The Brief

Following government warnings about the dangers of being in a war zone, California universities and colleges have safely evacuated their students who were attending study abroad programs in Israel. The future of those programs for the rest of the school year remains uncertain.

The U.S. State Department recently has categorized Israel as a Level 3 travel risk, which urges U.S. citizens to “reconsider” their travel and presence in the country “due to terrorism and civil unrest” in the aftermath of the Hamas attack on Israel and Israel’s current retaliations in Gaza. The Level 3 ranking and family concerns were enough for the University of California and the California State University systems to take action. Level 4, the worst potential ranking, is an outright travel ban.

UC’s Education Abroad Program (UCEAP) reported that its students at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem have left Israel and are all safe. However, UC declined to say how many students were involved and where they are now. Mandatory travel insurance covered the evacuation expenses.

“We can confirm that students on UCEAP-sponsored programs are safe and have departed Israel. It’s our policy, following best practices on travel safety abroad, not to disclose the number of students in a given location or their specific location during emergency or urgent location changes,” Jennifer Monroe, UCEAP’s Director of Marketing, Communications, and Engagement, said in an email to EdSource.

The students are now taking online or hybrid courses in connection with Hebrew University, she said. And UCEAP “continues to evaluate the safety and security conditions at the program location and region to determine if in-person programming can continue,” Monroe added.

The California State University reported that a Chico State student in an internship in Israel has returned to California. Another student, from the CSU Northridge campus, was about to leave home to start a program at the University of Haifa but did not depart because of the situation there.

“We will be suspending our program and not sending anyone there, said Jaishankar Raman, director of CSU’s International Programs. “We are waiting until we see how the situation unfolds for the spring and we will await what the State Department advises us.” The Northridge student was offered a spot in other overseas programs but declined. He “decided not going anywhere now would be better and to assess the situation in the spring,” Raman said.

Three years ago, universities in California and across the U.S. canceled overseas studies programs as the pandemic took its toll worldwide. It took more than a year for some programs to reopen and then some other nations with higher Covid rates remained off limits for a while longer.

Many U.S. institutions are suspending programs to Israel for the time being and pausing plans for future programs, according to a statement from Caroline Donovan-White, an official with NAFSA: Association of International Educators, a Washington, D.C.-based organization that encourages and supports study abroad and exchange programs. Institutions rely on their existing risk management resources and tools like the State Department travel advisories to guide them in times like this, she explained. (NAFSA was founded as and used to be known as the National Association of Foreign Student Advisers.).

“The pausing of programs happens from time to time for many reasons and universities have plans and policies in place for those situations. Our members tell us they are in close contact with their students studying all over the world–not just in the Middle East–as they may feel especially vulnerable and isolated from their support network right now, particularly those of Jewish and Muslim faiths,” Donovan-White said.

The University of Southern California offers studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and at The Interdisciplinary Center (IDC), Herzliya in the Tel Aviv area (also known as Reichman University). But USC said that since no student had signed up this fall, no special action was needed.

“USC does not have any students studying in Israel during this fall semester. The university will not be offering study abroad programs in Israel this upcoming spring semester and is closely monitoring the situation in the area,” Anthony Bailey, Vice President for Global and Online Initiatives & Dean, USC Bovard College, said in a statement to EdSource.

Stanford University said it has no programs in Israel.

Inglewood officials are working on a full rewrite of the city map for the first time in nearly 40 years, laying out how they want the city to grow and change for the next two decades.

Along part of Manchester Boulevard, city planners are setting up an option for developers to rebuild rows of small storefronts with a mix of homes and commercial space. On La Brea Avenue, south of Centinela Avenue, they envision the possibility of dense housing and business blocks as high as six stories.

Jerome Johnson, an Inglewood local, said he’s lived through three decades of change in the city. He recalled watching a “raggedy market” at the corner of La Brea and Centinela make way for the two-story shopping center that’s there today. He said the potential developments around the intersection could be a catch-22.

“There’s a shortage of housing,” Johnson said. “But you don’t want it to turn into New York City.”

It’s all part of the ongoing process for Inglewood’s new general plan, the foundational guide that governs things like what kind of buildings can be built where in the city and how they need to look. A draft land-use plan will go before the Inglewood City Council on Tuesday, then go into the environmental impact review process.

“This is really a historic milestone for the city,” Bernard McCrumby, Inglewood development services director, told The LA Local. 

McCrumby said planners are aiming to open up room for new housing and to revitalize some of the city’s flagging business corridors, without changing the city’s existing residential blocks or sacrificing the grocery stores, barbershops and local restaurants that make neighborhoods tick.

“The stadiums and arenas are here, they’re not going anywhere,” McCrumby said. “Now we can plan around those.”

The last time the city did a full update of its general plan was 1987, when horses were still racing at Hollywood Park and the “Showtime” Lakers were winning championships at the Forum. Edward Vincent Jr., the city’s first Black mayor, had only been in office for four years. 

The city has made intermittent updates to its planning guidelines since then — notably remapping a band of Inglewood along the Metro K line before it opened — but city documents indicate planners spent the past couple years working on a comprehensive rewrite. 

