The nation’s second-largest school district began the 2024-25 school year on Monday, with more than 400,000 students returning to Los Angeles Unified campuses.
The new year brings twin city partnerships to improve student safety, a new cell phone policy for students, and plans to improve campus.
In response to the pedestrian deaths, city leaders announced last week the installation of 450 speed limiters and 250 new speed bumps around campuses throughout Los Angeles to increase student safety.
In addition, more than 500 school crossing guards are being deployed for the new school year. According to official information, this is the “most extensive deployment” of school crossing guards in the city in over a decade.
The first measures were taken last year after Woman was hit and killed was hit by a car while walking to Hancock Park Elementary School with her six-year-old daughter, who was also seriously injured.
With an eye toward improving and modernizing the campus, LAUSD will ask voters in November to approve a $9 million bond.
Superintendent Alberto Carvalho told the Board of Education last week that more than 60% of the district’s school buildings are over 50 years old and in dire need of renovation.
To pass the proposed bond measure on November 5, the support of 55% of voters is needed.
Students returning to school on Monday will also have to put away their cell phones as a new policy comes into effect banning cell phones in classrooms.
In June, the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education voted for a ban on mobile phone use by students on campus during class hours, Joining a growing number of school boards to take such action, making it the largest district in the United States to do so.
Board member Nick Melvoin said the intention behind the cell phone ban was to combat cyberbullying and promote focus and concentration during class.
The original proposal cited research indicating that excessive mobile phone use is linked to increased stress, anxiety, depression, sleep disturbances, feelings of aggression and suicidal thoughts among adolescents.
Superintendent Carvalho will visit some of the district’s schools on Monday to welcome students and share his optimism for the new year. Late last month, he praised the district’s successes in his annual back-to-school address.
He praised the rebound in test scores and the district’s stable financial position despite declining enrollment since the start of the pandemic.
The district has taken a financial hit from declining enrollment numbers because state funding for districts is based on student attendance, but Carvalho noted that overall attendance and graduation rates at LAUSD have improved.
He said this has paid off in terms of test scores, with math and English scores increasing – though still below levels before the pandemic forced students to learn remotely.
“We can be really proud of our efforts to get students back on track after the pandemic – but we are not done yet,” he said in his back-to-school address.
He described the start of the new school year as another “golden opportunity… to change the lives of our students, each and every one of them.”
