LAUSD approves new academic calendar, so start planning for child care now

For the next three years, the Los Angeles Unified School District will resume classes in mid-August and maintain a three-week winter break.

The Los Angeles Unified school board voted, 6-1, on Tuesday to approve the plan.

The calendar dictates how families plan their summer and winter breaks, including how they account for child care. Educators have also expressed concern about how their students start to forget information over long breaks, also known as learning loss.

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Board Member Nick Melvoin cast the lone dissenting vote. He said he is frustrated the calendar is set so late in the school year, includes longer breaks than other districts, and that the school year starts mid-week.

LAUSD calendar highlights

What stays the same?

Every year includes the state-mandated 180 days of school, one week of Thanksgiving break, three weeks of winter break, and one week of spring break in addition to various holidays.

What’s changed on the LAUSD calendar?

The district will extend optional school days during winter break a full week. School Operations Chief Andres Chait said at a prior board presentation that the Winter Academy will start the week before students return from winter break to help kids get up to speed going into the second semester.

“It's an opportunity to kind of front-load, get the engine going again, whatever your idiom of choice is,” Chait said.

Read more: Here's how LAUSD developed its calendar