The Brief

For high school senior Robert McConnell, an acceptance to UC Santa Cruz would all but guarantee his attendance. That’s because, as a member of a federally recognized tribe, McConnell would not have to pay tuition to pursue his dreams of studying marine biology under the UC Native American Opportunity Plan.

Launched in 2021, the University of California plan offers free tuition to any member of a federal or state-recognized Native American tribe who can provide proof of membership. McConnell, a member of the Hoopa Valley Tribe in rural Northern California, said an acceptance will grant him opportunities that aren’t available in his unincorporated tribal community.

Over 85% of the residents in Hoopa identify as Native American or Alaskan Native. Leaving behind cultural and family support to attend far away institutions can be extremely difficult for Native students. The nearest UC campus to Hoopa is Davis, 200 miles away.

For the low-to-middle income Native students of Hoopa, an opportunity to attend UC is invaluable. The reported monthly income for families in the small territory is just over $55,000 a year — qualifying many for federal and state tuition assistance.

“It’s really easy to get stuck here in Hoopa Valley, in this little community,” McConnell said. Out of the nearly 3,000 residents of Hoopa, only about 16% have a bachelor’s degree.

But there is a caveat in the system’s opportunity plan — funds can only go toward paying tuition, not the non-tuition related expenses like housing and transportation that constitute the bulk of expenses for California students. Paying out of pocket for rent in expensive areas is especially daunting for prospective students like McConnell, who must relocate to pursue his education.

Californians who identify as Native account for 1.7% of the population statewide, or around 660,000 people, according to 2022 census data. Across the UC system 1,788 Native students constitute 0.6% of the total student body. The California State University system enrolls around half the Native students UC does, with 833 students comprising 0.2% of enrollment in Fall 2023. The California Community Colleges enrolled 6,580 Native students in 2022-2023, around 0.3% of its total student population. None of these counts include Native Hawaiian students.

Native students and campus administrators report that the UC is still a long way from being a place where Native students can thrive. Native high schoolers who spoke to CalMatters reported feeling hopeful about their admission, but currently enrolled Native students report that strains on their student budgets along with insufficient resources and a lack of Native faculty mentors has made their educational experience at the UC less enriching than they expected.

Native American Opportunity Plan only covers tuition

Cedar Schaeffer, a third-year public health major at UC Irvine and member of the Round Valley Tribe, said the plan’s limits have had a large impact on his student budget.

“It doesn’t cover housing. It doesn’t even cover the tech fee waiver at UC Irvine,” said Schaeffer, who grew up about 70 miles from Irvine on the Pala Band of Indians Reservation. “So there’s more than about $3,000 that I usually pay every year.”

Like many other forms of financial aid, related college expenses such as housing and books are not covered by the plan. According to the California Student Aid Commission’s 2023-24 student expense budgets, non-tuition related costs can amount to an additional $5,000 a year for students in on-campus housing, on top of the dorm rent rates set by the campus. Non-tuition related costs can balloon up to $27,000 for off-campus students.

Cedar Schaeffer, president of the American Indian Student Association, at UC Irvine on March 28, 2024.

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Zaydee Sanchez

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The system estimated it would grant $2.4 million in tuition assistance to Native students in the 2022-23 term funded by state and federal grants. The Public Policy Institute of California estimated the funds assisted 500 undergraduates and 160 graduate students during the first term.

In Hoopa Valley, McConnell said the financial aid he expects to receive would already cover tuition costs, meaning he could not use the plan’s tuition waiver. To afford the cost of living 400 miles away in pricey Santa Cruz, McConnell said outside scholarship assistance will be vital.

Amanda Putnam, a Native American Recruitment & Outreach specialist at UC Merced, said she doesn’t believe the current plan fully accomplishes the UC’s goal of making its campuses more accessible and affordable for Native students. She said non-tuition costs alone could dissuade many students from considering the UC.

“It’s daunting to have $10,000 to $15,000 to even $20,000 of housing facing them,” Putnam said. “I would say that that’s probably the biggest portion, about half the (current) students.”

