥� meaning they are operated by LAUSD but don鈥檛 have to participate in Open Enrollment. However, they are required by the state鈥檚 charter school law to hold a lottery for any open seats.   My organization called each of these schools, and 14 indicated that they could not accept any applicants from outside the zone, since they were 鈥渇ull.鈥� But, again, these schools are well below their historical peak enrollment and should have at least 2,589 seats available.

The hard truth is this: Principals in these high-performing, zoned schools do not seem to want to make their open seats available to children outside the zone. Doing so might threaten the exclusive nature of the school, and that exclusivity is exactly what families are paying for when they take out their oversized mortgages.

But it doesn鈥檛 have to be this way. In the 20 years since Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans has abolished attendance zone assignments. Test scores are up, as are graduation rates and college enrollment. In California, the state legislature ended geographic assignment for community colleges in the 1980s. In the years after this reform, enrollment rebounded after years of decline. Today, the community college system is a crown jewel of the state, championed by Republicans and Democrats alike.

America was built on the idea that even a kid from the wrong side of the tracks can go on to become a business owner, a doctor, a politician, a professor or a general in the military. History has proven that to be true. But here in the 21^st century, middle-class and low-income kids are blocked from fulfilling their potential, locked out of the best public schools 鈥� even ones that their families’ tax dollars pay for. It鈥檚 not fair, it鈥檚 not just,and it鈥檚 time to make a change.

At 6:50 a.m, the parent on carpool duty would set out westward toward the San Fernando Valley, often cutting the workday short to reverse the commute eight hours later. One dad even rented space at a coworking location to minimize the drive.

The destination: Portola Middle School in Tarzana, one of the Los Angeles Unified School District鈥檚 few magnet schools with a program specifically for highly gifted students. 

鈥淲e were going with traffic both ways,鈥� said Tira Franco, a mom of three who feels lucky that her now-seventh grader landed a spot in the school. But while the boys in her eight-seat minivan spent the trips quizzing each other in math, she quickly grew exhausted. 鈥淚n L.A., just five miles could take you like an hour.鈥�

Enduring gridlock on 鈥渢he 405鈥� and other major thoroughfares is part of life in the nation鈥檚 second-largest city, and it鈥檚 a price that many families are willing to pay to get their children in a preferred school. This year, the kids ride a bus as part of the district鈥檚 efforts to services. Students who attend magnets and other schools of choice in the sprawling, 700-square-mile district are among those who get priority for a ride. That means the boys get up even earlier to meet the bus. 

District leaders in recent years have tried to take some of the pain out of the process by offering choice fairs, a centralized application website and more busing options. But many still find the experience stressful, time-intensive and stacked against low-income families.

鈥淭he kids who get a better quality education in the district are the children of parents who are resourceful, who are able to navigate this very complicated formula,鈥� said Elmer Roldan, executive director of Communities in Schools Los Angeles, a dropout prevention program that serves students in 15 schools across the metro area. Children whose parents can manage that system are going to get 鈥渢he best teachers, best equipment and best experience. Unfortunately, that is not always close.鈥�

Over a third of LAUSD students participate in district choice, officials said. During this year鈥檚 , which closes Nov. 14, parents can pick from a wide range of options that include not just magnets, but dual-language programs and district charter schools. Families can also request permits to attend a school outside their zone. But that process is time-consuming, and lower-income families often lack the luxury of weeks to research school performance and plot potential routes.

found that Latino students, English learners and kids from low-income families were underrepresented in magnet programs, which were designed to create more integrated schools. White and Asian students were also overrepresented in affiliated charters 鈥� some of the highest-achieving schools in the district.聽

鈥淭here are parent groups in West L.A. that organize information sessions [on choice], but West L.A. is a relatively advantaged area,鈥� said Christopher Campos, an assistant professor of economics at the University of Chicago who has in LAUSD. The single application portal, where parents can request transportation, has made the process 鈥渁 bit easier. 鈥 still think it’s a pretty daunting task.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

鈥榁alley parents鈥�

For some parents, the process began on a clear Thursday evening in October as they searched for a parking space near a middle school in the San Fernando Valley. Inside the gates, families strolled from booth to booth on the lawn to learn about the district鈥檚 array of magnet schools. 

