Local government agencies in charge of youth violated the educational and civil rights of students in Los Angeles County’s juvenile justice facilities for decades by punting responsibility and inaction, according to a report released Wednesday.

“” blames the disconnected, vast network of local and state agencies — from the board of supervisors to the local probation department to the county office of education and more — that play one role or another in managing the county’s juvenile legal system, for the disruption in the care and education of youth in one of the nation’s largest systems.

“This broken system perpetuates a harmful cycle of ‘finger-pointing,’ often between Probation and Los Angeles County Office of Education, which hinders the resolution of issues that significantly affect the education of incarcerated youth,” wrote the Education Justice Coalition, authors of the report.

The coalition includes representatives from Children’s Defense Fund-California, ACLU of Southern California, Arts for Healing and Justice Network, Disability Rights California, Youth Justice Education Clinic at Loyola Law School, and Public Counsel.

The authors listed three demands for the board of supervisors, including reducing youth incarceration by way of implementing the previously approved Youth Justice Reimagined plan, providing access to high-quality education, and adopting transparency and accountability measures.

Decades of documented rights violations

A timeline outlines repeated student rights violations, some of which have resulted in class-action lawsuits and settlements requiring the county to be monitored by the federal and state departments of justice for years at a time.

Since 2000, the timeline notes that Los Angeles County has faced:

• A civil grand jury report calling on the board of supervisors to “improve collaboration” between the probation and education departments in order to address unmet educational needs
• An investigation by the federal Department of Justice — and subsequent settlements — found significant teacher shortages, lack of consistency in daily instruction, and issues with support for students with special needs
• A class action lawsuit against the county office of education and the probation department
• An investigation by the state Department of Justice, followed by settlements, found excessive use of force and inadequate services
• Multiple findings by a state agency of L.A. County juvenile facilities being “unsuitable for the confinement of minors”

Most recently, the state attorney general has , which would mean full state ownership of the county’s juvenile halls.

The Los Angeles Board of Supervisors, the probation department, and the Office of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The lasting impact of academic disruptions

Dovontray Farmer experienced the mismanaged system when he entered Los Padrinos Juvenile Hall a second time as a 10th grader. Now 24 and serving as a youth mentor with the Youth Justice Coalition, Farmer said that his time in L.A. County facilities “played a major role in not being able to get properly educated — I felt betrayed, honestly.”

Returning to school after being released was difficult, he said, because he quickly realized he was several grade levels below his classmates at his local high school.

He’d also been part of his school’s football team before his detention at Los Padrinos when he was 17, and said he tried returning to the team once released but wasn’t allowed back.

He said the disruption to his education and participation on the football team, which he saw as a positive influence, affected how he viewed his life.

“There was nothing I really could do, so I was really giving up,” he said. “Like, everything that I really cared for was already gone.”

The environment at the juvenile facilities didn’t help matters. 

Los Padrinos recently came under fire after a  published by the Los Angeles Times showed probation officers standing idle as detained youths fought. Thirty officers have been indicted on criminal charges for encouraging or organizing gladiator-style fights among youths.

Farmer said he was put through those same types of fights when he was at Los Padrinos as a teenager.

“A lot of the coverage recently has been about the recent gladiator fights in 2023, but clearly this is a very systemic issue that even when a problem is resolved in the short term, we’re uncovering that it’s really indicative of a larger systemic problem,” said Vivian Wong, an education attorney and director of the Youth Justice Education Clinic at Loyola Law School, whose recent clients have included Los Padrinos students.

Education data across several years backs Farmer’s experiences while detained.

The most recent state data available when Farmer was detained at Los Padrinos is from 2018, when 39% of students were chronically absent, less than 43% graduated, and 12% were suspended at least once.

That same year, the  was 9% for chronic absenteeism, 83.5% for graduation, and 3.5% for suspension.

Ongoing education concerns

The report’s authors note that students across several facilities have lost thousands of instructional minutes, with a “lack of transparency and concrete planning to ensure that the missed services are adequately made up for, leaving students at risk of falling further behind educationally.”

While compensatory education has typically been used to resolve instructional minutes owed, “I am not sure that’s the most realistic way to remedy the injustice that young people face, because they have endured so much abuse in these facilities,” said Wong. “It’s much more than just a loss of instruction.”

A more appropriate response to the loss of instructional time would be a consistent investment in avoiding detention and keeping young people in their communities to maintain school stability, she added.