The new update to the general plan could set the city’s direction until 2050.

Planners hope to change some of the city’s commercial corridors into mixed-use zones that allow for housing and businesses alongside each other or even stacked on top of each other.

Those zones could go in place along Century Boulevard and Arbor Vitae Street as well as Manchester, Centinela and La Brea.

The rest of the update, McCrumby said, is aimed at lining the city’s zoning regulations up with state law and the city’s current reality on the ground.

City staff held several community meetings over the last year as they put together the draft and still aren’t done gathering feedback. 

The next year will see at least one more community meeting and a 45-day public review period, according to city documents. McCrumby said that, with the anchor of the land-use map in place, planners will continue to work on the rest of the general plan, targeting final City Council approval of the plan and accompanying environmental impact report next spring.

You can get all the details on the general plan at nextlevelinglewood.com and attend the City Council meeting at 2 p.m. on Tuesday to give a public comment.

We also want to know what you think of the proposed changes. Email isaiah@thelalocal.org with your questions or thoughts.

Students within the Los Angeles Unified School District showed improvements on state reading, math and science standardized tests for a third consecutive year, district authorities announced Tuesday.

Superintendent Andrés Chait revealed the preliminary results at the annual opening-of-schools address at East L.A.’s Garfield High School— his first as the district’s leader since the board appointed him to the job in June.

“ These are not just numbers on a page,” Chait said to an audience that included about 1,000 principals, administrators and district supporters. “They are the result of your passion, your persistence, your belief in what students can achieve. These are collective accomplishments.

"They reflect the dedication, skill, and commitment of our entire community,” he said.

Jai Gant-Leau, principal of Eagle Tree Continuation High School, said the “back-to-basics” focus of Chait’s speech was a welcome departure from the tone of recent opening addresses.

“We will continue to rise for the outcomes and expectations for the success of our students. That's the message I got,” Gant-Leau said. “Very different than the others where it was a lot of… bells and whistles.”

Why it matters

Student achievement, as measured by test scores, plummeted during the pandemic. Los Angeles Unified’s growth in 2025 outpaced the state, as test scores exceeded pre-pandemic levels.

This year the percentage of students in all grades who met or exceeded the standard are 39.7% for math, 48.3% for English and 32.1% for science. It’s unclear how this compares to students statewide because those results have yet to be released.

Challenges ahead

Chait also acknowledged the challenges posed by declining enrollment, community fears of immigration enforcement actions and proposed budget cuts.

 “The decisions will be hard, but we cannot lose sight of what defines us,” Chait said. “We are the system that lifts students to opportunity, turns potential into achievement, creates spaces of belonging, healing, growth.”

This is a developing story and will be updated.

We hope you’ve gotten used to the hot weather, because it’s going to be here for a while.

The National Weather Service has issued yet another heat advisory for much of Southern California, less than a week after other high-temperature warnings were lifted.

This week’s advisory will be in place from 10 a.m. Wednesday through Monday. Forecasters expect temperatures to climb steadily over the course of Wednesday and Thursday.

The San Fernando Valley, San Gabriel Valley and other inland areas in L.A., as well as Riverside and San Bernardino counties, will likely see highs ranging from the mid-90s to about 105 degrees. Areas closer to the coast, including downtown Los Angeles and much of Orange County, will hit the 90s. Beaches will hover mostly in the upper 70s.

Humidity will also add to the discomfort. Even though it’s decreasing slightly, it makes cooling down harder, especially at night.

People who work outdoors or do not have air conditioning are especially at risk from the heat and humidity, along with people over 65, young children and other sensitive populations.

Fire risk

Forecasters are warning that conditions are ripe for fires, driven by a combination of wind and dry vegetation.

Southern California hasn’t seen much rain recently, despite the humidity, leaving plants with little moisture and turning them into the perfect fuel.

“Even though the air feels kind of moist, we're in the time of season where it doesn't matter. The fuels are dry and they're ready to go,” said NWS meteorologist Ryan Kittell.

Kittel said people should take extra care with anything that could create a spark, and residents in fire-prone areas should remain aware of their surroundings in case a fire starts.

The fire risk is likely to be concentrated in a few specific areas that will experience higher winds than others, including parts of the 5 Freeway corridor in northern L.A. County, especially around the Grapevine, and in southern Santa Barbara County.

For most of the region, though, winds should stay fairly mild.

Dangerous beach conditions

Southern Californians also have to contend with some ocean-specific risks this week.

Forecasters expect dangerously large waves and strong rip currents to hit the coastline at a time when the heat may drive more people to the beach. The conditions are expected to persist through the weekend.

If you decide to head to the beach, it’s a good idea to ask a lifeguard for advice on the conditions before entering the water. It’s also recommended to swim only near occupied lifeguard stands, stay off of rock jetties and avoid turning your back to the waves.

South-facing stretches of coastline will bear the brunt of the swell, which is being driven by two tropical storms churning hundreds of miles away in the Pacific Ocean.

“Those two systems generated the winds and the waves locally that are pushing towards us, and so that's creating elevated surf and some stronger currents than normal,” Kittel said.

The swell is not expected to cause significant coastal flooding as high tides remain relatively low.