Latest news with #L.A.Unified
Los Angeles Times
25-07-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
Big win for charter schools as court strikes down L.A. Unified policy
In a victory for Los Angeles charter schools, a judge has struck down a sweeping Los Angeles Unified policy that would have prevented charters — the school of choice for 1 in 5 L.A. public-school students — from using classroom space at nearly 350 campuses. The policy, set to go into effect when the new school year opens in three weeks, had effectively barred charter schools from moving onto campuses with certain designations — including those with a special program for Black students, low-performing 'priority' schools, and community schools, which have wrap-around services to address the needs of students and families inside and outside the classroom. Altogether, some 346 campuses — out of about 1,000 — would have been off limits to charters, which are privately managed public schools. The ruling invalidated key elements of a high-profile school district policy that was supported by a board majority —but was strenuously fought by charters who said it denied them state-permitted access to space in public school facilities. 'This is a victory for all public school families and a critical affirmation of the rights of charter public school students across Los Angeles,' said Myrna Castrejón, president and chief executive of California Charter Schools Assn., which filed the litigation against Los Angeles Unified and its Board of Education. 'We're grateful the court recognized that LAUSD's blatant attempt to exclude charter public school students from learning alongside traditional district school students in the communities they share violates California law,' Castrejón said. There are 235 charters in L.A. Unified, more than any other school system in the nation. L.A. County Superior Court Judge Stephen I. Goorvitch upheld portions of the district policy, a point the school system focused on in a statement. L.A. Unified still will be able to restrict the location of charters based on safety or capacity issues. 'We are very pleased with most aspects of the court's ruling,' the statement said. The charter association 'significantly mischaracterizes the plain language of both the policy and last month's ruling. We remain firmly committed to serving the best interests of all students in our school communities while continuing to meet our legal obligations.' The school district has not decided whether to challenge the ruling. The battle over access to schools is decades long — with a trail of lawsuits. Yet in the 1990s, before that legal acrimony, charter schools offered L.A. Unified an escape valve for overcrowded traditional public schools. But charters met with union and other political opposition when they exercised their legal right to make use of these crowded public-school campuses. Charters are mostly non-union and receive the per-pupil public funding like traditional California public school students. Charter growth, housing affordability, lower birth rates and immigration decline have pushed down L.A. Unified enrollment, which has decreased by about 50% from its peak. Theoretically, classroom space should be available for all, but the competition for a smaller number of students remains intense. And, supporters of traditional schools say their campuses need more space to operate an expanded array of programs that help students succeed. They say the old formula for determining what can be handed over to charters is unfair and undermines their work — especially the important efforts of the Black Student Achievement Plan, the priority schools and community schools. But many charter schools also are state-designated community schools and L.A. Unified took no action to protect their special status and mission. While enrollment has declined faster in district-run schools, charters, too, have closed or consolidated with fewer students to go around. The ruling arrived at an especially challenging time for both charters and district-operated campuses. The Trump administration — although it is pro-charter — has scrambled the equation. L.A. charter schools and the school district have linked arms in defense of immigrant students and their families. And federal budget cuts are affecting all public schools. 'You're watching federal funding ... likely being disrupted, which impacts some of our highest-need kids,' said Amy Held, executive director of Larchmont Charter School. And federal immigration enforcement has 'impacted attendance. It's impacted graduation ceremonies. There's just a palpable fear, I think, that is not healthy for anyone.' In this shared crisis, said charter association vice president Keith Dell'Aquila. 'the district has been a good partner to our schools and our families ... whether it's helping to share and amplify resources, [or] being willing to take calls and consult.' California law gives charter schools the right to public-school facilities that are 'reasonably equivalent' to those available to other public-school students. The law also sets up a process through which charter schools can request space and pay rent to school districts. The L.A. Unified policy, which the Board of Education approved 4 to 3 in 2024, 'prioritizes District schools over charter schools and is too vague,' Goorvitch concluded in a June 27 ruling. 