Past attempts at reform have often been “done without community input or leadership, both in the design and in the implementation of those reforms,” Wong said.

The new report, she added, is meant to be a tool toward implementing Youth Justice Reimagined, or YJR, a model against punitive measures that was largely developed with input from community organizations to restructure the local juvenile legal system.

Three demands

, approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors in November 2020 to reform the local juvenile legal system, would move the county away from punitive approaches, such as detention, and toward rehabilitative support through counseling, family and vocational programming, small residential home placements, and more.

Youth detention results in “severe disconnection from and disruption to their education trajectory,” wrote the report’s authors, as they urged the board to address abysmal educational access and achievement by fully funding and implementing YJR.

The disconnect, they added, is exacerbated by delayed school enrollment when detained and upon release, the constant presence of probation officers, and turnover of educators and classmates.

These common experiences are particularly difficult for students with learning disabilities or a history of trauma, they wrote.

“After more than a decade of incremental reform, it is time for the County to truly reimagine youth justice,” wrote Supervisors Sheila Kuehl and Mark Ridley-Thomas in their November 2020  to approve YJR. “In the same way that the Board has embraced a care first, jail last approach to the criminal justice system, it is incumbent upon the Board to embrace a care first youth development approach to youth justice.”

Despite the approval, a report published in August 2024 by the state auditor found that less than half of the YJR recommendations had been implemented by mid-2024.

To address the high rates of chronic absenteeism, poor testing results and instructional minutes owed, the Education Justice Coalition’s second demand is to adapt educational opportunities “to address the unique and significant needs of the court school population.”

They listed 18 actions the county probation and education departments should work together on, including:

• Appropriate education support for students with disabilities 
• Access to A-G approved courses for every student in a juvenile facility
• Classrooms led by educators, rather than probation officers
• Appropriately credentialed and culturally competent educators
• Education access that is not disrupted due to probation staffing issues

The coalition’s third demand centered on transparency and accountability measures by providing families with access to education planning for their children and establishing work groups that include community members.

This was originally published on .

Carlos Garcia Saldaña drove past block after block of homes, businesses, and churches “wiped off the face of the earth.” The Eaton fire that had consumed large parts of Altadena was still burning in the San Gabriel Mountains. The charter network leader needed to see what remained of his schools.

As Garcia Saldaña approached Odyssey Charter School South, the facade and main entrance appeared intact. But as he looked left and up the hill, he saw a heap of twisted metal and charred rubble where, two days earlier, there had been classrooms, offices, lunch tables, play structures, and an after-school clubhouse. The tree stumps where students used to sit and eat and dream were still smoldering.

“It’s just jarring and heartbreaking,” Garcia Saldaña said.

Get stories like this delivered straight to your inbox. Sign up for ����Ӱ�� Newsletter

Over the past week, wind-whipped wildfires reshaped wide swaths of Los Angeles, and destroying more than 12,000 structures. A dozen or more . The danger is not yet past, with fires only partially contained and high winds forecast through Wednesday.

Hundreds of thousands of students were out of school last week as more than announced temporary closures due to poor air quality, shifting evacuation orders, and the many , , and who had lost their homes.

On Tuesday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom issued suspending many state rules governing schools to make it easier for schools to operate in temporary buildings and for students to enroll across district lines, as well as waiving requirements about instructional days.

In the Los Angeles Unified School District, the nation’s second-largest, a handful of schools in areas still under evacuation orders, including three that were neighborhood, remained closed early this week. The district announced that students from two ravaged Palisades elementary schools Wednesday from other district buildings on the city’s west side.

Santa Monica-Malibu Unified opened its Santa Monica campuses on Tuesday but kept schools in Malibu closed through Wednesday due to road closures and power and gas outages. Many local families have had to evacuate because of the proximity to the , and the district for affected families. Santa Monica-Malibu Unified also said it was monitoring air quality and that its facilities had air filtration systems in place.

In Pasadena Unified, the Eaton Fire, which started on Jan. 7, badly damaged five of its Altadena campuses, which housed a district middle school (whose student-led ), a defunct elementary school, and three charters, including Odyssey South, known as OCS South. Pasadena Unified said its schools will remain closed through this week but that it will offer self-directed online learning and grab-and-go meal service.

Close-knit community faces widespread losses

Now Garcia Saldaña’s days are consumed with checking on the many families and staff who lost their homes and looking for a space where students could return to school as soon as possible.

