The nation’s largest charter system has dealt a crushing legal blow to its foes – but challenges remain for the once-revolutionary movement. After a series of recent losses, the charter sector in Los Angeles claimed a clear win in June when a California State Supreme Court judge struck down a Los Angeles Unified policy banning charters...

Updated July 28 Los Angeles Unified superintendent Alberto Carvalho struck a defiant tone in his back-to-school address Tuesday, pitting the district against federal authorities while praising its resilience from recent wildfires and the pandemic. Three weeks before half a million L.A. Unified students return to classes, Carvalho used the annual speech to preview new initiatives...

Looming funding cuts threaten the academic progress of Black students in districts across California, according to a report by researchers at the University of Southern California. “The Cost of Equity: Exploring Recent K-12 Federal and State Funding Shifts and Their Impact on Black Students,” examines how changes in legislative and policy could impact California’s school...

Families are mostly satisfied with their LAUSD schools — although they want improvements in school safety and better mental health services for students, an annual survey of district parents has found. The 79-page “Family Insights” report found LAUSD families saw improvements in their schools in the past year, with support for leadership of the nation’s...

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said Monday school police will create “perimeters of safety” around high school graduation ceremonies to keep out immigration enforcement agents after federal raids rocked the city last week.  Speaking at a press conference at LAUSD headquarters, Carvalho also said the district would offer transportation to graduation events,...

Three moms on the L.A. Unified School Board have assembled a resolution to improve benefits for pregnant teachers and other district employees who don’t qualify for California’s state-paid family leave. The board passed the resolution unanimously last month — and now the district is putting together a preliminary plan, with a deadline of February, 2026...

Dozens of highly-rated Los Angeles Unified schools in wealthy neighborhoods have empty seats — but most students can’t access them, according to a new analysis of state enrollment data.    “Crisis in the School House,” a 36-page report published by Available To All, a nonpartisan nonprofit led by Tim DeRoche, an author and parent who lives...

When she was laid off from her job as a Los Angeles Unified middle school teacher in the Great Recession, LAUSD school board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin couldn’t have imagined she’d be back one day as the boss.  But such is life. Ortiz Franklin took her layoff and went to law school for a second...

Sharp and independent, Brentwood native Nick Melvoin has served on the LAUSD school board since 2017.  But the attorney and former teacher said he’s never seen anything like this year, where he’s currently helping to guide the nation’s second-largest school system through some rough situations.  That includes federal agents turning up at schools, looking for...

Five years after COVID-19 shut down all the schools in Los Angeles, enrollment declines in the nation’s second largest district are worsening again. Since the pandemic, the Los Angeles Unified School District has lost more than 70,000 students. Enrollment has fallen to 408,083, from a peak of 746,831 in 2002. Losses steepened this year, too,...