'To the maximum extent practicable, the needs of the charter school must be given the same consideration as those of the district-run schools.' Charters leaders have been worried that, with so many restrictions, they would be pushed out of communities and forced to operate their schools out out of two or more district-run campuses, rather than keep their student body in one place. A school-district staff analysis validated some of these concerns. 'This could significantly limit the number of TK-12 school sites that could potentially be matched to fulfill the District's legal obligations,' the analysis stated. 'It is likely that there will be more multi-site offers... This may also lead to increased costs associated with renovation work to make sites ready for co-location, and would likely make it more challenging for the District when making 'reasonable efforts' to locate the charter school 'near' where it wishes to locate.' Charter critics object to the legal obligation imposed on public school districts to share campus space, which was established by voter-approved Proposition 39 in 2000. They note that mandatory campus sharing was a little-noticed provision of Proposition 39, which was touted mainly for lowering the threshold to pass voter-approved school-construction bonds. Under Proposition 39, charters cannot be barred from campuses or simply offered leftover over campus space. The sharing process is cumbersome and must be restarted every year. Over time, most charter schools have made other arrangements. A few have negotiated multi-year sharing deals with L.A. Unified. For the 2015–16 school year, L.A. Unified received 101 requests. For the soon-to-begin 2025–26 school year, the district received 38 requests — a huge drop-off but still a number representing more than 9,300 students. Six of these charters will have to operate out of more than one district site.
Los Angeles Times
22-07-2025
- General
- Los Angeles Times
LAUSD test scores hit a new high, erasing pandemic lows with a second year of strong gains
Los Angeles schools Supt. Alberto Carvalho delivers his opening-of-schools address at Disney Concert Hall in 2023. He gives his updated annual report at the concert hall on Tuesday. After years of struggling to recover from deep pandemic setbacks, Los Angeles Unified students have achieved a 'new high watermark,' with math and English scores rising across all tested grades for the second straight year, surpassing results from before the 2020 campus closures, Supt. Alberto Carvalho said. Two years of incremental gains at every tested grade level is generally considered solid evidence that instruction is moving in the right direction, said Carvalho along with education experts. 'The coolest thing is that the district, despite all that this community went through, has now reached the highest-ever performance at all levels in English language arts and math,' Carvalho said in an interview with The Times. He is to announce the results Tuesday during his annual address to administrators and guests at Disney Concert Hall. Advertisement 'We didn't just take it back to pre-pandemic levels. We exceeded pre-pandemic levels of performance,' he said to The Times. 'We established a new high watermark.' Morgan Scott Polikoff, a professor at USC's Rossier School of Education described the gains as 'indeed impressive and seem to have, in most cases, more than erased losses attributable to the pandemic ... This is an important development and the district should be proud of it.' Nonetheless, overall results show that achievement — as measured by test scores — in the nation's second-largest school system remains a work-in-progress. Advertisement 'Large proportions of students in the district, especially students from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, are still performing below state standard,' Polikoff said. In total, 46.5% of students met or exceeded grade level standards in English Language Arts in tests conducted in April and May. In math, the figure was 36.7%. The overall numbers indicate that nearly two in three students are not meeting the math standards for their grade in the school system of about 400,000 students. Brights spots in the scores But scores look better in the details. In math, for example, scores rose 3.92 percentage points, a strong gain for one year. Last year, the gain was 2.3 percentage points — also a solid gain — bringing L.A. Unified, at the time, to within 2.7 points of the entire state. It's possible that L.A. Unified overtook the state average this year in math — although statewide data has yet to be released. Advertisement This year's gains appeared to be across the board — reaching students with disabilities, students from low-income families, Latino students and Black students. As a group, Black students rose at least four percentage points in both English and math. Nonetheless, three in four Black students still