Odyssey operates two Altadena charter schools, OCS South and Odyssey Charter, the network’s original school, which sustained minimal damage — some downed trees and smoke residue. The charter network, founded in 1999, now serves a total of 830 students in transitional kindergarten through 8th grade.

OCS South opened its doors in 2018 and relocated to its current location, on the grounds of the former Edison Elementary School, three years ago. Since then, the Odyssey community has set out to make the campus its own — painting murals, planting gardens, and replacing old play structures.

Over the weekend, Garcia Saldaña sent a video message to families describing the damage to buildings at the two campuses. Odyssey Charter will require a major clean-up; the OCS South location was a near-total loss. But Odyssey isn’t about buildings, he said in the video, but about “the community that makes us such a special and unique place that we all love so much.”

Emmanuel Barragan, a father of three OCS South students, echoed that point as he dropped off his daughter and two sons at the Boys & Girls Club of Pasadena on Monday. School leaders know the name of every single child and what they need, he said, noting, “Sometimes, it almost feels like the school is a co-parent.”

Odyssey partnered with the Boys & Girls Club to offer free child care this week. The club also alerted other local schools that its doors would be open this week to any school-age child in need of a safe place to be. The clubhouse was providing all-day programming, including arts and crafts, sports, and educational games, and waiving its drop-in fee.

More than 200 students had arrived by mid-morning on Monday. Garcia Saldaña, better known to students as Dr. Carlos, was at the door to greet Odyssey families. He offered hugs as students made their way inside, and he checked in with caregivers about their housing status.

A survey of Odyssey’s roughly 650 families had yielded more than 300 responses, with 83 student households reporting “full loss of home & belongings.” Others said they didn’t yet know the condition of their home. Four Odyssey employees, including the Odyssey Charter principal, also lost homes in the fire, Garcia Saldaña said.

Altadena native Marcellus Nunley evacuated with his family around 3:45 a.m. on Jan. 8. Within hours, their home was gone. “Everything melted” was how his 5-year-old son, an Odyssey Charter kindergartener, put it. Nunley dropped off his son at the Boys & Girls Club so he could spend the day managing the logistics of a family displaced by fire: calling the mortgage company, reaching out to the county tax assessor, and procuring all of the little life necessities he hadn’t given much thought to until they went up in flames.

The losses are exacerbated by Altadena residents’ love for their neighborhood, with its charming bungalows and craftsman homes, picturesque hiking trails, and beloved local businesses. “Altadena is a diverse community, which is wonderful. It’s a walking community, it’s a dog walking community, it’s town and country,” Nunley said. “It’s a great melting pot of society.”

Before the Eaton Fire, about 42,000 people resided in Altadena. Many Black families who faced housing discrimination in other Los Angeles neighborhoods in the 1960s. Today, Black residents make up about 18% of the population. Roughly a third of Altadena residents are Hispanic, about 40% are white, and there are many Asian American and biracial families.

The Odyssey student body reflects the community’s racial diversity. It’s also economically diverse, with about 30% qualifying for free or reduced-price lunch, according to Garcia Saldaña.

Caitlin Reilly’s two sons, 10-year-old Townes and 8-year-old Ellar, are students at OCS South. When the Eaton Fire forced another Odyssey family to evacuate early on Jan. 8, they drove to the house Reilly shares with her partner and kids, located in a section of Pasadena outside of an evacuation zone.

For the next four days, the four adults and four children huddled together in the two-bedroom, one-bathroom home. The kids had an epic sleepover, and the parents stared at their devices, searching for the latest news about the fires engulfing Los Angeles.

Meanwhile, Odyssey families connected on social media and text chains, offering up what they could and asking for what they needed, Reilly said. They arranged indoor playdates so kids could be together without breathing the smoke-filled air. They replaced baseball bats and gloves for Little League players who had lost theirs to fire, and they organized backpack and supply drives. The school launched a to support recovery efforts.

Fire’s devastation leaves uncertainty about next steps

The evacuated family’s Altadena house is still standing, but their badly damaged neighborhood remained under evacuation orders this week. They secured a temporary rental, but Reilly fears that many local families who lost homes will have a hard time finding a place to stay.

“The fear is that it will be like Katrina,” she said. The 2005 hurricane devastated New Orleans, damaged or destroyed , and . “We’re worried that we’ll lose so many families that are part of the community because there is nowhere to house them.”

That would hit Odyssey hard, given the closeness of its community and the fact that its funding is tied to its enrollment numbers.

