Dive Brief:
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Los Angeles Unified School District will provide remedial measures for hundreds of thousands of students under a settlement to a lawsuit brought in 2020 on behalf of low-income and other marginalized students. The lawsuit claimed distance learning policies during COVID-19 violated students' state rights to a basic education and discriminated on the basis of race and wealth.
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The sweeping settlement in Shaw, et al. v. LAUSD et al. — which was filed in the Superior Court of California on Wednesday and is still subject to court approval — would provide an array of measures over the next three school years, beginning in 2025-26.
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Those measures include but are not limited to at least 45 hours of high-dosage tutoring for more than 100,000 students, mandatory math and English language arts assessments, mandatory teacher training, student and family outreach measures to combat chronic absenteeism, and summer school programs continuing through the summer of 2028.
Dive Insight:
The prospective settlement with one of the nation's largest school districts is also one of the most comprehensive to result from the COVID-19 pandemic, which triggered a host of lawsuits from parents and families who claimed that school districts shortchanged students' rights during school building closures and remote learning.
Issues flagged in lawsuits stemming from the public health crisis and its impact on school operations ranged from services for students with disabilities to masking requirements.
In another settlement reached last year, California agreed to spend at least $2 billion to help students recover from COVID-19-related learning loss.
That lawsuit, Cayla J. v. State of California, alleged that students — especially Black and Latinx students from low-income families — were harmed because of minimal instructional times during remote learning, and because of a lack of devices, internet connectivity and other digital tools.
The Shaw lawsuit included similar claims.
"These students needed every single day of school, which disappeared overnight," the amended complaint filed in 2021 said of the impact on marginalized student groups. Those groups include students from low-income or minority backgrounds, English learners, students experiencing homelessness, and students with disabilities. "Unfortunately, in responding to one crisis, the LAUSD created an entirely different educational crisis for its students."
The complaint claimed LAUSD reduced teacher work time, instructional time, training and professional development; that it eliminated student assessments; and that it failed to ensure access to technology for students, among other things.
Under LAUSD's plan for distance learning, plaintiffs claimed, high school students only received a maximum of 13 hours a week of live instruction as compared to the 31.5 hours before the pandemic. Overall, the lawsuit said, all students lost out on 17 to 19.5 hours per week.
An LAUSD spokesperson told K-12 Dive that the district does not comment on pending or ongoing litigation.