are not achieving grade-level standards in math. The number is better but still low for reading, with 36% of Black students meeting or exceeding the state standards for their grade. In its preliminary release of data, the district did not include scores for white and Asian students, so it was not possible to evaluate the extent to which the district is closing the achievement gap between these students and Black and Latino students. The gap remained substantial last year. Data from this parameter would be important to examine, said UC Berkeley emeritus professor of education Bruce Fuller. All the same, 'this post-COVID bounceback in student learning is quicker and reaching higher levels than observed in most school districts across the state.' Fuller also attributed success to the district's long-term efforts — scores had been gradually improving before the pandemic. Advertisement 'Public schools have successfully lifted the education attainment of Angeleno parents in recent decades, which helps explain their children's stronger success in school,' he said. Carvalho told The Times that the most recent scores — which reflect tests taken in the spring — were especially impressive in context. In anticipating the results, 'I had fear in my heart to a certain extent,' he said. 'You know the disruptions. We had to shut down the system because of the inclement conditions, some of it weather, but some of it smoke, ash and all that as a result of fires. And then the immigration raids. The stress. The fears.' 'This was a year without precedent for us,' he said. The longest disruption was in March 2020, when L.A. Unified campuses were shut down for more than a year during the pandemic, forcing classes online. That long-running public health emergency — during a time of job losses, disease and higher death rates — demonstrably drove down student performance on the standardized tests. Carvalho became superintendent in February of 2022. During the more recent crises, students and staff have largely soldiered through with better outcomes. A slide prepared for Carvalho's Disney Hall presentation touted the gains as the 'Highest-Ever Achievement.' Advertisement What that means is that, overall, L.A. Unified has never performed better as measured by the current state testing system, which began collecting data in 2015. L.A. Unified also had not previously improved across all grades for two years in a row, district officials said, during the 11 years of the current testing regime. Students are tested in grades 3 through 8 and grade 11 in English and math. In science, student are tested in grades 5 and 8, and once during high school. In these relatively new science tests, scores remain especially low, although they improved. Overall, 27.3% of students met the state standards in science. What contributed to the gains The testing rebound was helped by record levels of state and federal funding to cope with the harms of the pandemic. Carvalho, whose contract expires next February, said that the district used the one-time money effectively and, although it is gone, the system in place should continue to build on the academic gains. He listed a number of key initiatives as contributing to gains, such as giving more resources and applying more oversight to schools and groups of students that needed more help. He also cited better data and an ability to use it faster to tailor instruction. Tutoring — before, during and after school, and in-person and online — was a central strategy. So was increasing classroom instructional time by promoting summer school and offering mini-academies during winter and spring break, he said. Advertisement Intervention teachers were deployed to work with small groups of students and coaches helped refine teaching. Some of these efforts pre-dated Carvalho's arrival from Miami, where he had been the longtime superintendent. Challenges ahead The challenges ahead involve more than improving the quality and pace of learning. 'One of my biggest concerns is really the unpredictability of the moment in which we live, the instability of funding, but also the unpredictability and instability of policy that influences public education,' Carvalho said. California Revised LAUSD budget saves jobs today, trims future retiree health benefit contributions The L.A. school board approved an $18.8 billion budget that postpones layoffs for a year and does not cut services to students. But future years may looking much different. The U.S. Supreme Court recently cleared the path for massive layoffs at the U.S. Department of Education, as one example. 'What does that really mean in terms of at the local level for a student?' Carvalho said. In addition, enrollment has declined steadily for about 20 years. Ongoing immigration enforcement could accelerate that trend, Carvalho said. 'We have a very large number of immigrant students, or students who are children of immigrant parents with mixed status,' Carvalho said. 'I have to believe, based on stories I read and reports that I watch, that there will be families, unfortunately, in our community, who have made a decision to self -deport with their children.'
