ARTICLE TAG

Los Angeles Unified School District

2/16/2021

Historic Board Vote Transforms Policing in Los Angeles Schools

Activists swarmed the headquarters of the Los Angeles Unified School District last summer in an effort to defund the Los Angeles School Police Department. Photo: Jeremy Loudenback
In a historic move, the Los Angeles Unified School District board voted Tuesday to transform its school police force, eliminating more than 100 positions and stationing the remaining officers off campus.

2/15/2021

Los Angeles Unified Explores Alternatives to School Police

Protesters led by Students Deserve, a youth-led group representing LAUSD students, urged the school board to defund its school police department on June 23. Photo: Jeremy Loudenback
More than half a year after voting to slash $25 million from its school police department, the Los Angeles Unified School District board will decide on Tuesday how to use that money to support Black students and promote safety on campus.

12/14/2020

Advocates for Special Needs Kids Seek Urgent Court Order on In-Person Teaching

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Austin Beutner. Photo courtesy of Los Angeles Unified School District
After months of urging one of the nation’s largest school districts to safely provide quality in-person learning to the thousands of special needs students who get little from online instruction, children’s rights groups on Friday went right to the California Supreme Court and filed a lawsuit to make it happen pronto.

3/13/2020

California Child Welfare System Braces for Coronavirus Impact 

As state and local leaders throughout Los Angeles County and statewide work to stem the spread of the novel coronavirus, concerns remain about how such measures could impact youth and families involved with the child welfare and juvenile justice systems. 

1/22/2020

LAPD Child Abuse Investigations Audit Raises New Questions

This week, the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) released a much-anticipated report focused on its response to the nearly 4,000 allegations of serious child abuse it had marked “no investigation” from January 2018 through June 2019.

11/12/2019

Audit Questions Billions in State Funds Meant for Foster Youth, Other Vulnerable Students

In 2013, Gov. Jerry Brown (D) and the state legislature established a major program meant to close the achievement gap for disadvantaged students. The increased funding from it is supposed to go to help schools better serve vulnerable groups: students from low-income families, English language learners and foster youth.

    8/20/2019

    Los Angeles Leaned Hard on Rideshare to Keep Foster Youths in School of Origin

    Since the 2015 passage of the federal Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), school districts and child welfare agencies around the country have been tasked with developing transportation plans to keep foster youth in their schools of origin if that is what they prefer.

    11/27/2018

    Los Angeles Times Series, a Reminder of America’s Decision to Pathologize Child Poverty

    The Los Angeles Times and columnist Steve Lopez launched a critically important series on child poverty Sunday. Replete with both haunting and inspiring photos taken by the talented Francine Orr, readers are introduced to Telfair Elementary School in Pacoima, which has the inauspicious designation of “having more homeless students than any other in the district.”

    1/19/2018

    Advocates Eager to Find Youth Development Funds in California’s Forecasted Cannabis Boom

    With high rates of poverty among youth in Los Angeles, a new report prepared by civil rights advocacy group Advancement Project California called on the city to ramp up youth development efforts by drawing on revenue from legalized cannabis.