Mariana Dale
explores and explains the forces that shape how and what kids learn from kindergarten to high school.
Published August 13, 2025 5:00 AM
The second largest school district in the country reports that 67% of its 1,300 school buses rely on non-diesel fuels including propane, natural gas and electricity.
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Mariana Dale
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LAist
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Topline:
School buses drive to and from about 90% of Los Angeles Unified schools, but less than 10% of students are onboard. The 2025-26 school year is the second where the district is offering “transportation for all,” but the availability varies depending on your family’s needs, locations and what school they attend.
The backstory: The state doesn’t require schools to offer transportation, though the federal government requires schools to provide it for a few specific groups of students. LAUSD has historically prioritized busing for students with disabilities and in specific academic programs such as magnets and dual-language.
Request a ride: LAUSD Transportation Director Daniel Kang says the Parent Portal app is the most direct and effective way to request a ride. You can also ask school staff, including the principal, or counselors, or call the district’s resource hotline — (213) 443-1300.
Read on... to learn more about busing in LAUSD and how your child (and some grown-ups) can get free Metro bus and train rides.
School buses drive to and from about 90% of Los Angeles Unified schools, but less than 10% of students are on board.
“Often our buses ride with a number of empty seats,” said Superintendent Alberto Carvalho. “There's no reason for that. Let's fill those seats up. There's capacity. The bus is gonna travel the route anyway.”
This is the second year where the district is offering “transportation for all,” but the availability varies depending on your family’s needs, locations and what school they attend.
New this year, the district will prioritize bus service for families who are worried about being targeted by immigration officials while walking or driving their child to school.
“We want to make it as easy and safe for parents and children to get to school,” Carvalho said. “If by using transportation for all we can reduce or eliminate some of the concerns parents may have about walking their children to school, we are here to do that.”
In this guide, we’ll talk about:
How to request transportation
How the district prioritizes busing
Free Metro passes for students
Bus upgrades
And hear from students about their bus-riding experiences.
“There's this really amazing community that comes together for all the LAUSD buses,” said 2025 graduate Eno Thomson-Tribe. “ I met a bunch of my friends on the bus.”
How do I request bus pickup?
There are several options to learn more about what transportation is available for your child.
LAUSD Transportation Director Daniel Kang says the Parent Portal app is the most direct and effective way to request a ride.
You can also ask school staff, including the principal, or counselors, or call the district’s resource hotline: (213) 443-1300.
You’ll need to provide the name of your child’s school and your address. You may also be asked why you’re requesting transportation. Families are not required to share their immigration status and the district does not retain this information.
“Any information we obtain to provide those [bus] routes as an accommodation is information that shall never be shared with any agency whatsoever,” Carvalho said. “So for the parents, do not fear. Speak with us.”
How are requests prioritized?
California doesn’t require schools to offer transportation, though the federal government does require it for the following groups:
Students with disabilities whose Individualized Education Program (IEP) includes transportation.
Areas with hazardous walks to school (i.e. gang activity or dangerous streets). The district also calls this “safe passages.”
Families concerned about immigration enforcement actions
The district also adapts to the needs of families. For example, it provides busing for families affected by the Palisades Fire.
Other students may also be eligible, including those:
With an IEP that does not include transportation.
Who live more than one mile (elementary school) or more than two miles (middle/high school) from their school.
The lowest priority are families requesting rides merely for convenience. In most cases, these families will be offered a ride on existing routes and stops.
Los Angeles Unified leaders acknowledge that these routes can be located in the opposite direction of their child’s school, too far away or otherwise inconvenient.
“ The bus stop may be four blocks away from where you live, but if you are a first grader, those four blocks, you know, might as well be 4 miles,” Carvalho said.
Bus driver Rosa Quintero is part of a 1,400-person LAUSD transportation workforce that includes mechanics, and aides that help students with disabilities and people who plan routes
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Mariana Dale
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LAist
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Efforts to change how the district creates bus routes are underway.
“ We'll also be monitoring ridership and continuously adjust throughout the school year based on the needs that come in from our families,” Kang said.