Los Angeles Times
23-06-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
LAUSD confronts looming fiscal crisis in debate over $18.8-billion budget
The Los Angeles Board of Education on Tuesday is slated to vote on an $18.8-billion spending plan for the next school year that officials say will keep cuts and layoffs at bay for exactly one more year. Union leaders and activists, meanwhile, want more from a district reserve that still contains several billion dollars. This is evidence, they say, that L.A. Unified can pay higher wages and spend more to enhance programs for Black students and immigrants — efforts that defy President Trump's push to end programs that promote racial or ethnic diversity. The budget proposed last week would spend about $400 million more than the 2024-25 academic year — but about $200 million less than the year before that — when school systems were flush with one-time state and federal pandemic aid. For parents and workers, the big picture is that L.A. Unified services and staffing for next year will look a lot like the year that just ended — a better outlook than in some districts, including San Francisco Unified and Oakland Unified. However, L.A. officials said the fiscal 'planning year' ahead will focus on identifying future cuts. Revenue next year is currently calculated at $15.9 billion, nearly $3 billion less than what the district plans to spend. The district will continue to draw down an ending balance that stood at nearly $7 billion last year and now stands at about $4.8 billion. Absent cuts, by the end of 2027-28, the district will be financially underwater, officials say. With a spending outlook in the red, state law requires the Board of Education to approve a 'fiscal stabilization plan' and send it to the L.A. County Office of Education, which is responsible for oversight to keep school systems from going bankrupt. But the district's workers also face financial pressures. They want raises and preserved health benefits. The district has offered a 2% raise to one of its largest unions, which union leaders say is not nearly enough. That 2% offer has not yet been incorporated into the district's budget projection. Just like other school systems, L.A. Unified has had to deal with the end of pandemic relief aid that was paying for added staff and recovery programs. Among the factors that helped L.A. Unified more than other school systems was a nearly $500-million boost to L.A. from the Biden administration. This was reimbursement for a comprehensive and costly COVID-19 testing program that other school systems did not undertake. In addition, L.A. Unified never hired hundreds, maybe thousands, of people it had hoped to bring on via pandemic relief aid, including mental health workers, nurses and counselors — mainly because of shortages in those high-demand fields. The state has helped by delaying the financial hit of having fewer students. L.A. Unified — like many school systems — has declining enrollment, which eventually will lead to decreased funding. Senior officials say no services to students are being cut and no full-time workers are losing employment and benefits — although some people are changing jobs and making less money. This will not be the story in the 2026-27 academic year. Other school districts have not been so fortunate. The Santa Ana Unified School hasapproved 262 layoffs, including teachers, counselors and other staff. The district has experienced a 28% enrollment decline over the last decade and has had to confront a $154-million budget deficit. Other districts with layoffs include Berkeley Unified, Pasadena Unified, Coachella Valley Unified and San Ramon Valley Unified. Still, other school systems made steep budget cuts last year. For L.A. Unified, significant cuts are targeted to start July 1, 2026. Schools are likely to lose workers — possible examples would be teacher aides or supervision aides — when the individual school is limited by its own budget restraints. These workers had been funded by the central office. This is expected to save at least $60 million a year. As many as 10 schools or, at the very least, underused buildings at various campuses would be closed — saving $30 million per year. Shrinking central and regional offices is expected to save $325 million over two years. The projected budget cuts add up to $1.6 billion over two years — which is not enough to end the deficit spending but keeps the district out of the red for three years, which is all that state law requires. L.A. Unified hired permanent employees with one-time COVID-19 relief funding that exceeded $5 billion. Without additional funding, workers will be laid off. There have been no specific discussions about which workers would lose jobs, but Supt. Alberto Carvalho said the goal would be to keep cuts as far away from the classroom as possible. A major — and largely unaccounted for — cost in the last year has been payouts related to sexual misconduct