UCs lack Native resources and representation

 Even accounting for the rise in admissions, Indigenous students composed 1% of total UC student admissions in 2022-23. Systemwide, Native-identifying faculty and teaching assistants represent about 219 of the 73,024 total at the UC, just over 0.3% as of October 2023.

Schaeffer himself was informed by a family member that applying to the UC could possibly save him thousands, and UC Irvine was a more affordable option compared to his alternatives on the East Coast. But Schaeffer said that once he arrived at UC Irvine, he was appalled at the lack of Native representation on campus. Schaeffer said he was surprised at the amount of work Native student groups are expected to put in to organize events and garner additional community resources.

“Representation really is a huge factor,” he said. “When you don’t have your community on campus, you’re less motivated to continue on. I know a lot of people feel unsupported on campus, and I’ve even thought about transferring to another institution.”

The rise in Native enrollment has shifted the focus of administrators and faculty onto providing more support for potential and current Native students, according to Pheonecia Bauerle, chair of the UC-wide Native American Advisory Council and director of Native student development at UC Berkeley.

“It shows the [plan] encourages more people to apply,” she said. “As we’re getting more students, I’m trying to ramp up on creating frameworks for how to understand, how to serve the students. When you have small numbers, it’s usually how it starts.”

Eight UCs have created spaces to foster a closer Native student community. UC Irvine and UC Merced are the only two campuses who have yet to establish a physical, on-campus resource center for Native students that is run by faculty or staff.

First: Students take part in an Easter-related gathering at the Native American Academic Student Success Center at UC Davis on April 1, 2024. Last: A bulletin board in a hallway near the dorm rooms of Native American students at Yosemite Hall at UC Davis on April 1, 2024.

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Putnam, at UC Merced, said a lack of funding compared to other, more established UCs has limited the resources she’s able to offer her Native students. According to Bauerle, even the oldest UC in the system, UC Berkeley, only expanded the multicultural center to add a Native student wing when she was hired 10 years ago.

“We’re not at the place yet of establishing any programs or things like that,” Putnam said. “The funding just isn’t there yet. Me being able to be that one-on-one support for students has been huge.”

Native students are filling gaps in programming

Some students have taken action themselves to fill the void in resources and programming. On UCLA’s campus, Native student groups coordinate on-campus events with the Native American Studies department and the campus administration, but organize most of their own cultural events, recruitment efforts and informational tables.

Maya Araujo — a fourth-year American Indian Studies major and vice president of the Native American Indigenous Student Association at UCLA — said resources are primarily offered by students.

“We are in contact with (administrators), but it’s kind of like nagging them,” Araujo said. “It’s kind of difficult to get resources, even from our American Indian Studies Center… It’s mostly like us advocating for ourselves.”

Without student intervention, the resources for Native students on campus wouldn’t be enough, Araujo added. Even at UCLA, where the Native student population is the largest by number at the UC at 321 students in Fall 2023, Araujo said there is little representation among faculty. UCLA employed 15 Native faculty members in Fall 2022.

Students at other UCs have even less communication with administration. Christine Frazier, a fourth-year student studying ecology, behavior and evolution at UC San Diego and a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, said students arrange most of their own events and cultural celebrations.

“Any Native events, whether that be Native American and/or the Intertribal Resource Center, it’s mostly Natives who go or work there,” Frazier said.

Difficulties in recruiting Native students

One of the reasons Frazier decided to attend UC San Diego was because of a connection she made with a member of the Intertribal Resource Center on campus during her UC application process. Upon arriving, Frazier — who now co-chairs the Native American and Indigenous Student Alliance — was shocked to find virtually no representation outside of meetings with Native student groups.

“We’re definitely a small number there, especially with my club,” she said. “Most of the time, I’m one of the only Indigenous or Native students in really any setting, except when I’m at these Intertribal Resource Center or Native American and Indigenous Student Association events.”

It would be difficult to attract more Native students to the UC without established student, faculty or administrative representation, Frazier said. In her four years at UC San Diego, she has only had one Native professor and rarely communicates with administrators. Currently, 0.2% of faculty members at UC San Diego are Native.