There鈥檚 Northridge Middle with a special lab for exploring careers in medicine, Robert Frost Middle with a gifted music conservatory and Mulholland Middle, where students in the junior police academy can study crime scene investigation, or law and government. Inside the auditorium, the Louis Armstrong Middle jazz band performed their version of the Edgar Winter Group鈥檚 鈥淔rankenstein,鈥� an instrumental rock hit from the early 1970s.

鈥淰alley parents want to stay in the valley,鈥� LAUSD Board President Scott Schmerelson said as he greeted principals and magnet school coordinators, who were busy handing out fliers, buttons and other promotional items. He paused at the display table for Nobel Charter Middle in Northridge, which features a magnet program combining STEM with the arts. 

鈥淗ere鈥檚 Nobel. Always overenrolled. Very popular.鈥�

One parent grabbed his attention to suggest organizers set up booths by regions in the valley 鈥� east, west and north. 鈥淭he valley is huge,鈥� she said.

She makes a good point, Schmerelson said.

shows that providing transportation increases the likelihood that families will take advantage of school choice, a district spokeswoman said. Officials use social media, websites and other communication channels to inform families that bus service is available. The district is 鈥渃lustering stops where demand is highest,鈥� the spokeswoman said, but leaders also 鈥渃ontinually review ridership data and feedback to explore ways we can improve access.鈥澛�

Choice options have increased in recent years as the district seeks to leaving for independent charters or private schools. There are over 330 magnet programs, compared to 217 a decade ago. Enrollment decline, which is hurting the district in many ways, has had the effect of opening up more space in many sought-after schools. Students who end up on a waiting list for their first choice are now coming off the list sooner, said Song Lee, LAUSD鈥檚 coordinator of student integration services.

But word of events like the fair don鈥檛 always reach the parents they were designed for.

鈥淚f I would have known about the fair, that would have been helpful,鈥� said Dulce Valencia, a mom of three whose twin daughters are currently part of the Spanish-English dual-language program at San Fernando Elementary School. She has to decide on a middle school for her girls and is considering charters.

Multiple options can confuse parents, Campos found when he held some information sessions regarding another district program called 鈥渮ones of choice.鈥� Instead of attending their neighborhood middle or high school, students living within one of 17 zones can choose from a menu of specialized schools with themes like global studies, performing arts or social justice.

鈥淎 lot of families thought they were showing up to a session about magnet programs,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey actually were not interested in any of the zones of choice schools, but they were just getting overwhelmed with information.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

鈥楬ave your phone ready鈥�

Once parents secure their child a seat, they still have to figure out how to get there.

鈥淚 tell parents, 鈥楬ave your phone ready so you can map out where the school is and you can see if it’s feasible for you,鈥� 鈥� said Grace Lee, who has two young boys in the district. She also works in the office at Gault Street Elementary, her neighborhood school, and fields questions from parents about choice. 

For Lee, calculating the best routes to school in L.A. calls to mind , the uproarious 鈥淪aturday Night Live鈥� sketch where characters in exaggerated 鈥淰alley girl鈥� accents rattle off shortcuts to circumvent the ubiquitous L.A. traffic.

鈥淚f you live in L.A. you get it,鈥� Lee said. 

When her oldest son got into Oliver Wendell Holmes Middle, north of her Lake Balboa neighborhood, she applied for transportation. But the bus stop was almost as far west as the school was north. She decided it was just easier for her husband to drive him on his way to the office.

Working at a Title I school in the majority Latino district, Lee worries that many families don鈥檛 even complete the choice application. 

鈥淭he people who are in the know, their kids are already fine,鈥� she said. 鈥淭heir test scores are generally fine.鈥�

Twenty years ago, Lois Andr茅-Bechely, a professor emerita at California State University, Los Angeles, wrote in that parents with flexible schedules stood a better chance of taking advantage of public school choice in L.A. She identified transportation as one of the obstacles. 

鈥淧arents who have cars and can arrange time to drive their children to and from school will have more choice options than parents who do not have such advantages,鈥� she wrote. 

The city鈥檚 offers free bus and train passes, but some students on public buses and L.A.鈥檚 routes don鈥檛 always reach the areas they live in. A recent showed that it can take four times longer to reach a destination by train than by car.

