Los Angeles Unified sued over ‘inadequate’ plan for distance learning

California’s biggest district is the subject of the state’s first lawsuit over distance learning.

Charging that Los Angeles Unified’s “inadequate” plan for remote learning violates students’ constitutional rights, nine parents filed a lawsuit Thursday in Los Angeles County Superior Court. They claim that Black and Latino children, English learners and students with disabilities have been disproportionately harmed by not getting sufficient instruction and the services they’re entitled to.

Two student advocacy groups, Parent Revolution and Innovate Public Schools, organized the lawsuit. The law firm of Kirkland & Ellis is handling the case without charge.

In legislation that Gov. Newsom signed this month, the state set minimum distance learning requirements, including hours of daily instruction, live daily interaction and support services, including mental health services. The lawsuit argues the district’s plan, which it negotiated with United Teachers Union, either doesn’t comply or falls short of what other districts are doing.

“Comparable districts like San Diego and Fresno have kept teacher time constant, rather than reducing student contact time in a time of crisis. Why is LAUSD retreating?” Paul Reville, a professor at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and former Massachusetts secretary of education, wrote in a supporting testimony filed with the lawsuit.

Also Thursday, in other education litigation, three online charter organizations, representing 310 online charter operations in California, filed a second lawsuit over the state’s failure to fully fund the growth in student enrollments in their schools. In budget cleanup language passed in August, the Legislature partially increased funding for in-person charter schools with approved plans for growth in 2020-2021; that mostly addressed complaints by three of four charter schools organizations that filed suit last spring; the fourth, John Adams Academy, a TK-12 “Classical leadership” network, is continuing the lawsuit. The Legislature’s deal, however, left out online and hybrid charter schools — those whose students attend both online and in-person classes — leading to the second lawsuit.