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Credit: Julie Leopo\/EdSource<\/p>\n
This story has been updated to include additional information from a source. <\/p>\n
Top Takeaways<\/p>\n
A Los Angeles County Superior Court judge found that LAUSD\u2019s decision to bar co-locations on certain campuses, including BSAP, community and priority schools, is illegal. <\/p>\n
The ruling comes in response to a lawsuit filed by the California Charter Schools Association in 2024, claiming the LAUSD\u2019s co-location policy violated Proposition 39 and discriminated against charter school students. <\/p>\n
Proponents of the district\u2019s policy say co-locations on vulnerable campuses have made it harder for students to access spaces and services, including mental health supports and enrichment programs.<\/p>\n
The Los Angeles Unified School District\u2019s board overreached in declaring hundreds of schools off-limits from sharing their facilities with charter schools, a Los Angeles County Superior Court judge has ruled.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Judge Stephen Goorvitch wrote in a June 27 decision that the trustees of the state\u2019s largest school district broke state law when they categorically denied access to as many as 346 campuses of Priority, Black Student Achievement Plan and community schools. The board\u2019s policy thwarted the intent of Proposition 39 \u201cto treat District and charter schools equally with respect to the allocation of space,\u201d Goorvitch wrote.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Prop. 39 also requires that districts provide \u201creasonably equivalent\u201d facilities to charter schools.<\/p>\n
Goorvitch\u2019s decision hands a big victory to charter advocates and the plaintiff, the California Charter Schools Association, which has been battling the district over adequate facilities since voters passed Prop. 39 in 2000.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cCharter school students are public school students. They deserve equal treatment and equal opportunity to learn in safe, suitable facilities, in the communities they serve,\u201d said Keith Dell\u2019Aquila, the association\u2019s vice president of local advocacy in greater Los Angeles, in a statement.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cThis illegal policy sought to discriminate against charter families and disproportionately harmed Black and Latino students in LAUSD,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n
Declining enrollment <\/p>\n
The charter school association also claimed that with drops in enrollment, LAUSD has adequate space to serve everyone. A report<\/a> published by the nonprofit Available to All also found that enrollment had decreased by 46% over the past couple of decades at 456 district elementary schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n More than 200 schools\u00a0saw a decline of 50% or more, with some campuses having even greater reductions, according to the report.\u00a0<\/p>\n But supporters of LAUSD\u2019s policy, including United Teachers Los Angeles, the district\u2019s teachers union with more than 35,000 members, have claimed the policy was an effort to protect the district\u2019s most vulnerable students and campuses.\u00a0<\/p>\n Black Student Achievement Plan and community schools, for example, may need additional space to provide specific services for a particular student \u2014\u00a0ranging from additional counseling to enrichment programs, to wraparound supports like food pantries and basic health care.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThey all require space in order to implement some of the things that the programs call for,\u201d said United Teachers Los Angeles Vice President Georgia Flowers Lee. \u201cA restorative justice room is something that a BSAP school has, but it also requires space \u2026 the (Pupil Services and Attendance Counselors) have to have space to work. These people can\u2019t all be working out of the library at a round table.\u201d<\/p>\n Supporters of LAUSD\u2019s co-location policy also claimed that forcing district schools to share a campus with a charter leads to hostility between both schools \u2014\u00a0and takes critical resources and spaces away from students, including at Lorena Street Elementary, which Flowers said has seen a growth in enrollment but nowhere to expand, and 24th Street Elementary, which Title I coordinator Hadrian Carter said is struggling to find room for a laundry program as a community school.\u00a0<\/p>\n When Lee taught at Saturn Street Elementary, there was a possibility of co-location. And while there were empty classrooms, she said the school had a large portion of special needs students \u2014\u00a0leading to a series of unique challenges.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe have students with orthopedic impairments, students with sensory disorders,\u201d Lee said. \u201cAre we now going to have to put them on the second floor of a building? What does that mean for their safety?<\/p>\n \u201cThere has to be some consideration of the needs of the students who are there, the student body that already exists on this campus,\u201d Lee added. \u201cAre they forced to lose in order to do something else?\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n According to Ed-Data<\/a>, about 28% of LAUSD students attend charter schools, which are independent public schools run by nonprofit boards of directors. Julie Umansky, the charter schools association\u2019s executive director of the Charter Schools Legal Defense Fund, said in an email that they \u201cexpect LAUSD to immediately cease implementing those parts of the Policy that the Court deemed unlawful, including the Policy\u2019s prohibition on charter school co-locations at the nearly 350 LAUSD campuses designated as community schools, priority schools, and Black Student Achievement Plan schools.\u201d\u00a0Priority schools are the 100 high-needs schools that the district designates for receiving additional resources.<\/p>\n The organization did not challenge specific site offers and doesn\u2019t expect to see any changes in charter allocations until the 2026-27 academic year, Umansky added.\u00a0<\/p>\n What the lawsuit says<\/p>\n