Now retired, Andr茅-Bechely no longer conducts research. But as a grandmother, she still hears about parent鈥檚 experiences at soccer games and birthday parties. 

鈥淧arents still have to be strategic when applying to school choice programs,鈥� she said in an email. 鈥淪ome school choice issues I identified have not gone away.鈥�

For several years, philanthropies like the Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation that guided parents, especially low-income families, through the school choice maze. Their efforts emphasized independent charters, but groups like Speak UP and Parent Revolution, which later folded into other nonprofits, helped LAUSD families as well.

鈥淟os Angeles used to have a robust ecosystem of nonprofits empowering parents and challenging the status quo,鈥� said Ben Austin, a former state education board member who founded Parent Revolution. During the pandemic, he pulled his children out of LAUSD and enrolled them in a charter school. When Eli Broad passed away in 2021, other funders didn鈥檛 fill the vacuum, he said. 鈥淓li was such a magnetic leader that when he died, much of the local and national education donor engagement in L.A. died along with him.鈥�

Many families researching options still rely on Facebook and other informal networks, but experience with the process doesn鈥檛 necessarily make it easier. With a fifth grader preparing for middle school, Franco, the school choice commuting veteran, is once again weighing school options.

鈥淚鈥檓 trying to get her into a great program for next year, and I still have a million questions,鈥� she said. 鈥淲hy do I have a million questions if I’ve already been through this before?鈥�

Yet in many ways Canfield Avenue Elementary School and Shenandoah Elementary School in the Beverlywood and Reynier Village neighborhoods of Los Angeles are worlds apart. 

Canfield鈥檚 student body is 46% white, while Shenandoah is 95% Black and Hispanic. Canfield has a pass rate of 77% on state reading exams, but just 31% of Shenandoah students met reading standards this year. 

The difference between these two schools isn鈥檛 about curriculum or funding, but rather the highly uneven attendance zones from which Canfield and Shenandoah draw their students.  

School attendance zones are meant to provide L.A. families with strong options for their children鈥檚 education. But a growing number of critics say the outdated school zones of LAUSD reinforce educational inequality by locking needy students out of a good education. 

Canfield鈥檚 residential school attendance zone is 83% white, while Shenandoah鈥檚 is 55% Hispanic, 14% Black, and 6% Asian, according to research conducted by The Urban Institute, a nonprofit think-tank. 

鈥淪uch massive inequities between neighboring schools, both within the same local public school system, are difficult to justify,鈥� wrote Urban Institute researchers Tomas Monarrez and Carina Chien, who studied the two schools for their 2021 鈥淒ividing Lines.鈥�

The differences in the nearby schools鈥� catchment areas is reflected in their enrollment, with 49% of Canfield kids experiencing poverty, compared to 93% at Shenandoah. 

Monarrez and Chien found inequalities in school enrollment zones in districts across the country in their Urban Institute report, but singled out the racial segregation and uneven outcomes of LAUSD, the nation鈥檚 second-largest school district, for special attention. 

The entrenched and segregationist school zones that populate Los Angeles Unified are the deliberate outcomes of a racist past, according to local parent turned researcher-and-author Tim DeRoche.

DeRoche, whose book, 鈥�,鈥� explores school zones and segregation in Los Angeles and other districts across the country, said attendance zones ought to be abolished or completely overhauled, but admits it鈥檚 unlikely that鈥檒l happen anytime soon in L.A. 

鈥淭he district doesn鈥檛 want to touch them,鈥� said DeRoche of LAUSD鈥檚 school zones, 鈥渂ecause families overpaid for homes within those lines.鈥�&苍产蝉辫; 

LA Unified officials say school attendance boundaries are shaped by a range of factors, including geography, enrollment trends, and school capacity. A district spokesperson saud boundaries are reviewed and adjusted as needed to support students and communities. 

According to conducted by Realtor.com, California has some of the largest public school real estate premiums in the U.S., with some of the most expensive school zones.

Home buyers may think the unequal nature of LA鈥檚 school zones is a consequence of a tight real estate market, DeRoche said, but at least eight LA elementary schools have school zones that closely mirror the racist, redlining maps of the 1930s, according to documents he recently unearthed. 