Each UC attracts a unique student and faculty base, which means individual campuses have to emphasize distinct recruitment efforts, Bauerle said. At UC Berkeley, Bauerle focuses her recruitment through the many Native organizations in the Bay Area, such as the Intertribal Friendship House in Oakland — one of the first Native community centers in the state.

“Fewer Native students come from reservations and more are growing up in urban, suburban or rural areas,” Bauerle said. “Their experience with communities is going to look a lot different and so it means to adjust how we offer programs and meet students where they’re at.”

At UC Merced, Puntam said recruitment is more concentrated on reservations; she attends powwows and interacts directly with tribes like the Yokuts and Miwuk in the areas surrounding Merced to attract Native students.

The UC’s plans for the future

Some faculty and students point to UC Davis as a model for serving Native students. The campus has two dedicated programs: the Native American Academic Student Success Center and the Native American Retention Initiative Program.

Student resource centers, scholarship opportunities and community-driven events can make the difference for prospective Native students. For example, McConnell said UC Davis’ shared interest communities are a primary reason for his application. Shared interest communities are living and learning spaces for certain student groups, like Native students, to congregate and explore their cultures and history. Around 390 students, most but not all Native, live together in the Yosemite dormitory at UC Davis as part of the Native shared interest community.

The rest of the UC campuses would like to take a more aggressive approach to Native student recruitment and tribal partnerships, though no official timelines have been set, Bauerle said. She added that each UC campus will likely be taking a unique approach that benefits their individual student base.

“Davis, a little bit at Berkeley, UCLA, San Diego, they’re partnering with tribes in different capacities, and allowing graduate students to see opportunities to do work with Indigenous communities,” Bauerle said.

Posters of past Native American cultural events hang in the communal space at Yosemite Hall at UC Davis on April 1, 2024.

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Additionally, the UC has work to do reconciling relationships with Native tribes by cataloging and returning Native ancestral remains and artifacts that campuses have in their possession. Multiple state audit reports found the UC system lacked the policies, urgency and staffing to comply with Native repatriation laws.

Some progress is being made, including new policies governing repatriation the UC issued in 2021. Last October, UC Berkeley also took the first step to return 4,400 Native remains and 25,000 Native cultural artifacts to California tribes in what would be the largest repatriation for the campus to date.

Bauerle is advocating for universal recruitment and retention standards across the UC that cater to all Native students, regardless of their campus. “Not all campuses look the same or have the same resources that they’re able to provide,” she said.

Schaeffer said what he’d like to see most is for UC administrators to play a larger role in assuring that Native students have proper resources and directories for those resources on campuses.

“I think for the future, we really want to be able to look towards leadership on campus — the chancellor, the deans, those administration positions,” Schaeffer said. “We really want to be able to ask them for help, not have those barriers of, ‘Oh, we’re out of office,’ or, ‘I’m gonna refer you to someone else.”

The immigration detention center closest to Los Angeles has placed dozens of people in solitary confinement each month since June, according to the most recent data from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

In May 2025, the Adelanto ICE Processing Center had 14 people in isolation. When the Trump administration’s mass deportation effort revved up in June 2025, the number of detainees in solitary confinement there more than tripled. By July, it was 73; by August, 105.

The most recent data available shows that number went down slightly in January, to 74 people.

Ranked by percentage of the detainee population in “segregation,” as it is called at immigrant detention centers, Adelanto is among the U.S.’s top 10 facilities as of January, according to an LAist analysis of the most recent ICE data.

The data shows that of 229 ICE facilities that reported holding people since October 2024, between 50 and 60 usually reported putting at least one person in segregation in a given month. Out of the facilities that did place people in solitary confinement, Adelanto tended to do so less often than others until June 2025. (The facility held just a few people from October 2024 into January 2025.) When ICE’s presence increased in L.A. in June, the number of people sent to isolation in the facility also shot up — three to five times as many people have been isolated in Adelanto compared to the average facility that used any solitary confinement.