So if the first route you’re offered doesn’t work for your family, try again later in the school year.
What if my child attends a charter school?
Students at LAUSD-affiliated charter schools may be eligible for district busing based on the same criteria described above.
Independent charter schools run by outside organizations manage their own transportation.
(For more on the difference between these two types of charters, check out our guide.)
Keith Dell'Aquila, vice president of local advocacy in the Los Angeles region for the California Charter Schools Association, told LAist some schools run their own bus service.
“Our schools are incredibly committed to helping anybody who wants to be there,” Dell’Aquila said.
Who rides the bus now?
About a week before the start of the 2025-26 school year, about 30,000 students were signed up for bus services. Kang said the district has the capacity to carry up to 55,000 students to and from school.
The vast majority of existing riders are students with disabilities, an estimated 67% to 70%, according to Kang. The next largest group are students that attend specific academic programs, such as magnets and dual language.
Less than 5% of riders are eligible for bus services through “safe passage.” Starting in the 2024-25 school year, the district added pickups for students who face unsafe commutes to school because of factors, like dangerous streets and intersections and active gang territory.
LAUSD reports that 67% of its 1,300 school buses rely on non-diesel fuels including propane, natural gas (like the buses pictured here) and electricity.
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Mariana Dale
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LAist
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Incoming senior Gabino Perez got a test ride on one of the district’s new electric buses ahead of the 2025-2026 school year. He said the ride was cooler (because of the air conditioning) and quieter than the vehicles that have taken him to school in the past.
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Mariana Dale
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LAist
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What are the buses like?
The Los Angeles Unified School District has expanded its fleet of electric school buses to 180 vehicles ahead of the new school year. The second largest school district in the country, 67% of its 1,300 school buses rely on non-diesel fuels, including propane, natural gas and electricity.
LAUSD purchased the first 10 electric buses in 2021. The district expects to save money on gas and maintenance over time, and, like many others, relies on a combination of federal and state funding to subsidize the higher upfront cost compared to a diesel-powered bus.
Hear it from a student: A more relaxing, comfortable ride
Incoming senior Gabino Perez’s parents don’t drive, so he relies on the bus to get from his home in Atwater Village to the STEM Academy at Bernstein High School in Hollywood. He also took the bus to a dual-language elementary school where he learned in English and Spanish.
Perez got a test ride on one of the district’s new electric buses ahead of the 2025-2026 school year. He said the ride was cooler (because of the air conditioning) and quieter than the vehicles that have taken him to school in the past.
“ Every time I'm in the other bus, like, I can't hear what the other person is saying to me because of too much noise,” Perez said. “This one, it's a lot [more] relaxing and comfortable.”
Every bus in the district is also equipped with free Wi-Fi.
Carvalho said some students might opt to use their devices more recreationally. For example, listening to music.
“ Why not? Joy is part of our strategic plan,” Carvalho said.
Who drives the bus?
LAUSD has a transportation workforce of 1,400 people, including bus drivers, mechanics and aides who help students with disabilities and people who plan routes. The unions that represent many of these employees include SEIU Local 99 and Teamsters Local 572.
The district also contracts out about 500 bus routes, largely to serve students with disabilities to external companies because the demand for buses exceeds the district’s supply.
Hear it from a student: The bus is a community
Eno Thomson-Tribe is a 2025 graduate of North Hollywood High School and rode the bus from Eagle Rock daily.
“The bus was the only reason that I was able to attend a specialized magnet program that otherwise my parents would not have been able to drive me to five days a week, 180 days a year for four years straight,” Thomson-Tribe said. He also gave a shoutout to his driver, Mr. Young.
The bus picked him up around 7 a.m. and he arrived at school around 8 a.m., half an hour before the first bell. If he had marching band practice after school, Thomson-Tribe could take a late bus with the added bonus of spending less time in rush-hour traffic.
Thomson-Tribe was in his school’s highly gifted magnet program which came with a hefty load of homework, some of which he completed using the bus’ free wifi.
“The bus was honestly one of the best times to do it,” Thomson-Tribe said. “I didn't have a ton of free time.”
