More than 500,000 Los Angeles Unified School District students are headed back to school Monday as the nation’s second-largest district begins the 2024-2025 school year.
“Today we give a big welcome to 540,00 students at over a thousand schools in this district. We are thrilled. For me it’s the equivalent of waking this sleeping giant called LAUSD from its summer nap,” Superintendent Alberto Carvalho said from a school bus yard before the sun was up.
Carvalho will spend his morning making stops at several schools to visit students, teachers and staff as they come together for a new year.
This year will begin a renewed focus on student safety and continued academic growth, the School District stated in a recent news release.
“Los Angeles Unified has made significant progress in raising student academic achievement, driving up graduation rates and improving standardized test scores in reading and math, all aligned with the 2022-26 Strategic Plan,” the School District stated.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass announced on Friday the following new safety provisions have been installed by City departments to make it safer for children walking to campus:
- Implementing street safety projects in the form of “quick build” street improvements at more than 180 intersections at more than 40 schools
- Installing more than 250 speed humps near 92 schools where speeding is a known issue
- Establishing School Slow Zones with reduced 15 mph speed limits on more than 450 street segments adjoining 190 schools.
- By expediting the hiring of crossing guards, Los Angeles Department of Transportation (LADOT) will deploy more than 500 crossing guards for the coming school year, continuing the widest deployment in over a decade.
Motorists in the Los Angeles area are urged to be on the lookout for thousands of kids walking and biking to school as classes begin.