Since June, only two facilities have sent people to solitary confinement more times than Adelanto: one southwest of San Antonio, the other in central Pennsylvania.

Both of those facilities held twice the number of detainees as Adelanto on average from October 2024 through September 2025; but the number of people held in Adelanto since then has tripled, growing larger than either of the other facilities to hold an average of 1,800 people a day since October.

More on solitary confinement  

According to ICE, detainees may be placed in segregation for “disciplinary reasons,” or because of:

• “Serious mental or medical illness.”
• Conducting a hunger strike.
• Suicide watch.

The agency also says it might place detainees “who may be susceptible to harm [if left among the] general population due in part to how others interpret or assume their sexual orientation, or sexual presentation or expression.”

Not only is ICE holding more people in solitary confinement, but the agency's data also shows that detainees across the country are being isolated for longer periods of time. Detainees ICE considers part of the "vulnerable & special population" spent an average of about two weeks in solitary confinement each time they were isolated in 2022, when ICE first made the data available. By the end of 2025, the average stay in isolation had risen to more than seven weeks straight.

The GEO Group Inc., a private company that operates the Adelanto ICE Processing Center, has not responded to requests for comment.

How isolation can affect immigrant detainees  

UN human rights experts consider solitary confinement placements that last 15 days or more to be torture, though the U.S. Supreme Court has held that isolation doesn’t violate the Constitution.

The UN also maintains that solitary confinement should be prohibited for people “with mental or physical disabilities when their conditions would be exacerbated by such measures.”

In January, a coalition of immigrant rights groups filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of current detainees, calling for conditions at Adelanto to be improved. In addition to an unsanitary environment and a lack of healthy food and clean drinking water, detainees say solitary confinement is frequently used to punish those who speak out about conditions at the facility.

People held in immigrant detention centers are technically in “civil detention,” meaning that they are being detained to ensure their presence at hearings and compliance with immigration orders — not to serve criminal sentences.

According to the immigrant rights groups’ complaint, one detainee was placed in solitary confinement after complaining about the showers being broken. Another detainee said that, after asking a guard to “use more respectful language toward him, he was ridiculed, written up and given the middle finger by a guard who shouted, ‘Who the f--- do you think you are?’” Then, the detainee was placed in solitary confinement for 25 days.

Alvaro Huerta, the director of litigation and advocacy at the Immigrant Defenders Law Center who is representing detainees at Adelanto, told LAist that when people are placed in isolation at the facility, they’re typically in the same cell for 23 hours per day, unable to receive visits from their families.

For clients who are experiencing mental health challenges — especially those with suicidal thoughts — being placed in solitary confinement “can really exacerbate their condition,” he added.

In multiple statements to the media, ICE has said that the agency “is committed to ensuring that all those in custody reside in safe, secure and humane environments.” The agency has also said that detainees receive “comprehensive medical care” and that all detainees “receive medical, dental, and mental health intake screenings within 12 hours of arriving at each detention facility.”

Huerta called that “laughable.”

“We have countless examples of people who have said that this is not true, that they're not getting the medication that they're requesting, that they're not being seen for chronic conditions and emergency conditions,” he added. “And we know it's not true because 14 people have died in ICE custody this year alone.”

Lori Rovner of Manhattan Beach is a big sports fan, so there was no question that when tickets for the Olympic Games went on sale, she'd be signing up.

She scored a slot in the first ticket drop, which launched Thursday, and logged on right at 10 a.m., hoping to score tickets to the Opening Ceremonies and some finals too. After battling her computer to get through "access denied" screens and a lost shopping cart due to a 30-minute time limit, she bought 16 tickets.

It was only when she was about to purchase that she noticed the service fees, which were around 24% of each ticket. One $2,100 ticket had a $505 service fee, bringing the total cost to $2,604.63.

"It's insane," she said of the fee. "I don't understand what the service is."

