Los Angeles, CA — The state budget crisis is hitting home with a vengeance for students at local schools.
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) last week announced that only students who needed to recover credits in order to graduate (those within five to 10 credits of graduating) would be eligible to attend the summer school sessions that will be held only at selected campuses. The district also will not offer intersessions to students who are off track at year-round campuses.
At the same time, Inglewood Unified School District (IUSD) which had previously decided to implement a full summer schedule, will reconsider that decision at its June 10 board meeting.
In Compton Unified School District (CUSD), all of the high schools will offer summer session while only selected middle and elementary schools will hold classes.
While many of the local districts surrounding LAUSD will have some level of summer school, most are restricting attendees to students who live in their respective service areas.
Consequently, elementary and middle school pupils in Los Angeles, who want to attend summer school have only a limited number of other options.
Sunland Christian School, is a home schooling program, which is accredited by the National Independent Study Accreditation Council, and typically offers summer school courses for children in all grade levels.
The school works with each individual public school and parents to determine what course a pupil needs to take, and how the class and credits will be accepted.
Interested students can sign up at any point but the optimal time is by July, explained principal Terry Neven.
To start the process, parents can go into a local Sunland office and complete an application or do so online at www.home-schooling.org. The cost to attend is $40 for registration plus $90 for a one semester course. A year-long course is $160. For additional information, contact the school at (800) 525-4419.
Most of the local community colleges including Los Angeles Southwest, Los Angeles Trade Tech, Santa Monica and El Camino College (both the Compton and Torrance campuses) will have at least one session of summer school.
Some like El Camino and Santa Monica will have multiple sessions. Students in high school and younger can attend the regular classes at no charge (other than books) and courses should be transferable to LAUSD.
Classes are available in the day time and the evening, and young people who intend to take courses through the regular high school program must take a math and English placement test.
A number of the colleges, including Trade Tech and Santa Monica, have programs geared specifically for youth in middle school and high school. There may be a charge for these special offerings.
The first step is to contact the high school office at the community college to find out their application procedure. Most require students submit an application that also contains a signature from the school principal or counselor and a parent.
Trade Tech’s 21st Century program targets youth in kindergarten to grade eight and holds two orientation sessions: June 13 and June 20. Reservations are required to attend this. Call (213) 763-5510.
If a student is more than 10 credits behind, but can make up the deficiency with a combination of attending LAUSD summer school, community college and other options, talk to the counselor at your home school about the situation.