How do I know where my child is?
For the first time in the 2025-26 school year, families will be able to track their child’s bus in real time through LAUSD’s parent portal app.
Can federal immigration officials board school buses?
Carvalho said a child’s ride to and from school is legally protected.
“ They travel with the same protection and safety, the same protocols of protection provided by Los Angeles Unified,” Carvalho said. “Being on that school bus is equivalent to being in a classroom in a school.”
Carvalho said the district has trained bus drivers to respond to federal immigration officers by contacting district administrators, the Los Angeles Unified Police and legal departments.
Immigration enforcement are not supposed to be granted access to the bus or students onboard without a signed judicial warrant.
How can I get my child a free Metro pass?
Students can get free Metro bus and train rides through the GoPass program.
Sign your child up through the school’s front office. A district spokesperson said schools will share information about renewal before current passes expire on Sept. 30.
Last year, 44,996 students got a free TAP card and took nearly 5 million Metro rides through July 2025. In addition, 17,482 adults enrolled in district education programs got a pass.
Every bus in the district is equipped with free wifi.
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Mariana Dale
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LAist
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Eno Thomson-Tribe is a 2025 graduate of North Hollywood High School and rode the bus from Eagle Rock daily. His school’s highly gifted magnet program came with a hefty load of homework. “The bus was honestly one of the best times to do it,” Thomson-Tribe said. “I didn't have a ton of free time.”
The state doesn’t require schools to offer transportation, though the federal government requires schools to provide it for a few specific groups of students, including some with disabilities and those experiencing homelessness.
LAUSD has historically prioritized busing for students with disabilities and in specific academic programs, such as magnets and dual language.
“The current model has basically been engineered to provide the services to those two very important groups of students,” Carvalho said. “But not necessarily for those who on the basis of environmental conditions, distance from school or danger could benefit from transportation and that's what we are changing at this point.”
David Wagner
covers housing in Southern California, where a massive post-fire rebuilding effort is underway.
Published April 1, 2026 4:44 PM
Fencing lines a sidewalk next to a home under construction.
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Erin Stone
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LAist
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Topline:
As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Council member is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.
Who’s behind it: Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.
The details: The plan calls for returning the 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.
Read on … to learn whether economists think the proposed tax relief could make a difference.
As Los Angeles homeowners grapple with the expense of rebuilding after last year’s devastating fires, an L.A. City Councilmember is putting forward an idea that could lower some costs.
Councilmember Traci Park, who represents the Pacific Palisades, has introduced a motion to explore waiving part of the city’s portion of the local sales tax for fire victims who purchase rebuilding materials in the city.
The 1% of the local 9.75% sales tax that goes into the city’s general fund would be given back to consumers under the proposal. The waiver could apply to lumber, appliances and other rebuilding goods purchased within the city.
The motion, introduced Friday by Park and seconded by Councilmember John Lee, says: “The City should do everything within its power to alleviate the financial burden for these residents and businesses in order to facilitate their return and stabilize the Pacific Palisades community.”
Would it make much of a difference?
Economists told LAist the proposal could help many homeowners mitigate the high cost of rebuilding, but likely wouldn’t tip the scales for under-insured, under-resourced property owners.
“It wouldn't hurt if it's very well designed and easy to use,” said Alexander Meeks, a director at the Santa Monica-based Milken Institute. “But I'm not sure if it's really going to tackle the scale of the financial challenge that survivors are facing.”
Meeks noted that the tax waiver wouldn’t lower up-front costs such as environmental testing, architectural design and permitting. And it may not help homeowners sourcing raw materials from outside the city.
Zhiyun Li, a UCLA Anderson School of Management economist, said the waiver could help some homeowners justify the additional cost of rebuilding more fire-safe structures.
“Homeowners must typically pay out of pocket to upgrade to IBHS+ standards, which are more stringent,” Li said. “The tax waiver could encourage upgrading to IBHS+ standards or investing more in mitigation, thereby reducing future risk and improving the likelihood of maintaining insurance coverage.”
What’s next for the proposal?