As the locals-only sale kicks off and Southern Californians have their first chance to buy tickets to the Olympic Games, some fans are wide-eyed at the high fees on all tickets and the prices in general, which start at $28 but go up to more than $5,500 a pop. Opening Ceremony tickets start at $328.68

The service fees aren't a surprise add-on. The price fans see when browsing the site is the total cost, including the fee. Still, some who bought in the first phase of sales were surprised when they saw the fees add up.

One user on Reddit of shared their cart of 10 tickets, which added up to $11,264. That included $1,038 in fees alone. Commenters responded in shock and awe.

Service fees are standard in ticket sales, but the percentage they charge can vary widely. High fees have been a source of ire for music and sports fans for years. A 2018 report from the U.S. Government Accountability Office found that the average fees on a primary ticket market were 27%.

LA28 did not respond to LAist's requests for details on the service fee, like what it pays for or why it's a percentage rather than a flat rate.

Not everyone seemed bothered by the prices. Some people LAist spoke with opted for only $28 or similarly priced tickets, even if it meant missing some of the biggest Olympic events. One user on Reddit said they purchased 18 tickets for around $550.

"I went with all $28 tickets," they wrote in the online forum about the Olympics. "I got women’s soccer, gymnastics, beach and regular volleyball, track and field, baseball and a few others."

For some, the ticket process, the prices and the dense web of events to choose from made it too hard to pull the trigger.

Jeff Bartow of Sierra Madre made a spreadsheet with some competitions he was interested in seeing before he logged on to buy tickets Friday.

"So many times, so many schedules, so many events," Bartow said. "I think I initially thought I was going to go to a bunch, but thinking about how crazy it's going to be … I might be a little more limited."

This is just the first ticket drop. There will be more opportunities to buy tickets in the months to come — and on a resale market that launches in 2027.

Some ticket-buyers told LAist they already were contemplating which tickets they'd keep and which ones they'd re-sell, just minutes after buying them.

In the more than two months since the Department of Justice released its latest batch of files on the investigation into Jeffrey Epstein, prosecutors have not brought any new charges based on the documents, despite federal lawmakers on both sides of the aisle continuing to demand accountability.

The more than 3 million pages of documents include accusations by alleged victims of Epstein and Ghislaine Maxwell's abuse and thousands of emails and photos showing Epstein associated with prominent figures. The files indicate that many of these people maintained contact with the disgraced financier long after he pleaded guilty in 2008 to sex crimes that involved minors. Appearing in the files is not necessarily an indication of criminal wrongdoing.

The release of the Epstein files came after Congress passed the Epstein Files Transparency Act, which forced the Justice Department to make public all documents it held related to Epstein.

Epstein died in prison about a month after a 2019 arrest on sex-trafficking charges. Maxwell was convicted on sex-trafficking charges in 2021 and is serving a 20-year sentence. Since the release of the files in 2025 and 2026, there have been no related arrests in the U.S. However, the disclosures have led to some resignations and other reputational repercussions for some high-ranking Americans.

The lack of arrests in the U.S. contrasts to the fallout in the U.K., where investigators have pursued charges related to corruption, not sexual abuse, in their dealings with Epstein. Two former government officials — former Prince Andrew and ex-ambassador Peter Mandelson — were arrested on suspicion of misconduct in public office. Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, as he is now known, has denied wrongdoing and has not been formally charged. Mandelson has also not been charged, and lawyers for Mandelson have said that the arrest was prompted by a "baseless suggestion."

In the U.S., top Justice Department officials have said that they found no evidence compelling enough to pursue further charges related to Epstein, and that the public can make their own assessments based on the disclosed documents.

In a statement to NPR, Justice Department spokesperson Katie Kenlein said that "there have not been additional prosecutions beyond Epstein and Maxwell because there has not been credible evidence that their activities extended to Epstein's network. However, if prosecutable evidence comes forward, the Department of Justice will of course act on it as we do every day in sexual trafficking and assault cases across the count[r]y."

On Thursday, President Trump announced that Attorney General Pam Bondi is out of the top job at the Justice Department, following bipartisan criticism over her handling of the Epstein files.

