A group of parents and guardians of Los Angeles Unified School District students in low-income populations and disadvantaged communities have settled a lawsuit over the distant learning program the school district put into place during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The suit contended that the program violated students’ constitutional and statutory rights by adopting distance learning policies that discriminated against students on the basis of race and wealth and fell fundamentally below prevailing statewide standards.
The Kirkland & Ellis law firm, which represented the parents, says the settlement will benefit hundreds of thousands of Los Angeles students and provide critical resources to the district’s most vulnerable students—including access to millions of hours of high-dose tutoring.
The settlement provides for significant programmatic reforms over the next three school years. It ensures that over 100,000 of the district’s most vulnerable students will have access to no fewer than 45 hours of high-dose tutoring per year (defined as small group or one-on-one tutoring, aligned with the student’s classroom learnings, held at least three times per week and for 30 minutes per session). That amounts to over 10 million hours of guaranteed high-dose tutoring over the next three school years.
The settlement also requires the Los Angeles district to carry out other programmatic reforms over the next three school years, including:
- Targeted, evidenced-based interventions in small group settings (six students or fewer) after school, including numeracy and literacy supports, that will guarantee additional academic supports for students.
- Administration of math and English Language Arts assessments three times per year, which provide an important performance metric beyond classroom grades to determine whether students need additional tutoring or other academic support.
- Mandatory, evidence-based teacher training in math, English Language Arts, and MTSS (Multi-Tiered System Supports.
- Enhanced student and family outreach measures to re-enroll and re-engage chronically absent students.
- Summer school programs continuing through summer 2028.
- More robust, transparent and disaggregated public reporting of tutoring, grades, assessment and absenteeism data.
- Annual evaluation of and reporting on the effectiveness of tutoring programs.
The settlement agreement is subject to court approval, but the Los Angeles district already has begun carrying out the programmatic reforms, Kirkland & Ellis says.