Redlining maps were developed by the federal government for use in mortgages and color-coded neighborhoods by their perceived investment risk. Areas with large numbers of Black residents were graded as “hazardous” and marked in red, leading to decades of disinvestment and segregation.  

For at least eight LAUSD schools, today鈥檚 student attendance boundaries match those of the discredited redlining maps nearly exactly. If a map of the school zone is placed atop a redlining map, the boundaries are the same. Attendance zones for many other schools match those of redlining maps partially. 

DeRoche made this startling discovery about LAUSD鈥檚 school zones while conducting an investigation of the district for his 2025 paper 鈥�,鈥� which showed how lower- and middle-income families experience difficulty accessing top LAUSD elementary schools.

The use of school zones that mirror redlining maps occurs in public school districts across the country, but, in Los Angeles, it鈥檚 more prevalent than the national average, according to the research conducted by Monarrez and Chien for the Urban Institute.

Redlining isn鈥檛 the only vestige of America鈥檚 segregationist past that shows up in school zones. Across the country, modern school district boundaries of ,鈥� where threats against Black people . 

Many of the school zones within LAUSD were drawn decades ago, and it鈥檚 unclear if those identified by DeRoche were drawn with the redlining maps in mind or not, he said. 

But it鈥檚 unlikely many parents of students enrolled in sought-after LAUSD elementary schools such as Ivanhoe Elementary, Mt. Washington Elementary and Mar Vista Elementary are aware that their school zones reflect those racist maps, DeRoche said. 

Nick Melvoin, a second-term LAUSD school board member whose district includes Mar Vista, said he wasn鈥檛 aware Mar Vista鈥檚 attendance zone mirrors that of an old, local redlining map, until DeRoche told him.  

The plain-spoken former attorney said he wasn鈥檛 surprised, though, given the history of exclusionary education policy in L.A. County, where Los Angeles Unified is but the largest of more than 70 local school districts.

鈥淭hat is something that we don’t acknowledge,鈥� said Melvoin. 

Throughout the county and over time, a number of districts that are surrounded by and adjacent to LAUSD have carved themselves out of the larger, more diverse district of LAUSD, 鈥渟o that they have a little bit more exclusivity,鈥� Melvoin explained.

That list, he said, includes Beverly Hills Unified, Santa Monica-Malibu Unified and Culver City Unified. 

In a perfect world, Melvoin said, maybe the attendance zone around Mar Vista in his own board district would be changed, but a better solution is to offer options that give families the choice to exit their local school zones and enroll in better options.

鈥淚’d like a world where there are no enrollment boundaries, to really make sure that we’re equitable,鈥� he said, 鈥渂ut where folks are still choosing their local schools, because we just have such a surplus of high quality options.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Some of the non-zone school options for LAUSD families include magnet schools, charter schools and schools in the district鈥檚 Open Enrollment platform, where families may enroll in schools outside their zones, as long as there are seats. 

An LAUSD spokesperson said 40% of students enrolled in schools outside their zoned area in the 2024-25 school year, reflecting the pervasiveness and efficacy of the district鈥檚 school choice programs. That鈥檚 up from 28% a decade ago, the spokesperson said.

Critics, including DeRoche, say the district鈥檚 programs still don鈥檛 do enough to provide good options for families.

DeRoche鈥檚 2025 report found enrollment is down 46% among 456 LAUSD elementary schools from their peak, while over half of these schools have seen enrollment decline by over 50% over the last two decades. 

The decline has left a lot of open space in 39 high-performing schools, but that doesn鈥檛 mean LA students are filling them, according to DeRoche鈥檚 analysis. In fact, he and his team found nearly 7,000 empty seats in the sought-after schools. 

LAUSD officials disputed the analysis, saying its use of peak enrollment to measure school capacity is inaccurate, because those schools were overcrowded then.  

Melvoin said the district is working hard to make it easier for families to access schools outside their local zones, by providing its Open Enrollment platform to make it easier for families to enroll, and also by providing transportation for families that request it. 

鈥淣ow, throughout LA Unified in every grade level, families have other choices,鈥� he said. Dual language and magnet programs, charters and schools of advanced studies are a few of the options available, he said. 