NPR asked four former prosecutors and one former law enforcement officer why there may not have been enough evidence to levy additional charges. Here's what they said.

Prosecutors must prove guilt "beyond a reasonable doubt"

Prosecutors must prove to a jury that a person committed a crime "beyond a reasonable doubt," according to Barbara McQuade, a professor at the University of Michigan Law School.

"One of the biggest misconceptions people have is how difficult it is to charge and convict somebody for a criminal case," said McQuade, who served as the U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Michigan.

A prosecutor's ethical responsibility is to charge cases only if they believe there is enough evidence for a conviction, McQuade said. Documents, including emails, jokes, and even plane itineraries, can be a place to start, but, alone, they are not enough to prove guilt, McQuade said.

"What you would need [is] rock solid evidence," McQuade said. "You can't charge someone for a crime without sufficient evidence, and I have yet to see evidence of a crime involving an Epstein associate that has gone uncharged."

Based on his understanding of the case, Paul Butler, a professor at Georgetown Law, said he agreed that prosecutors who investigated Epstein's alleged associates "may have believed that they couldn't persuade a jury beyond a reasonable doubt." He said problems with witness credibility or certain forensic evidence can prevent a case from moving forward.

The U.K. cases are focused on corruption 

In the U.K., the two people arrested are being investigated on suspicion of "misconduct in public office." McQuade said the U.S. does not have a single equivalent federal law. Instead, the U.S. prosecutes public corruption through statutes that focus specifically on crimes such as bribery and extortion.

After the release of the latest files, British police began investigating Andrew's correspondence with Epstein when Andrew was a U.K. trade envoy. At that time, Andrew allegedly shared government itineraries, investment plans and notes from official foreign trips with Epstein. The information may have been covered by the United Kingdom's Official Secrets Act.

Similarly, Mandelson has been accused of passing confidential government information to the late sex offender when Mandelson was a U.K. Cabinet minister.

Meeting the burden of proof is especially challenging for sex crime cases

Victim statements are essential for establishing basic elements, such as the timeframe of events, required to build sexual assault cases, said Diane Goldstein, a retired police lieutenant from California and the executive director of the Law Enforcement Action Partnership. But a victim may be reluctant to come forward because of a fear of retaliation, not believing the police can help, believing it is a personal matter, or not wanting to get the perpetrator in trouble.

McQuade noted that in some sex trafficking cases, especially those in which a perpetrator is in a position of power, victims may experience intimidation or threats that prevent them from speaking out.

Victims also may be hesitant to move forward with allegations because they fear having to testify at trials where defense attorneys may attempt to poke holes in their allegations, McQuade said.

Goldstein said that for sex crime cases to advance, investigators need to follow certain policies and procedures. "If you don't have a legitimate police investigation to start, you're not going to get any type of criminal filing," Goldstein said.

Other potential charges are also a difficult path

Prosecutors may have considered pursuing charges of criminal conspiracy related to sex trafficking against people associated with Epstein, said Jessica Roth, a professor at Cardozo School of Law. FBI documents in the files relating to its investigation into Epstein's crimes identify certain people as "co-conspirators."

But Ankush Khardori, a senior writer and columnist at Politico magazine who worked as a federal prosecutor on financial fraud cases, told NPR those identifiers are not "formal accusation[s]" and are simply part of "interim documents."

"The FBI does not determine who is a co-conspirator," Khardori said. "That is a legal judgment that prosecutors make."

But for those conspiracy cases, "criminal intent," in particular, is difficult to establish, said Roth, who worked as a federal prosecutor in the U.S. attorney's office for the Southern District of New York for seven years. Criminal conspiracy charges "would require knowledge and intent on the part of each individual who was charged," Roth said. If a person who communicated with Epstein had some suspicion that he was engaged in illegal activity, that alone would not be sufficient evidence to press charges, she said.

Investigators may have considered charges related to criminal tax violations, McQuade said. But the statute of limitations has likely ended on those cases, she said, meaning that prosecutors can no longer bring charges.

