The 'Outrageous' Impact Of LAUSD's Process For Counting Students

#180: Even if you are not a parent in the Los Angeles Unified School District, you are probably aware of its size and the challenges of managing a system of 14-hundred schools and 400,000 students from Sylmar to San Pedro, from Westwood to El Sereno.

In many respects it’s like managing a small country.

Now imagine having to configure EVERY classroom… EVERY year… for EVERY school based on an EXPECTATION that a certain number of students show up on the first day of school.

You’re hiring teachers and staff to support the students, balancing the number of kids in each class and juggling whole bunch of other stuff. Then at the start of the school year, some of these students don’t come. And everything needs to change.

Sounds like a logistical headache, right?

Well, it’s a process that continues to plague LAUSD every year. It's called "Norm Day" and we’ll get into how it works…what’s at stake …and what one school is doing about it. 

Guest: Mariana Dale LAist K-12 Education Reporter