The proposed tax relief would not be available to properties that have been sold since the fires started in January 2025.
The motion has been sent to the City Council’s budget and fire recovery committees. If approved by the full council, it would require the city administrative officer, the Office of Finance and the city attorney to report back to the council within 60 days on options for crafting a tax relief plan.
The motion calls for the report to consider factors such as how to minimize the burden of administering the tax relief, what documentation homeowners would have to submit and what it would cost the city to oversee the program.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September. Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.
About the deal: The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate. Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.
What's next: Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects. Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS. If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.
Senate and House Republican leadership have resurrected a stalled plan to fund the Department of Homeland Security after a record 47-day funding lapse.
House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate Majority Leader John Thune, R-S.D., said in a joint statement on Wednesday that the House will take up a measure passed by the Senate last week to fund most of DHS except Immigration and Customs Enforcement and Border Patrol through the end of September.
Republicans would then attempt to fund ICE and Border Patrol for three years using a party-line budget reconciliation bill that would not require support from Democrats.
"In following this two-track approach, the Republican Congress will fully reopen the Department, make sure all federal workers are paid, and specifically fund immigration enforcement and border security for the next three years so that those law-enforcement activities can continue uninhibited," Thune and Johnson wrote.
The agreement comes nearly a week after House Republicans dismissed an identical plan, refusing to take up the Senate-passed measure and instead passing a 60-day short term funding bill for all of DHS that had little chance of overcoming Democratic opposition in the Senate.
Johnson called the agreement a "joke" and President Donald Trump declined to publicly endorse the deal. Trump had previously resisted any package that did not include his push to overhaul federal elections known as the Save America Act.
"I think any deal they make, I'm pretty much not happy with it," Trump told reporters last week.
Democrats welcomed the agreement as in line with their pledge not to give ICE any more money without reforms after immigration enforcement agents killed two U.S. citizens in Minneapolis. But the deal does not include any of the policy demands Democrats are pressing for, such as a ban on masks for immigration enforcement officers and requiring warrants issued by a judge, not just the agency, to enter homes.
"For days, Republican divisions derailed a bipartisan agreement, making American families pay the price for their dysfunction," Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., wrote in a statement Wednesday. "Throughout this fight, Senate Democrats never wavered."
Trump seemed to bless the revived plan earlier Wednesday, writing on social media that he wants a party-line bill to fund immigration enforcement on his desk by June 1.
"We are going to work as fast, and as focused, as possible to replenish funding for our Border and ICE Agents, and the Radical Left Democrats won't be able to stop us," Trump wrote.
Despite the shutdown, ICE has been minimally impacted because Republican lawmakers approved $75 billion for ICE through another party-line budget reconciliation bill last year.
Congress is on a two-week recess, but the Senate and House could move to fund all of DHS except ICE and CBP as early as Thursday using a procedure known as unanimous consent that allows the chambers to circumvent formal voting as long as no member objects.
Even during a recess when most members are not in Washington, this could be unpredictable, especially in the House, where many hard-line conservatives oppose a deal that does not fully fund DHS.
"Let's make this simple: caving to Democrats and not paying CBP and ICE is agreeing to defund Law Enforcement and leaving our borders wide open again," Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., a member of the ultra-conservative House Freedom Caucus, wrote on X. "If that's the vote, I'm a NO."
If a member does object, that could require waiting for another vote when all members are back from recess.
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Logan Cattaneo, 6, poses for a photo with the Dodgers mascot during Dodgers Dreamteam PlayerFest at Dodgers Stadium in 2024.
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Michael Blackshire
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Getty Images
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Topline:
The Dodgers Foundation says it's expanding Dodgers Dreamteam, its program for underserved youth. The foundation says the program will be able to serve 17,000 kids this year, 2,000 more than last year.
Why it matters: Now in its 13th season, the program connects underserved youth with opportunities to play baseball and softball and provides participants with free uniforms and access to baseball equipment. It also offers training for coaches in positive youth development practices, as well as wraparound services for participant families like college workshops, career panels, literacy resources and scholarship opportunities.
How to sign up: For more information and to sign up, click here.