“There’s been cheerleading about cleaning up and rebuilding, but as far as logistically what comes next, I don’t think anyone knows yet,” said Reilly, who serves on the Odyssey Charter Schools board.

Mary Scott, whose 10-year-old son, Charlie, attends OCS South, also fears dwindling enrollment at Odyssey. “The reality is, these aren’t all well-off families, and now they have to find a place to rent and rebuild while also having to pay their mortgages,” she said. “I do worry about the families that have to relocate. It would be a tremendous loss.”

Odyssey leadership acknowledges how much remains unknown: when schools will reopen in person, where classes will be held, how many families will stay local and how many will resettle elsewhere, and the extent to which the network will need to rely on remote learning.

Scott, for one, said she’s hoping to avoid remote learning because it was so difficult during COVID school closures when her son was in kindergarten and first grade. But if she had to choose between online schooling and leaving OCS South, she said would likely stay put because “I don’t want to abandon our community.”

Garcia Saldaña said the COVID years taught him a lot about what works for online learning (shorter lessons, movement breaks) and what doesn’t (asking kids to sit still for two to three hours at a time). But he’s mostly focused on finding a temporary physical location so students can return in person as soon as possible.

At the same time, he’s still figuring out the availability of Odyssey’s 115 employees, many of whom remain displaced, and asking teachers to reach out to each of their students.

“It’s about having a familiar voice on the other end of the line saying, ‘What do you need? How is your family?’” he said. “We are all human, first and foremost.”

This was originally published by . Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools. . 

School districts across Los Angeles County have announced plans to close all or some schools as multiple fires spread across the Los Angeles area.

In total, at least  have announced full or partial closures, according to the L.A. County Office of Education.

Alhambra Unified

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8.

In a , Superintendent Denise Jaramillo said before- and after-school programs and activities are also canceled. 

“We will continue to monitor weather conditions and provide further updates as they become available,” she added, noting the district has not made a decision about Thursday.

Arcadia Unified

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8. 

“All district events and services will also be closed and canceled, including athletics, and after-school program,” the district . 

The district also said it has not made a determination about the rest of the week.

Azusa Unified

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8.

“This closure will allow District staff to thoroughly assess any potential damage to school sites and ensure that schools are safe for students and staff to return,” per a . 

The district said it would keep families updated through email, the website, and social media.

Burbank Unified

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8th.

The  it will not provide child care and that all after-school activities are canceled.

Schools are expected to reopen on Jan. 9.

Duarte Unified

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8.

In a , the district noted that its office and schools lost power on Tuesday.

El Monte City School District

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8. 

Head Start will also be closed. 

The district said  that it expects schools to reopen on Thursday. But a science camp trip for 6th grade students at Cherrylee and Cleminson will be postponed.

Garvey School District

All schools closed Wednesday, January 8.

In a statement on X, State Senator Sasha Renée Pérez announced the closure. The school district was not immediately available for comment.

Glendale Unified

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8.

“This decision was made to prioritize the safety of our students, employees, and families, as wind and fires have significantly impacted the accessibility of roadways and the air quality in our area,” the district .

The district said it would make a determination Wednesday afternoon about whether schools will remain closed Thursday.

La Cañada Unified

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8. 

In a , the district said it anticipates reopening on Thursday, Jan. 9.

Las Virgenes Unified

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8. 

In a statement posted to the district’s Facebook page, Superintendent Dan Stepenosky said that Southern California Edison had turned off the power at a number of schools. The district hopes to reopen Thursday, he said.

Los Angeles Unified

Los Angeles Unified School District announced a growing list of school closures for Wednesday, Jan. 8.

Superintendent Alberto Carvalho described a challenging day ahead for the district at an 8 a.m. press conference Wednesday. He said a number of schools are closed down, and further decisions for school closures for tomorrow will be made by 4 p.m.

For schools that are open today, he said the district will be flexible with its attendance policies.

“We know today is not going to be a perfect day,” he said. “We will utilize grace and discretion.”

All athletic activities, games, and practices are cancelled for Wednesday.

The following schools are closed:

• Kenter Canyon Charter Elementary
• Canyon Charter Elementary School
• Marquez Charter Elementary School
• Palisades Charter Elementary School 
• Paul Revere Charter Middle School
• Topanga Elementary Charter School
• The Zoo Magnet at North Hollywood High School will not have classes at the Los Angeles Zoo. Students and staff will report to the North Hollywood High School main campus.