Beyond LA, a movement to promote school choice and eliminate dependence on zoned schools is gaining steam, said Derrell Bradford, president of the national education 50颁础狈.听

Bradford and his nonprofit are part of an alliance of more than 50 nonpartisan education groups committed to ending discriminatory public school district boundary lines, called the. 

The coalition argues that school boundaries are based on a student鈥檚 ZIP code and, de facto, a family鈥檚 wealth based on their home value. Formed last year, it has set a goal of ending the practice in all 50 states by 2030.

States, including Idaho, Nevada and Kansas, are already working to promote open enrollment with state laws that modify existing school zoning policies, said Bradford.

鈥淓verything about how people think about where you go to school, and how you get into school is kind of up for public discussion right now, in a way that I think is helpful,鈥� said Bradford. 鈥淚ts time has come.鈥�

A painter prepped the side of a classroom building at the school for a new mural 鈥� smiling dragons in caps and gowns, and the district slogan: 鈥淩eady for the World.鈥� On a patch of pavement sat a mini outdoor library featuring a small seating area, an umbrella for shade and a cart full of books.

She hopes the features prompt visitors to ask, 鈥淲ho鈥檚 the principal here?鈥� But the progress at 135th, part of the Los Angeles Unified School District, goes much deeper. Chronic absenteeism is down to 13%, from 17% in 2024. Over the past two years, the percentage of students meeting state standards in English language arts has climbed from 25% to 37%. In math, it grew from 26% to 34%.

The changes, along with the formation of a STEM lab and the addition of afterschool Boys and Girls Clubs, were enough to convince Daveyeon Shallowhorn, the school鈥檚 plant manager, to pull his two kids out of a nearby Catholic school and enroll them in 135th.

鈥淚 just see different things being offered that I don’t usually see,鈥� he said.  

Districtwide, leaders are celebrating the highest-ever performance on California鈥檚 state test. But the strong gains in math, reading and science, at every grade level, weren鈥檛 limited to wealthier, or high-performing magnets. They were evenly distributed across some of the district鈥檚 most challenging, high-poverty schools, like 135th.

Some say Superintendent Alberto Carvalho鈥檚 centralized approach to steering the nation鈥檚 second-largest district is lifting performance at schools that languished near the bottom for years. The seven-member school board, which hired him in 2021, reaffirmed their confidence in his leadership last month, to renew his contract for another four years. But others say there are likely multiple explanations for the boost. The question is whether the positive trends will continue in a city where the powerful has a history of resisting top-down programs.

鈥淚f Carvalho is seeing gains, that means our students are gaining,鈥� said Jose Luis Navarro, a former principal in the district who now coaches school leaders. For now, United Teachers Los Angeles is unhappy that a recently adopted budget didn鈥檛 include raises. Nevertheless, Navarro urged the union to embrace Carvalho鈥檚 agenda. 鈥淵ou鈥檝e already tried fighting every superintendent for the last 40 years. Just try working with one and see what happens.鈥�

The improvements came in spite of wildfires that wiped out part of the city, a crackdown on undocumented students and a federal government trying to on blue California. 

鈥淥ur kids, our students persevered,鈥� Carvalho, who declined to be interviewed, said at his back-to-school address in late July. 鈥淭hey, in fact, soared.鈥�

But while students from all racial groups improved, significant gaps remain. At least two-thirds of white and 74% of Asian third-graders met or exceeded expectations in reading, compared to 37% of Latino students and 31% of Black students. 

鈥淲e will redouble our efforts. We will redouble our commitment,鈥� he pledged at an Oct. 10 press conference at Maywood Elementary. 

鈥楽maller numbers鈥�

Experts say the recent achievement growth among the district鈥檚 neediest students is likely a cumulative effect of several initiatives, including a more uniform approach to instruction, extra help for kids who are the furthest behind and a concentrated focus on the most troubled schools. 

But Carvalho has 鈥済enerally good instincts about what works,鈥� said Morgan Polikoff, an education professor at the University of Southern California. The district adopted a research-based literacy curriculum, has over 10,000 teachers in the science of reading and has spread some of those to math instruction. 鈥淚t seems the district is investing in quality curriculum and supporting teachers to use it.鈥�

As scores go up, however, enrollment continues to dwindle. Over the past five years. LAUSD has lost .

