State officials find LA Unified shortchanged students In a ruling with statewide implications and financial repercussions for the state’s largest school district, the California Department of Education has determined that Los Angeles Unified has shortchanged low-income students, English learners and foster children by hundreds of millions of dollars they should have received through the state’s...

In a series of special meetings to address looming deficits, the LA Unified school board on Tuesday reviewed potential savings of $112 million or more, but no action was taken. The all-day discussion was the third off-site meeting held by Superintendent Michelle King to address recommendations by the Independent Financial Review Panel to stave off deficits that could reach nearly half...

While discussing cost-saving measures and reducing waste in LA Unified food services, some school board members said they wanted to bring back flavored milk. Superintendent John Deasy banned chocolate and strawberry milk from the school menu five years ago after the school board voted it was too sugary for students. But now LA Unified School Board President Steve...

*UPDATED The lockdown of two LA Unified elementary schools and a middle school near the UCLA campus following a shooting there has been lifted and classes are resuming, school police reported. Warner Avenue Elementary School, Fairburn Avenue Elementary School and Emerson Middle School had been put on lockdown “as a precaution,” said Ellen Morgan, of the...

CA lawmakers consider summer benefits for school classified workers A bill that would allow classified workers to collect unemployment insurance even though their school expects them back to work in the fall is expected to come to a vote Wednesday. It would cost the state $90 million the first year and $360 million the fourth. In...

LA Unified has so many different kinds of schools it’s hard to keep them all straight. With such varied terms as affiliated charter, independent charter, magnet school, pilot school, continuation school, option school and others, it can be a challenge to understand what they are, what they offer and how they differ. This is the...

As charters grow, public schools see sharp enrollment drop In financially struggling urban districts from LA to Philadelphia — and most notoriously, Detroit — the increasing popularity of charter schools, combined with family flight to the suburbs and declining birth rates, have caused enrollment to plummet. By Christine Armario, Associated Press Special ed tutor accused...

Students who depend on eating at school for their one — and sometimes only — meal of the day will be able to more easily find a location for free meals during the summer. The expansion of the federal Summer Food Service Program will provide more meals to children and teens 18 years and younger...

A small after-school program, branded i.am College Track in homage to founding partner musician will.i.am and his i.am angel foundation, launched in Boyle Heights four years ago with 45 students. Last week it graduated all 45 of them. At a ceremony and reception hosted by College Track Los Angeles’ Advisory Board last Thursday, local leaders Los...