Los Angeles Unified School District

"LAUSD" redirects here. For other uses, see LAUSD (disambiguation).
Los Angeles Unified
School District
Location
Los Angeles and surrounding areas
California
United States
District information
TypePublic
GradesPre K–12
EstablishedMarch 23, 1961; 63 years ago (1961-03-23)
SuperintendentAlberto M. Carvalho
Schools1,302[1]
Budget$12.6 billion
Students and staff
Students565,479
Teachers24,769
Other information
Teachers' unionsUnited Teachers Los Angeles, California Teachers Association
Websitelausd.org Edit this at Wikidata

Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) is a public school district in Los Angeles County, California, United States. It is the largest public school system in California in terms of number of students and the 2nd largest public school district in the United States, with only the New York City Department of Education having a larger student population. During the 2022–2023 school year, LAUSD served 565,479 students, including 11,795 early childhood education students and 27,740 adult students. During the same school year, it had 24,769 teachers and 49,231 other employees.[2] It is the second largest employer in Los Angeles County after the county government.[3] The school district's budget for the 2021–2022 school year was $10.7 billion, increasing to $12.6 billion for the 2022–2023 school year.[2]

The school district's jurisdiction area consists of almost all of the city of Los Angeles and all or portions of several adjoining cities and unincorporated areas in southwestern Los Angeles County, California. LAUSD has its own police force, the Los Angeles School Police Department, which was established in 1948 to provide police services for LAUSD schools.[4] The LAUSD enrolls a third of the preschoolers in Los Angeles County, and operates almost as many buses as the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority.[5] The LAUSD school construction program rivals the Big Dig in terms of expenditures, and LAUSD cafeterias serve about 500,000 meals a day, rivaling the output of local McDonald's restaurants.[5]

LAUSD has been criticized in the past for extremely crowded schools with large class sizes, high drop-out and expulsion rates, low academic performance in many schools, poor maintenance and incompetent administration.[6][7][8] In 2007, LAUSD's dropout rate was 26 percent for grades 9 through 12.[9] More recently, there are signs that the district is showing improvement, both in terms of dropout and graduation rates.[10] An ambitious renovation program intended to help ease the overcrowded conditions has been completed.[11] As part of its school-construction project, LAUSD opened two high schools (Santee Education Complex and South East) in 2005 and four high schools (Arleta, Contreras Learning Complex, Panorama, and East Valley) in 2006.[12]

  1. ^ "FSD Home". Laschools.org. Retrieved 2020-02-17.
  2. ^ a b "Los Angeles Unified "Fingertip Facts" 2022-2023" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on October 14, 2022. Retrieved October 27, 2022.
  3. ^ Largest Employers in Los Angeles County. Compiled by the LA Almanac, Source: California Employment Development Department, The Los Angeles Business Journal, and Almanac research
  4. ^ "The Los Angeles School Police Department". Archived from the original on August 11, 2006. Retrieved October 20, 2006.
  5. ^ a b Jon Fullerton, Budget and Financial Policy Unit For the Board of Education – Overview of School Finance and the LAUSD Budget Presentation to the Presidents’ Joint Commission. (Archive) August 11, 2005 – See slides 24 "LAUSD Has Almost as Many Buses as the MTA and Many More Routes", 25 "LAUSD Provides Almost Twice as Many Meals as Local McDonald’s" and 26 "LAUSD Is Executing One of the Largest Public Works Projects in the Nation"
  6. ^ "Where Have All the Seniors Gone?" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on July 28, 2011. Retrieved September 6, 2010.
  7. ^ "BOARD OF EDUCATION OF THE CITY OF LOS ANGELES : Governing Board of the Los Angeles Unified School District : REGULAR MEETING MINUTES". Archived from the original on October 18, 2002. Retrieved February 11, 2008.
  8. ^ Joel Rubin, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer – Payroll system beset from Day 1. Poor management, software failures and breakdowns in training led to a yearlong crisis at L.A. Unified. Los Angeles Times, February 11, 2008,
  9. ^ "LAUSD dropout rate lower after second look". Dailynews.com. Archived from the original on June 8, 2013. Retrieved December 15, 2015.
  10. ^ LAUSD. "201 1 – 12 GRADUATION AND DROPOUT RATES" (PDF). LAUSD. Archived from the original (PDF) on April 8, 2013.
  11. ^ Helfand, Duke, "Shake-ups Launched at Four Schools," Los Angeles Times January 11, 2002: A1.
  12. ^ Sara B. Mata (2006-09-05). "News Release". Archived from the original on September 11, 2012. Retrieved 2015-12-15.