But that factor could be working in the district鈥檚 favor. That鈥檚 because for now, LAUSD, unlike , has , leaving some schools with more staff per student.

鈥淵ou already have built-in small group instruction with smaller numbers,鈥� said Nery Paiz, principal of Glen Alta Elementary School, east of downtown. With an enrollment of about 100, his average class size is about 19 students, he said. 

shows that such 鈥減ronounced鈥� declines can sometimes lead to increases in test scores. found that enrollment loss doesn鈥檛 immediately translate into funding cuts, freeing up more resources for schools in the short term. LAUSD鈥檚 $18.8 billion budget, adopted in June, increases spending for majority-Black schools, arts programs and support for LGBTQ students.

鈥楴o secret sauce鈥�

Some in the district say the uptick in scores would have happened without Carvalho, whom they dismiss as a slick media personality.

鈥淲e’re far enough away from the lockdowns that teachers have been able to recover, and students have been able to recover,鈥� said Nicolle Fefferman, a veteran high school social studies teacher in the district. 鈥淭here is no secret sauce to teaching.鈥�

She helps lead an advocacy group, Parents Supporting Teachers, whose members are far less enamored with Carvalho than when he arrived in early 2022. The district鈥檚 failed experiment with a $6 million AI chatbot has drawn accusations of misspending. Officials discontinued use of the tool when the company went under. Others argue he to close schools during the fires, relying on guidelines that failed to account for multiple fires burning across the region and filling the air with . 

Some parents say students have in school and are unhappy with Carvalho鈥檚 move to roll out an online program called . To Fefferman, the digital lessons and assessments represent 鈥渙vertesting,鈥� which the teachers union has traditionally opposed. UTLA didn鈥檛 respond to requests for comment, but Maria Nichols, president of Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, the principals union, said i-Ready has created 鈥渇riction鈥� between school leaders and teachers who object to the program.

The increase in scores is worth celebrating, she said, but said it came 鈥渙n the backs of the [principals] who are working 60 hour weeks.鈥� Her union joined with UTLA and SEIU Local 99, which represents non-teaching employees, outside schools Sept. 16. All three are currently in negotiations with the district over salaries and working conditions. 

Board President Scott Schmerelson, who has the union鈥檚 support, said such concerns are to be expected. It鈥檚 a 鈥済eneral rule鈥� to complain about the superintendent 鈥渘o matter what he says, no matter what he does,鈥� he said. But he called the 鈥済rumbling鈥� minimal. 

He鈥檚 particularly enthusiastic about the district鈥檚 Black Student Achievement Plan, a $175 million initiative that provides schools serving Black students additional counselors, cultural activities and field trips. Former Superintendent Austin Beutner proposed the program in early 2021 to reduce achievement gaps. Under Carvalho, it continues to expand, in spite of challenges from who say it discriminates against students of other races. 

Since last year, students in Black Student Achievement Plan schools have seen slightly more growth in reading and math than the district as a whole. 

The additional resources have 鈥渉elped [Black students] a lot, not only academically but emotionally,鈥� Schmerelson said. 鈥淚 think they feel important. I think they feel respected.鈥�

鈥楴othing short of remarkable鈥�

With high expectations, the board voted unanimously to hire Carvalho in late 2021. At the time, Pedro Noguera, dean of education at the University of Southern California, likened the award-winning superintendent鈥檚 arrival to鈥淟eBron coming to the Lakers.鈥� The board trusted that Carvalho鈥檚 success leading the Miami-Dade schools for 14 years would follow him to the West Coast. 

But efforts to overcome COVID learning loss and rise above pre-pandemic performance began a year earlier, with schools still locked down. Most students wouldn鈥檛 set foot in classrooms for another year. 

Beutner used COVID relief funds to launch Primary Promise, a highly popular effort to target extra instruction to struggling readers, including English learners, students in foster care and others most likely to fall further behind because of school closures. 

In 2021, a Boston-based consulting group that designed the model 鈥渘othing short of remarkable.鈥� On average, students began the year reading five words correctly per minute. Some couldn鈥檛 read at all. After 10 weeks, they were close to reaching the goal of 21 words per minute.

Julie Navarro, who is married to Jose, worked on the program as a reading specialist at Panorama City Elementary in the San Fernando Valley, where she said teachers were eager to share materials and ideas with each other. 