The current evidence lacks context

Legal experts say the haphazard way the documents were released and redacted makes it difficult for the public to understand why no additional charges have been filed.

Roth, the Cardozo law professor, said the information is in "isolation," without the appropriate context. "We'll see an individual photograph that looks perhaps incriminating. We'll see an email that looks incriminating, but we don't necessarily have everything that was said before and after that email and that exchange," Roth said.

One document that could explain why no charges were pursued, according to Butler, is a heavily redacted DOJ memo naming "potential co-conspirators" of Epstein. "The parts that should indicate why the department declined prosecution on any alleged co-conspirators other than Ghislaine Maxwell [are] redacted," said Butler, the Georgetown law professor and a former federal prosecutor.

Butler said those redactions are "unusual" because they do not appear to follow the permissible reasons for redactions in the Epstein documents. Those reasons include confidentiality for Epstein's alleged victims, or anything that would compromise an ongoing investigation, Butler said.

"When the Justice Department grudgingly releases information when pressed by politics or forced by Congress, it also creates the impression that they have something to hide," Butler said. "That there is some cover-up going on."
Copyright 2026 NPR

Nearly 30% more students in Los Angeles County experienced homelessness from 2022-23 to 2023-24, making it the county’s highest rate in the past five years and far outpacing the rate of homelessness across the state in the same timeframe, as the resources to identify and support this student population have decreased.

The UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools published two reports on Wednesday on the state of student homelessness in the county: “Rising Numbers, Fading Resources: Students Experiencing Homelessness in Los Angeles County” and “Hidden in Plain Sight: Fear, Underidentification, and Funding Gaps for Housing-Insecure Students in Los Angeles County.”

Researchers found that Norwalk-La Mirada Elementary Unified School District had the highest rate of student homelessness in the county — 1 in 3 students, meaning that over 4,700 students were identified as experiencing homelessness during the 2023-24 school year out of a total cumulative enrollment of about 15,600.

The city of Norwalk, where the district is located in the eastern region of the county, was sued by the state in 2024 for banning emergency shelters and other support services for people experiencing homelessness. Last year, the state reached a settlement with the city, which was forced to overturn the ban and put $250,000 toward building affordable housing.

Student homelessness is defined differently under the McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, a federal law that requires every public school to count the number of students who are living on the street, in shelters, in motels, in cars, doubled up with other families, or moving between friends’ and relatives’ homes.

As a result of this expanded definition, McKinney-Vento includes doubled-up students in the count of homelessness. Doubled-up is a term used to describe children and youth ages 21 and under living in shared housing, such as with another family or friends, due to various crises.

There were a few other patterns seen in the L.A. County data analyzed by the UCLA researchers:

• Latino students were disproportionately more likely to experience homelessness: they represent 65% of the county’s student population, but 75.5% of student homelessness
• A third of homeless students were in high school
• Many districts with the highest rates of homelessness had higher school instability but lower dropout rates

While McKinney-Vento has an expanded definition that includes more types of homelessness than several other definitions, identifying students remains difficult.

The second report from the UCLA Center for the Transformation of Schools focuses on the lack of dedicated funding for school staff to identify and support homeless students. Students and families facing homelessness do not always self-identify, whether due to fear, shame or being unaware that their housing situation is considered homelessness under McKinney-Vento.

“A lot of these young people are dealing with a lot of trauma, so they don’t want to be identified. They don’t want to be pointed out; sometimes it’s scary for them, because they think we’re going to report them to the Department of Children and Family Services,” said L.A. County Office of Education staff interviewed for this report.

School staff, known as homeless liaisons, who work with homeless students received a historic influx of federal funds during the Covid-19 pandemic — $98.76 million for California, out of $800 million nationwide, from the American Rescue Plan-Homeless Children and Youth.

That funding has since ended, and there is no other dedicated, ongoing state funding set aside solely for the rising number of homeless students. This has led districts in California to “heavily depend on highly competitive and unstable federal streams,” the UCLA researchers wrote. Those federal streams have become increasingly precarious as the federal administration last year sought policy changes that would shift how they are structured.