Civil Rights Investigation: Los Angeles Unified Failed to Meet Needs of Students with Disabilities During Pandemic

The U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights has resolved an investigation of the Los Angeles Unified School District with an agreement requiring it to provide educational services and compensatory services for the 66,000 students with disabilities for whom the district “failed to provide services” for as required by law, according to a news release.

OCR’s investigation found that the district did not provide the services identified in the students’ Individualized Education Programs and Section 504 plans during remote learning, the agency said.

OCR said it “found that during remote learning, the district:

“Limited the services provided to students with disabilities based on considerations other than the students’ individual educational needs.

“Failed to accurately or sufficiently track services provided to students with disabilities.

“Directed district service providers to include attempts to communicate with students and parents — including emails and phone calls — as the provision of services, documenting such on students’ service records.

“Informed staff that the district was not responsible for providing compensatory education to students with disabilities who did not receive FAPE during the COVID-19 school closure period because the district was not at fault for the closure. And,

“Failed to develop and implement a plan adequate to remedy the instances in which students with disabilities were not provided a FAPE during remote learning.”

District leaders agreed to create and implement a “comprehensive plan to address the compensatory education needs of students with disabilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic,” according to the news release.

The letter to Los Angeles Unified School District detailing the findings of OCR’s investigation is available at this ED web page, and the full resolution agreement is also available on the ED website.

About the Author

Kristal Kuykendall is editor, 1105 Media Education Group. She can be reached at [email protected].


Featured

  • Stock market graphs and candlesticks breaking apart with glass-like cracks

    Chinese Startup Disrupts AI Market

    A new low-cost artificial intelligence model from China is wreaking havoc in the technology sector, with tech stocks plummeting globally as concerns grow over the potential disruption it could cause.

  • interconnected glowing nodes and circuits in blue and green, forming a neural network on a dark background with a futuristic design

    Tech Giants Launch $100 Billion National AI Infrastructure Project

    OpenAI, SoftBank, and Oracle have announced a new venture, Stargate, through which they aim to build a massive AI infrastructure network across the United States. The initiative, which was announced at the White House with President Donald Trump, has been described as the "largest AI infrastructure project in history."

  • glowing digital brain made of blue circuitry hovers above multiple stylized clouds of interconnected network nodes against a dark, futuristic background

    Report: 85% of Organizations Are Leveraging AI

    Eighty-five percent of organizations today are utilizing some form of AI, according to the latest State of AI in the Cloud 2025 report from Wiz. While AI's role in innovation and disruption continues to expand, security vulnerabilities and governance challenges remain pressing concerns.

  •  laptop surrounded by floating digital books and cloud-based documents

    Mississippi Department of Education Approves Imagine Learning Resources for Statewide Adoption

    The Mississippi Department of Education has added Imagine Learning's Imagine IM and Traverse solutions to its list of state-adopted high-quality instructional materials.