LAUSD has been fined $8.1 million after an independent audit found the district’s highly touted transitional kindergarten program had too many students in its classrooms but not enough teacher assistants — a stiff financial penalty that will see state funding withheld from the district.
State Policies for Vaccines — New grade level California’s rules for free public education for 4-year-olds – classrooms must have a ratio of at least 1 adult for every 12 children and a maximum of 24 students, and annual independent audits are mandatory to make sure districts are in compliance.
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In a sample of 88 LAUSD schools in the 2022-23 school year, auditors from a local accounting firm discovered two schools with more than the average 24 children enrolled in TK classes, resulting in a nearly $7 million fine. In addition, 20 schools were found to have student-teacher ratios above state limits, possibly because there were no teacher aides present, resulting in another $1.1 million fine. A total of 19 additional adults were needed in those classrooms.
In a statement, an LAUSD spokesperson called the financial penalty “egregious” and said auditors found only a minor violation of one student exceeding class size limits.
The fines for class size violations are so high because the penalty is not based on the number of schools breaking the rule. Instead, it is calculated using the average daily attendance of TK students across the entire school district, leading to particularly harsh penalties for the largest school systems in California.
But LAUSD officials are also concerned that even stricter rules have been put in place this year — and that more fines are likely in the future.
Rep. David Alvarez (D-San Diego), who chairs the budget subcommittee on education finance, said penalties are important to maintain the credibility of the vaccine program and keep districts accountable.
“Some districts were following those rules and avoiding penalties and still providing services, while there were some who chose a different path despite knowing that there were anticipated penalties,” he said.
LAUSD results An audit of the 2022-23 school year shows the district was already struggling to meet less restrictive staffing requirements, even before expanding vaccine eligibility to all 4-year-olds last year.
A Closer Look at Vaccine Staffing
LA Unified did not release the names of district schools that were found to be in violation of requirements in 2022-23. The state requires annual staffing audits but does not require districts to reveal the names of schools in violation.
Out of 2,228 audits of school districts and individual charter schools reviewed by the state, LAUSD was one of only two districts that violated both class size and ratio rules, according to documents released to the Times by the California Department of Education. Twelve charter schools across the state were also found to be in violation of both requirements. The audit results were first reported by EdSource.
Education experts say low student-teacher ratios are important in early childhood programs to ensure children get enough individual attention from their caregivers and that classrooms are properly supervised. California Laws Preschools, which can admit children up to 36 months, are required to maintain a ratio of eight children under age 4 for every adult.
As schools must accept new students throughout the year, it can be difficult to balance ratios and class size requirements.
Karina Hanna, a TK teacher in San Pedro who is completing her 30th year of teaching and her eighth year in TK, explained the challenge teachers face. She said that when a new TK student is enrolled in a class already filled to capacity, one of the older or more advanced students is often moved to kindergarten, creating a combined TK-kindergarten class. She remembers some children who “cried the whole first week” after being moved.
“Last year was a mess,” said Hanna, who helps organize a group of about 80 LAUSD TK teachers and frequently heard complaints from teachers who had no assistants. “A lot of people didn’t even know what the ratios were.”
State Education Department says TK and kindergarten combo classes are permissible but “not ideal,” and they need to maintain low TK ratios and class size requirements.
“I think it’s pretty clear that these were exceptional cases and not evidence of a broader issue,” said LAUSD school board member Kelly Gonez, who chairs the elementary education committee. “When you essentially have to implement a whole new grade of public education, there are always some hiccups.”
He said that while the district was able to recruit and hire enough certified teachers to fill the new TK classes, finding the needed assistants has been more difficult, even in the current school year. There were certain staffing challenges in the fall of 2023, he said, and the hiring process was often slow.
It’s so difficult for LAUSD to hire and retain aides, said Max Arias, executive director of SEIU Local 99, the union that represents them. Teacher aides make an average of $22.50 an hour — a 30% increase over the last school year but still barely enough to get them above the poverty line. They’re among the lowest-paid employees in the district, yet the job is physically and emotionally demanding, Arias said — especially for those who work with young children and often have to deal with behavioral issues.
