Los Angeles Unified School District is considering consolidating or closing schools as the district faces continued declining enrollment and growing financial pressure. No schools have been identified for potential closure yet.
There are around 374,000 students currently enrolled in LAUSD for the 2026-27 school year which is nearly a 4% decline from the prior year. Compared to enrollment in the early 2000s, when the district enrolled over 700,000 students, enrollment has fallen by more than 40%. However, LAUSD still operates nearly the same number of campuses.
The district has linked declining birth rates, Southern California’s high cost of living and competition from publicly funded charter schools to the enrollment decline. The district has also recently linked increased immigration enforcement activity to declining enrollment among newly arrived students.
In California, student attendance plays a major role in determining how much funding school districts receive. In turn, schools with low enrollment can also lose teachers, staff, and programming. Elementary schools with low enrollment may have to combine grade levels in a single classroom as a result of students not filling the grades, while high schools may be unable to offer more electives or advanced classes.
LAUSD Chief Financial Officer Saman Bravo-Karimi said each 1% decline in enrollment costs the district about $20 million annually for the next three years, according to LAist. LAUSD is considering two possibilities: merging or consolidating a campus, or closing schools and repurposing the campus.
Parents have been raising concerns about which schools will be closed, how many, when closures could happen, where students will go, transportation and overcrowding, but LAUSD doesn’t have answers to those questions yet. The district says this stage is mainly about establishing why the district may need to consider consolidating or closing schools, rather than determining which campuses could be affected.
“I want to see accountability from LAUSD,” Gates Street Elementary parent Maria Tellos told LAist. “I want to ask questions and see what their answers are.”
The district is planning additional informational sessions through November, with more meetings planned for late fall and winter. LAUSD still has to develop a framework for determining which schools could be considered for closure or consolidation, which would require board approval afterward. Superintendent Andrés Chait has said schools selected for potential closure would generally receive at least one academic year’s notice before closing or merging.
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