In addition, more schools in the central and eastern part of the district (north of Manchester Boulevard/Firestone Boulevard, East of 10th Avenue, West of Interstate 710, and South of Highway 134) will be closed due to hazardous air quality conditions.

LAUSD officials said Wednesday morning that they would release a full list shortly.

Students will have online learning resources made available through the district’s .

, an independent school located on district property, but the campus is currently not in session. On Wednesday morning, Carvalho said the high school had “significant damage” from the fire. 

LAUSD “will also work with the appropriate agencies to secure funding relief for Palisades Charter High School, Palisades Charter Elementary School, and any school impacted by the extreme weather,” the district said in a statement late Tuesday night.

Monrovia Unified

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8.

In a , Superintendent Paula Hart Rodas said the rest of the week is up in the air.

“Our district teams will be on-site tomorrow to assess any damages caused by the wind and ensure the safety and security of all school facilities,” she said. “We will provide an update on our school schedule for Thursday, Jan. 9, once the assessment is complete.”

Mountain View School District

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8. 

“This decision was made to prioritize the safety of our school communities as this wind storm event has significantly impacted the accessibility of roadways, causing potential hazards as our families and staff make their way to and from school,” wrote Superintendent Raymond A. Andry in . 

District staff will assess campuses Wednesday and provide an update on whether schools will reopen.

Pasadena Unified

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8.

Meals: Grab & Go meals will be available for pick-up at 10 a.m. and noon at: 

• Madison Elementary (515 E Ashtabula St.)
• McKinley School (325 S Oak Knoll Ave.)
• Willard Elementary (301 Madre St.)

, Superintendent Elizabeth Blanco said the district would make an announcement Wednesday about whether schools will reopen Thursday.

Rosemead School District

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8. 

The district  and cited the high winds. The district will assess any damage to campuses Wednesday and plans to reopen schools Thursday, Jan. 9.

San Gabriel Unified

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8. 

The school district cited the ongoing fires and “associated safety concerns” as the reason for the closures. The closure affects both students and employees. 

San Marino Unified

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8. 

The power went out at all four of the San Gabriel Valley district’s schools and there was widespread debris, Superintendent Linda de la Torre . 

“This decision was not made lightly,” de la Torre wrote. “After consulting with the fire and police chiefs, neighboring superintendents, as well as with our Board President, we believe this is the safest course of action for our students, staff, and families given the ongoing hazardous conditions.” 

The district plans to reopen schools Thursday, Jan. 9.

Santa Monica-Malibu Unified

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8.

Santa Monica-Malibu USD  that all schools will be closed on Wednesday and staff would work from home. 

“Essential emergency staff and maintenance and operations staff should report for duty and check in with their supervisors,” the district statement said.

South Pasadena Unified

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8. 

Superintendent Geoff Yantz  that the decision to close schools was made in consultation with the South Pasadena Police and Fire Departments and the school board president. 

“SPUSD schools and many areas within South Pasadena do not have power due to the ongoing wind storms and fire activity,” Yantz wrote. 

The district plans to reopen schools on Thursday, Jan. 9.

Temple City Unified

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8.

The district cited power outages, downed trees and damage to several campuses in .

The district plans to assess damages before determining whether to open schools Thursday, Jan. 9. A previously planned “student free day” on January 29 will now be a regular school day.

Valle Lindo

All schools closed Wednesday, Jan. 8. 

Superintendent Paula Hart Rodas  that the decision to close was made to “prioritize the safety of our students, staff, and community members.” 

District staff will assess campuses Wednesday and then provide an update on Thursday’s school schedule.

Caltech

Caltech announced that its campus in Pasadena will be closed for “all nonessential operations” on Wednesday. For more information, visit .

More fire coverage

For the most up-to-date information about the fire, you can check:

Palisades Fire

Eaton Fire

Hurst Fire

This was originally published on .

“They’re now graduated and in college…they came back [for] summer break. I had a couple of slices of coffee cake for them, and they were like, ‘Oh my gosh!’… because, you know it’s a famous thing,” said Heinz, a staff member at Marina Del Rey Middle School.

Stories like Heinz’s are not unique. LAUSD’s coffee cake is one of the most popular items on the district’s menu. Every year LA Unified serves up 800,000 slices of the coffee cake a year across 700 cafeterias, according to an LAIST .