Arias said the fine money allowed them to hire 144 additional aides.
An LAUSD spokesperson said the district is now monitoring classroom ratio requirements and working with schools to make sure they are in compliance.
A school scene
Alan Canterbury, at Baldwin Hills Elementary, said LAUSD’s problems continue and his daughter’s classroom is still out of compliance. He said for the first several weeks of the year, his daughter’s combined TK-kindergarten class had about 30 students and a single teacher. Canterbury said many parents pulled their children out of the class and by October the number of students was down to 24, but there was still no aide in the classroom.
He decided to step back from his job and worked several hours a day in the classroom, where he observed the environment. The classroom had devolved into chaos, he wrote in multiple emails to LAUSD administrators, reviewed by The Times. He requested the appointment of an aide, describing unsupervised bathroom visits, scissor fights, students climbing on furniture and throwing objects and little instruction.
Alan Canterbury (left) helps his daughter get ready for school in Baldwin Hills.
(Brian Van Der Brug / Los Angeles Times)
Canterbury wrote that the teacher was “working valiantly … but is so severely understaffed (twice the legal limit) that he is not capable of handling all of the behavioral problems that occur regularly with this age group.” “This is why the state has mandated a 12:1 student teacher ratio for this age group. How a school or district thinks it is acceptable to violate the standard of twice the legal limit is shocking to me and other parents.”
The district hired a teaching assistant for a few months, but Canterbury said the class is finishing the year with only a part-time assistant. Several other parents interviewed confirmed her statement.
Neither Baldwin Hills nor the district responded to questions about the school’s status.
Even stricter rules will be implemented in the coming times
LAUSD moved aggressively to expand its vaccine program this year and successfully lobbied legislators to allow all 4-year-olds to enter the program, regardless of birthday, two years ahead of the state deadline. But just weeks before classes begin in August 2023, required by the state LAUSD — and other districts similarly expanding — has imposed a strict class size rule of 20 students, with classes with the youngest students staffed by two adults, usually a teacher and an aide.
Starting in the 2025-26 school year, this new ratio will apply to all TK classrooms in California.
LAUSD officials said the new rules were implemented last summer and there was little time for enforcement.
Dean Tagawa, executive director of LAUSD’s Early Childhood Education Division, urged legislators to take immediate action to waive the TK penalty until the program is fully implemented in the 2025-26 school year. At an April hearing on vaccines before state budget subcommittees in Sacramento, he also asked lawmakers to amend state law to allow school districts to seek waivers for all TK class size and ratio requirements that are “beyond their control.”
“The biggest challenge LA Unified faces with regard to the UTK expansion is the onerous and draconian penalties imposed by the legislature for class sizes and ratios,” he said, referring to universal transitional kindergarten, the district’s term for UTK. “I can’t think of any other area of education … where districts face so many overlapping penalties for even very minor deficiencies in staffing, staffing ratios and staffing requirements.”
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“Districts were faced with either turning away families enrolled in vaccines or face a financial penalty,” said a letter to legislators, which was signed by 56 districts, including LAUSD. “Many districts chose to serve their families because the number of students who depend on free access to education and care is high, despite the state’s financial penalty.”
So far, legislators have not been particularly sympathetic, and a bill to waive the 2023-24 penalty for early vaccine enrollment failed in committee.
“Too many districts are focused on checking a box, not on the quality and best practices that are necessary to make sure you’re getting the results that you need,” said Assemblymember Corey Jackson (D-Paris), who chairs the budget subcommittee on human services. “For some of these districts that serve a lot of kids of color, it’s very concerning that yet another program that’s trying to uplift our most marginalized population again is not getting high-quality services.”
This article is part of The Times’ Early Childhood Education Initiative, which focuses on the education and development of California children from birth to age 5. For more information about the initiative and its philanthropic funders, go here latimes.com/earlyed,