An aerial view of snow-capped trees after a winter snowstorm near Soda Springs on Feb. 20, 2026.
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Stephen Lam, San Francisco Chronicle
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via Getty Images
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Topline:
California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season. It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.
What happened? Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.
Why it matters: Experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains. State data reports that California’s snowpack is closing out the season at an alarming 18% of average statewide, and an even more abysmal 6% of average in the northern mountains that feed California’s major reservoirs. “I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.
California clocked its second-worst snowpack on record Wednesday, a potentially troubling signal ahead for fire season.
It’s an alarming end to a winter that saw abnormally dry conditions briefly wiped from California’s drought map in January, for the first time in a quarter-century.
Though precipitation to date has been near average, much of it fell as rain rather than snow. Then March’s record-breaking heat melted most of the snow that remains. The state’s major reservoirs are nevertheless brimming above historic averages and are flirting with capacity, and a smattering of snow, rain and thunderstorms are dousing last month’s heat wave.
But experts now warn that California’s case of the missing snowpack could herald an early fire season in the mountains.
On Wednesday, state engineers conducting the symbolic April 1 snowpack measurement at Phillips Station south of Lake Tahoe found no measurable snow in patches of white dotting the grassy field.
“I want to welcome you call to probably one of the quickest snow surveys we’ve had — maybe one where people could actually use an umbrella,” joked Karla Nemeth, director of the California Department of Water Resources. “We’re getting a lot of questions about are we heading into a hydrologic drought? The answer is, I don’t know.”
Only the extreme drought year of 2015 beat this year’s snowpack for the worst on record, measuring in at just 5% of average on April 1st, when the snow historically is at its deepest.
“I think everyone's anticipating that it will be a long, busy fire season,” said Lenya Quinn-Davidson, director of the UC Division of Agriculture and Natural Resources Fire Network.
“Without a snowpack, and with an early spring, it just means that there’s much more time for something like that to happen.”
‘It’s pretty bizarre up here’
In the city of South Lake Tahoe, which survived the massive Caldor Fire in the fall of 2021 without losing any structures, fire chief Jim Drennan said his department is already ramping up prevention efforts.
“It's pretty bizarre up here right now. It really seems like June conditions more than March,” Drennan said. “People are already turning the sprinklers on for their lawns.”
Without more precipitation, an early spring may complicate prescribed burning efforts. But Drennan said fire agencies in the Tahoe basin can start mechanically clearing fuels from forest areas earlier than usual.
“That means we can get more work done,” he said.
It also means homeowners need to start hardening their homes now, said Martin Goldberg, battalion chief and fuels management officer for the Lake Valley Fire Protection District, which protects unincorporated communities in the Lake Tahoe Basin’s south shore.
Goldberg urges residents to scour their yards for burnable materials, create defensible space and reach out to local fire departments with questions. The risks are widespread — from firewood, wooden fences, gas cans, plants, pine needles — even lawn furniture stacked against a house.
“In years past, I wouldn't even think of raking and clearing until May,” Goldberg said. “But my yard's completely cleared of snowpack, and it has been for a couple weeks now.”
‘A haystack fire’
Battalion chief David Acuña, a spokesperson for Cal Fire, said fire season is shaped by more than just one year’s snowpack.
Climate change has been remaking California’s fire seasons into fire years. And California’s recent average to abundant water years have fueled what Acuña called “bumper crops of vegetation and brush.”
“Most of California is like a haystack. And if you’ve ever seen a haystack fire, they burn very intensely because there's layers of fuel,” Acuña said.
Like Quinn-Davidson, Acuña wasn’t ready to make specific predictions about fires to come.
But John Abatzoglou, a professor of climatology at UC Merced, said the temperatures and snowpack conditions this year offer a glimpse of California in the latter decades of this century, as fossil fuel use continues to drive global temperatures higher.
How this year’s fires will play out will depend on when, where and how wind, heat, fuel and ignitions combine. But it foreshadows the consequences of a warmer California for water and fire under climate change.
“This,” Abatzoglou said, “is yet another stress test for the future in the state.”