claims dating back as far as the 1940s. Last year alone, L.A. Unified paid out more than $300 million in claims. These claims will be funded through special bonds to stretch the financial burden across 15 years, but the cost still could be $50 million per year or more. Declining enrollment means state funding will decrease. At the same time, many costs have risen. This year, the district had about 408,083 students in transitional kindergarten through 12th grade. Next year's number is expected to be about 396,070, and then about 385,091 the year after that. The school system also approved larger wage packages for employees than many other districts. Another cost is unfunded retiree health benefits. There are more than 35,000 district retirees covered by post-retirement benefits. In 2023-24, for example, these expenses added up to about $331.8 million. The budget is a complex document — with money streaming in or drying up from sources with different spending rules. So, although an elementary school with declining enrollment is struggling to hold on to all of its teachers, funding for after-school programs and field trips is enormously expanded compared with a decade ago. But in the main, the district's priorities and spending are fairly consistent. At this time of year, the Board of Education is under tremendous salary pressure from unions. No employee group is satisfied with the 2% wage increase offer. Local 99 of Services Employees International Union says the district has been underhanded by keeping many employees working fewer than four hours per day. When workers reach four hours per day, they qualify for health benefits. United Teachers Los Angeles says early-career teachers need a major pay hike. A coalition of advocates wants more money targeted toward schools that have the highest needs — even if that means less money for other schools. District spending already works this way, but the advocates say the current distribution does not go far enough. The teachers union and a coalition of allies are especially pushing for a pro-immigrant, pro-Black student agenda, leaning hard on school board members they helped elect. Last week, Carvalho tried to placate them — and his board — by putting an additional one-time augmentation of $50 million into the Black Student Achievement Plan, or BSAP, for the 2025-26 school year, bringing funding to $175 million. BSAP provides extra psychiatric social workers and academic counselors, among other enhancements. Under an agreement with the Biden administration, the benefits of BSAP have to be available to all students with similar needs, not just Black students. Some of the activists want the district to return BSAP to a Black-only focus. Immigrant families are expected to benefit from $4 million more for student centers, whose services can include legal referrals and other family support. Activists wants more. There's already a sizable budget for making campuses greener, but Carvalho has agreed to add an additional $1 million a year over the next three years. So far, Carvalho's budget moves have been met with uneven support from school board members — a slim majority of four voted last week to approve the fiscal stabilization plan. Former L.A. schools Supt. Austin Beutner is leading a group that is suing L.A. Unified, accusing the district of violating voter-approved Proposition 28 — which he wrote and which provides new arts funding for every public school in California. That infusion for arts instruction was supposed to begin in the 2023-24 school year. Under the rules, the new money had to be added to arts instruction funding on top of what a school already was providing. But L.A. Unified parents and staff noticed no change in the level of arts instruction at many schools. Under pressure, Carvalho set aside more money for the arts — and he said he's also adding more in the proposed budget. The critics are not satisfied — and said it's likely that the district either must return millions of dollars in arts funding to the state or use it as intended. District officials insist that their use of arts money has been legal and appropriate. Separately, a group of student, parent and union activists continues to call for the elimination of the school police force — which a different and large contingent of parents wants to maintain and even expand. Projecting ahead three years takes in many uncertainties — including potential cuts from Trump and a Republican-controlled Congress. Trump's proposed education budget lays out cuts that would affect L.A. Unified. At-risk programs or grants include those for teacher training, and those helping students who are learning English, who are children of migrant workers or who are experiencing homelessness. The district has set aside $46 million for that possibility. A revived state economy could erase the need for cuts. At the moment, however, the state budget appears to be trending in the wrong direction.