鈥淚t was seriously the most positive collaboration I’ve ever been a part of,鈥� she said. Primary Promise teachers attended monthly training that she described as 鈥渨ell-planned, thorough and research-based.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Then Carvalho , arguing that with relief funds drying up, it was unsustainable to keep paying instructional aides to staff the program. The renamed Literacy and Numeracy Intervention expanded services into higher grades, drawing criticism from who said the emphasis on the early grades was what made it effective. Beutner and Ray Cortines, also a former superintendent in the district, called the move .

鈥淚 had never seen teachers who were willing to die on the hill of an LAUSD program,鈥� Fefferman said. 鈥淎s a high school teacher, I was like 鈥榊es, please make sure they can read by third grade.鈥� 鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

In Julie Navarro鈥檚 view, educators who lead the intervention work are sometimes 鈥減ulled in multiple directions鈥� and the program has 鈥渓ess integrity鈥� than the original. But Panorama, she said, is an example of staying true to the model of giving students small group instruction and consistently tracking their progress.

The school has seen double digit increases in reading and math since 2022 and was on this year鈥檚 list of . With many families facing financial hardship and newcomers navigating language and cultural barriers, Julie described the population as 鈥渢he most-challenged families I鈥檝e ever seen all at one school. In spite of their situation, they were growing.鈥�

鈥楰ids know their data鈥�

Close attention to student data was a hallmark of the Primary Promise program. Carvalho expects the same level of monitoring districtwide with i-Ready. The platform, Schmerelson said, helps teachers know whether to 鈥渟low down鈥� the pace of learning for students who are struggling or move kids ahead.  

On a bulletin board in a second grade classroom at 135th Elementary, students鈥� initials are clustered into four color-coded groups 鈥� from blue for exceeding standards in i-Ready down to red for being two grade levels behind. Some argue that 鈥渄ata walls鈥� if they鈥檙e not among the high-achievers. But Tanya Ortiz-Franklin, the school board member whose district includes the school, believes the practice motivates students to work hard. 

鈥淜ids know their data and teachers know their data,鈥� she said. 鈥淭hey are using it to move instruction. That鈥檚 exactly what we’ve been trying to do for years.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

Her region encompasses 175 schools that stretch from the Port of Los Angeles in San Pedro 鈥� the busiest container terminal in the U.S. 鈥� to the historic Black neighborhoods south of downtown. They include Maya Angelou Community High School, one of Carvalho鈥檚 121 鈥減riority schools,鈥� where he takes a more hands-on approach to tracking data and staffing schools with extra counselors and academic coaches. 

鈥淚 spend 90% of my time dealing with 10% of the schools,鈥� Carvalho said at a conference at  Harvard University in September. 鈥淭hey are accountable directly to me.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;

The schools have some of the poorest achievement and attendance rates in the district, and in Maya Angelou鈥檚 case, a high rate of community violence. In 2019, the listed the high school among those with at least 50 homicides within a one-mile radius over a five-year period. In 2023, a stray bullet during a football game at the school.

鈥淏eing an inner-city school, it’s very easy to focus on the negative aspects that happen here. That’s the low hanging fruit,鈥� said Principal Jose Meza. That鈥檚 why he encourages staff and students to 鈥渇lood鈥� social media platforms with positive news, like a poetry night for newcomers, and the 13 students admitted to Berkeley and the University of California Los Angeles this year.

鈥淓mbracing our roots and honoring our heritage,鈥� the school posted on Instagram for Hispanic Heritage Month, with a reel of students dancing, sampling food and displaying artwork.

But in trying to make students feel welcome and safe inside the fence that surrounds the school, Meza has also tightened up the academic program. He reassigned counselors to students by grade level, rather than grouping them alphabetically. The change allows ninth graders to get extra support as they adjust to the demands of high school.

He gives students a double dose of Algebra I each day if they need it, and moved credit recovery courses to the regular school day instead of afterschool or on Saturdays when they鈥檙e less likely to come. His students have posted gains in state scores the past two years, but two-thirds of 11th graders still don鈥檛 meet expectations in language arts and over 80% are failing math.

