LAUSD is expanding its winter break program. How well does it work?

Los Angeles Unified is expanding its winter break school program to a full week with the goal of drawing more than 70,000 students back into the classroom the week before school starts.

The 2026 Winter Academy will start on Jan. 5, at the tail end of winter break, instead of following the end of the fall semester as in past years.

“By students returning to school earlier, it'll get 'em into the routine and the rhythm [of school],” said LAUSD Chief Academic Officer Frances Baez. “Once the spring semester begins, it shouldn't be too difficult.”

The free program, which started in response to pandemic learning loss, is now an annual offering during the district’s winter and spring breaks.

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While some parents and educators have questioned its effectiveness, district leaders say student outcomes — and interests — have shaped the program’s evolution.

“We're seeing that it's working because our students are improving,” Baez said.

What is Winter Academy?

Winter Academy runs the hours of a regular school day with the option of afterschool care.

Teachers and parents who participated in the program told LAist class sizes are generally smaller and there’s flexibility to adapt the curriculum the district provides to the students in their class.

“We want to offer programs that are gonna be aligned to student interests and at the same time, continue with that opportunity for them to grow academically and thrive,” said Executive Director of Secondary Instruction John Vladovic.

There are also several “camps” focused on specific activities like science, arts, math and gaming.

The program offers some relief to working families who struggle to cobble together child care during the district’s three-week winter break (prior attempts to reduce the break failed).

Catskill Elementary School fifth-grader Chloe Campbell has participated in several of the district’s winter and summer programs.

“I love doing work and seeing different people and making new friends and learning different things,” she told LAist in 2023.

In an interview this year, her mom Christal Campbell said her daughter particularly enjoyed the math lessons and the art activities like papier-mâché.

“They did basic academics, but made the projects more fun and learnable for them,” Campbell said.

The evolution of ‘acceleration days’

Winter Academy started in 2022 as "acceleration days,” meant to help students make up for lost learning time during the COVID-19 pandemic using winter and spring breaks.

“This is a homegrown program,” Baez said. “That means our educators and our leaders developed this program for our students.”

Changes this year include offering transportation, piloting a more camp-like experience focused on specific activities like art and math, and extending the program to five days.

Winter Academy enrollment has represented less than 20% of the district’s student body:

• 2022: 71,458 students
• 2023: 74,414 students
• 2024: 73,946 students

Average attendance is 55-60%, according to a statement provided to LAist by a district spokesperson.

The district said in a statement that the demographics of the participants mirror the district’s overall makeup.

However, some educators say the students in their classrooms during the winter program are not those that have fallen behind or are struggling academically.

Charnock Road Elementary third grade teacher Jason Buchalter has worked for LAUSD for almost three decades and taught summer school in addition to Winter Academy.

“These are the parents whose kids are doing well, who are keeping up with the homework, who are providing a really supportive educational environment,” Buchalter said. “So, of course they sign up for more school.”

Buchalter said his school, in Palms, calls and sends messages to the families of children who are struggling to tell them about the program, but it’s not clear why they don't sign up.

“They have trouble getting the kids to school,” Buchalter said. “Some of these families don't see the benefit even a few days can have.”

What do we know about student outcomes?

In 2023, the district started testing students at the beginning and end of Winter Academy to measure growth in reading, writing and math. The district provided some of this information in a statement to LAist.

In December 2023:

• Scores in transitional kindergarten through fifth grade increased 9.8% in English language arts and 8.8% in math. 
• There were “smaller improvements” in grades six through eight. 

In December 2024:

• TK through fifth grade English language arts scores “continued to show gains.” 
• In grades six through eight, there were “math gains,” with “mixed’ English language arts scores in grades seven through eight. 

“Every bit helps,” said Buchalter, the Palms teacher. “If at the end of the day we provide some kids with a fun, safe, structured, friendly day with three hot meals… it's a good investment.”

Buchalter said he’s looking forward to the additional days of Winter Academy in 2026.

“When kids work together for a whole week, they make friends, they build community,” Buchalter said.

Some high school students can increase grades from the previous semester by completing specific work assigned by their teacher through an Academic Course Extension (ACE) contract. Increasing a student’s below-C grade can improve college prospects and options for post-graduation financial aid.

More than 17,000 letter grades improved after the December 2024 Winter Academy. That’s more than double the number of letter grades improved the previous year.

Some teachers, including Sadia Aziz, say the work of a semester cannot be made up with just a handful of assignments completed over the course of Winter Academy.

“It becomes a little tricky because the students now expect their grade to be increased because they showed up and they did the work,” said Aziz, who teaches at Daniel Pearl Magnet High School.

How much does Winter Academy cost the district?

In a statement to LAist, a district spokesperson said the programs cost approximately $24 million to offer and that the money goes primarily to educator salaries.

The money comes largely from a state program called Expanded Learning Opportunities or ELOP that’s pumped about $18 billion a year into schools for afterschool and enrichment programs over the last five years. LAUSD’s share of the funding is about $612.3 million in the 2025-26 budget.

Previously, LAUSD leaders said federal COVID-19 relief money funded the program, before it expired in September 2024.