Los Angeles Times
17-06-2025
- Business
- Los Angeles Times
Faced with paying hundreds of sex abuse claims, LAUSD authorizes up to $500 million in bonds
The Los Angeles school district will sell up to $500 million in bonds to pay for past alleged sexual misconduct — loans that must be paid back over time by the school system — part of a blizzard of claims dating back as far as the 1970s that are affecting government entities, churches and private organizations up and down the state. L.A. Unified alone has faced about 370 sexual abuse claims, according to information released Monday. By issuing bonds, which were approved at a June 3 school-board meeting, the nation's second-largest school system stretches out repayments over 15 years, diluting the toll on its annual budget — and on services and programs. Officials said Monday that L.A. Unified would initially sell $303.6 million in bonds — because that is the amount needed to retire relatively low-cost, but short-term, loans that the district had been using for payouts, which have totaled a staggering $302 million in the current fiscal year alone. While Supt. Alberto Carvalho now has the authority to go up to $500 million in bonds, 'estimates indicate that additional amounts over $500 million may be required,' according to a district spokesperson. The bonds being used are called judgment obligation bonds. Unlike traditional school-construction and modernization bonds, voter approval is not needed for these bonds. While local voter-approved school bonds are paid for with higher property taxes, these judgment bonds are repaid out of the school system's regular budget. In a separate move, the district recently set up its own insurance company to manage future abuse claims. The payments are related to Assembly Bill 218, passed in 2019, which opened a three-year window, concluding at the end of 2022, that allowed adults to file lawsuits over childhood sexual abuse going as far back as the 1940s. In addition, on an ongoing basis, the law extended the deadline for filing a claim related to childhood sexual assault to the age of 40 or within five years of when victims reasonably should have understood the harm done to them — whichever is later. Thousands of claims have been filed against religious groups, private and public schools, sports groups and nonprofit organizations. In some cases, the alleged perpetrators have been dead for decades. Since Jan. 1, 2020, approximately 370 people have come forward with child-abuse claims under the provisions of AB 218, the district disclosed Monday. Approximately 76 of those claimants allege abuses dating back to the 1940s through 1970s, while an additional 45 to 50 allege abuses in the 1980s. Dozens of cases against L.A. Unified have settled or been dismissed, according to district data. More than 275 claims are active. 'Since the passage of AB 218 we've received lawsuits from dozens of adult plaintiffs who may have been victims of sexual abuse as students decades ago,' said school board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin. 'If they all prevailed in the same fiscal year, we would pay hundreds of millions of dollars from our current budget, forcing impossible decisions about what to take away from this year's students in order to pay for the wrongs done to student victims of the past.' With the bonds, she added , 'we can pay those settlements over time — approximately 10% of the total cost for each of 15 years — rather than all at once.' If, for example, the full $320 million were paid out at once, it would represent 2% of the district's $18.4-billion spending plan for the current year — a huge chunk for one expenditure that would be drawn from education and employee programs and services. In a statement, the district recognized the competing imperatives of justice for victims and financial responsibility to the current generation of students. 'Los Angeles Unified unequivocally believes that survivors of sexual abuse deserve to be heard, supported, and empowered to pursue justice on their own terms,' the district statement said. 'AB 218 has enabled victims of childhood sexual assault to seek justice with less legal limitations. 'However, we must also acknowledge the very real and unintended consequences this law may have on public education, specifically that school districts — which rely entirely on taxpayer funding to serve students — may face lawsuits from decades past, even when current leadership, policies, and practices have changed dramatically. These legal actions, while rooted in rightful grievances, have the potential to bankrupt entire school systems.' The payout is substantial even in installments. If the district used all $500 million of the authorized bonds, it would pay back an estimated $51 million a year in principal and interest, taking the total cost of financing above $768 million, using figures supplied by L.A. Unified. L.A. Unified is far from alone in dealing with sexual abuse settlements linked to AB 218. The L.A. County Board of Supervisors in April approved what is widely thought to be the largest sex abuse settlement in U.S. history, agreeing to pay $4 billion to victims abused as children in county-run juvenile facilities and foster homes. The county, with a roughly $48-billion budget, also is relying on special bonds as well as on draining its rainy day fund. All the money will be made available to victims in the next five years, and the county expects to be repaying its bonds, with interest, for the next 25 years. Even though current and recent school district leaders apparently bear