鈥淗alf of our students are coming in below grade level,鈥� he said 鈥淭hat doesn’t mean we’re going to treat them as such. We’re going to have expectations that are aligned to the standards.鈥�

Carvalho aims to create more consistency in teaching across the district, but he鈥檚 choosing math and reading programs based on the experience of schools that tested programs and found them to be effective with high-need students, said Rick Miller, CEO of CORE Districts, a network of nine large systems in the state, including LAUSD.

Illustrative Math, now being phased in districtwide, is one example. Teachers at Jordan High School, in a densely populated neighborhood of housing projects and small homes, were among the first to use the program. 

On a Monday morning earlier this month, 10th graders in Luis Lopez鈥檚 geometry class opened their workbooks to a new lesson on congruent shapes. They chatted with classmates about the set of rectangles on the page before Lopez stepped in to remind them of vocabulary words like 鈥渧ertices鈥� and 鈥渃orresponding.鈥� The curriculum is structured so that students grapple with new concepts and work together on problems before teachers deliver a full lesson. 

鈥淲hen we were going to school, especially in math, it was 鈥業 will model. I’m the teacher and now 鈥� you’ll just do 100 problems,鈥� 鈥� said Principal Alex Kim. This curriculum, he said, flips that process while also ensuring the tasks focus on grade-level material.

The program has gained popularity in other districts. The New York City Public Schools saw a decline in scores after implementing the curriculum in hundreds of schools. But two , one in Missouri and one in Maryland, found that students using Illustrative Math outperformed those who didn鈥檛. At Jordan, a quarter of 11th graders met expectations in math, compared to less than 4% two years ago.

鈥楬istoric generational implications鈥�

To some former LAUSD parents, the improvements are too little, too late.

They are cynical about any post-pandemic rebound, saying that the district contributed to learning loss by staying closed almost until the end of the 2020鈥�21 school year. 

鈥淚 don’t think LAUSD should get credit for putting out a fire that it was responsible for lighting,鈥� said Ben Austin, a longtime Democratic political adviser and former member of the state school board. 鈥淢y daughters didn’t go to school for 18 months, along with all the other kids in LAUSD. That obviously had historic generational implications.鈥�

California鈥檚 sluggish reopening affected students statewide, but what angered some LAUSD parents the most was the teachers union鈥檚 influence over remote instructional time during school closures. In March 2021, 社区黑料 reported that the union negotiated a reduced, six-hour school day despite district officials saying they didn鈥檛 want to 鈥渟hortchange the students.鈥� The revelation came during a lawsuit, against the district and the union.

The agreement promises 45 hours per year of high-dosage tutoring to 100,000 students who are the furthest behind as well as summer school for up to 250,000 students in the district who were affected by the extended closures.

During the 2020-21 school year, Judith Larson said her daughter鈥檚 remote classes often 鈥渆nded well before they were supposed to鈥� or that teachers used the sessions to collect homework assignments rather than provide live instruction. Her daughter lost so much ground in math that last year, as a junior in high school, she scored at a sixth grade level. In English, she was two years behind and losing hope that she would be able to attend the University of California Los Angeles, her dream school. Now a senior, she鈥檚 made progress, but still struggles in math. 

鈥淪he is working hard to bridge the gap,鈥� her mother said. 鈥淚 am hoping that the high-dose tutoring 鈥� will help her get there.鈥�

As with schools nationwide, the pandemic worsened longstanding achievement gaps in LAUSD. There鈥檚 still a 30 percentage point difference between poor students and those from wealthier families in reading and math. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 a long way to go,鈥� and 鈥渨ith each year, progress gets harder,鈥� Miller said. But as a former state education official, he never expected LAUSD to outperform the state. 鈥淭hey were too big.鈥�

This year, LAUSD鈥檚 growth exceeded the state鈥檚 and California鈥檚 other large school districts. During the press event at Maywood Elementary, state Superintendent Tony Thurmond was on hand to mark the achievement. He organized a webinar so other districts in the state could 鈥渉ear some of the stories about what has created that success.鈥�

Speaker after speaker stepped to the podium to share in what one board member called a 鈥渨atershed moment鈥� for LAUSD. Drawing a few chuckles, Carvalho paused to note that Thurmond had to slip out early and 鈥済ive some love to other lower-performing districts.鈥�&苍产蝉辫;