little to no management responsibility for sexual-misconduct claims arising from years ago, district officials had, until this week, provided limited transparency and little public discussion. The Times requested a listing six months ago of all sexual misconduct cases and claims filed against L.A. Unified since 2000, a request that is still pending. Earlier this month, the Board of Education approved spending authority for the $500 million in bonds with no discussion. Nor was a dollar figure included in the final version of the board report summary made available to the public. The $500 million figure was disclosed in an earlier draft that was reviewed by The Times. Franklin said the district's self-owned insurance company is part of a plan to manage liability costs going forward: 'The captive insurance covers current risks, not these claims from decades ago.' Working in combination, the bonds and the insurance, 'help us meet our long- and short-term liabilities.' Sexual misconduct liability has long been a painful and costly legacy for L.A. Unified. A review of media reports — and not all settlements are covered in the news — indicates that the school system was responsible for paying more than $372 million in judgments and settlements between 2012 and 2024. L.A. Unified is not alone in grappling with the ongoing financial impact of AB 218. 'The district urges lawmakers, advocates, and state leaders to work with school districts to ensure we can meet our moral obligation to survivors while still protecting the essential right to a free, high-quality public education for all students,' the district said in its statement. The school system has pushed through waves of reform meant to curb the potential for such misconduct — including tip lines, updated policies, regular employee training and special investigation teams. The school system also has been in disputes with insurance companies, which contested their responsibility to pay for misconduct claims. EdSource, a statewide education news site, was the first to report on the total amount of judgment obligation bonds authorized by the Board of Education. Times staff writer Matt Hamilton contributed to this story.
Yahoo
03-06-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Los Angeles School Board Moms Push for Paid Parental Leave
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 to produce a package of new parental benefits. Board Member Tanya Ortiz-Franklin, who represents LAUSD's District Seven, which includes neighborhoods such as South L.A., Watts and San Pedro, is the sponsor and a co-author of the resolution. Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for The 74 Newsletter She said it's about time the nation's second-largest district treats its workforce of more than 70,000 employees, including thousands of working moms like her, more fairly. 'Parents are spending the vast majority of their paycheck on rent and childcare, and a little bit left over for food and gas and other bills,' said Ortiz-Franklin, a former LAUSD teacher who has two young children. 'It's really affecting people's livelihood.' The resolution, which was co-sponsored by board members Karla Griego and Kelly Gonez, includes provisions for the district to support family planning, pregnancy, parental leave and childcare. The district is beginning with a demographic study to determine which employees have families, or are planning to, and identify areas of need. The study will also assess the costs of expanding leave for new parents. The district has contracts with unions that govern pay and benefits for its employees and is currently negotiating a new contract with the city's teachers union, which is also pushing for better benefits for parents. Ortiz-Franklin said new parents who work for L.A. Unified currently face an impossible choice: pay for childcare for their family or pay other household expenses. The cost of high-quality childcare in L.A., she said, exceeds the income of many LAUSD employees. She said teachers and other LAUSD workers are ineligible for the state's disability insurance program, which offers partially paid leave of up to 16 weeks for new parents. Teachers and other LAUSD employees are exempt from the state's family leave programs because the district's benefits programs predated those of the state. Often, Ortiz-Franklin said, district employees have to use their limited sick days to take parental leave, leading many teachers and other school staffers to time their pregnancies so they give birth during the summer months, when they are off anyway. In addition to calling for leave for pregnant employees, the resolution also calls on LAUSD to: Provide more access to reproductive healthcare, including fertility treatments. Create dedicated spaces for lactation at all district schools and offices. Help employees enroll their children in LAUSD schools near where they work. LAUSD officials are now working on a plan to provide these new benefits, Ortiz Franklin said, with some of the new services coming online in the current school year. Maya Suzuki Daniels, a teacher at San Pedro High School and a mother to a kindergartner and an infant, said the district needs to do more to support working parents like her. Suzuki Daniels said she's spent up to $1,600 a month for childcare, putting financial stress on her family while she's trying to work full time and raise young children. 'I exhausted all of my sick time, and I now am paying for their child care through personal loans,' Daniels said, 'which I'm told is very typical and normal for a working teacher. That sucks.'