The coffee cake recipe dates back to 1954 and has undergone several changes due to federal USDA regulations. Evelen Guirguis, who has been with the district for 30 years and is now the cafeteria manager at Marina del Rey Middle School, said shortening, an ingredient “high in calories and offers no nutritional benefits,” has since been cut out.

Baking more now that you are staying home? Remember the legendary LAUSD Old Fashioned Coffee Cake? Here is the original recipe from 1954. Photo credit: Danielle Chiriguaya.

— Los Angeles Unified (@LASchools)

“Before, the (ingredients) came from the government. Now we buy everything ourselves.” said Guirguis. “We have our own vendor now…[which] means we get the best [products] and everything is fresh,”

The current coffee cake recipe is expected to be updated again in the fall — because of a new set of federal regulations — cutting down on sugar. 

Meanwhile the iconic cake remains in high demand. 

“Even though the fat content has declined, it’s still a very moist cake…a big part of nutrition is what you enjoy,” said Manish Singh, director of LAUSD food services.

The district even the recipe during the pandemic, encouraging people to make it while they were home. 

Singh said earlier this month the district ordered 3,500 pieces of coffee cake as part of a staff appreciation day and “it was all gone in no time,”  he said.  “We did a similar thing last year. The first time, they ordered 1,000 pieces and were worried there would be leftovers. It was gone in 20 minutes.”

The cake is so popular, it has even inspired businesses like Runaway Sweet Treats in Los Angeles to offer on its menu items using the original recipe. It’s also a big crowd pleaser on back-to-school night, with parents waiting in long lines to get a slice.  

LAUSD Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho is also a big fan, requesting it for monthly principals’ meetings.

When a student reporter with several boxes of coffee cake returned to the University of Southern California campus, a security guard recognized the packaging and asked for a  piece.

The recipe is not the only thing that has changed. With the decrease in cafeteria-produced food, some schools have contracted the production process to a third-party vendor. The cake is still made from scratch in 25-30 school kitchens, Singh said. 

“Where we have the capacity, and where the staff is able to make it from scratch, we still encourage them to make it from scratch,” Singh said. 

Guirguis is one of the many passionate individuals behind the creation of the legendary cake. Once a week, she and her staff bake nearly 600 coffee cakes before breakfast at 7:45 AM for the students at Marina del Rey Middle School and seven other LAUSD campuses.

From start to finish, it only takes her 30 minutes to bake two trays of fresh coffee cake. Baking the cake, she said, is her favorite part of her job.

When asked why the coffee cake is so popular, Guirguis said, “It’s because we make it with love.”

Learn how to make the legendary treat below:

Los Angeles Unified School District’s coffee cake is one of the most popular items on the district’s menu. Learn more about the 70 year old tradition, and see the full recipe, at The74million.org

Chavez, 17, a recent graduate of College Bridge Academy, a charter high school in the city of Compton in Los Angeles County, steps back and nods while his instructor watches him.

This “tiny house” on top of cement blocks in the parking lot of the non-profit Los Angeles Education Corps. is coming along nicely, as is the construction training of Chavez and more than a dozen classmates in the group’s summer program for youth.

This five-week paid program is one of five projects serving more than 200 county youth, many in charter schools or academic recovery programs, in the Los Angeles County Skilled Trades Summers program, which is privately funded by Harbor Freight Tools for Schools, a program of the Smidt Foundation.

The sites, which teach skills ranging from solar panel installation to welding, to auto repair, are all efforts to at least nibble away at a skills gap facing Los Angeles and the nation by teaching students introductory skills that businesses are craving.

Students earn a paycheck on par with typical summer retail, fast food or camp counselor jobs and leave with marketable skills, references and often industry credentials.

There has been a national push in recent years to highlight a shortage of people with Career Technical Education, formerly known as vocational training. Several training models like apprenticeships and internships — and even a hybrid called “apprenternships” — have sprouted across the country to fill that gap. Summer jobs that align with potential careers are another promising option.

Kendra LaRose, who organizes Chavez’s lessons, said she wants to give students who might not be able to study trades at their high schools a chance to earn skills and certifications that can land them better jobs. Even students that decide to go to college instead of construction, she said, still gain useful skills in the program and learn what employers expect in the workplace.

“I want to help them be productive in their communities, and be hired for work in their communities,” she said. “Some of them do this (as a career). Some decide it’s not for them. But what the takeaway is, you learn what it means to work a job.”

The Skilled Trades Summers program, now in its second summer, is just one of several training efforts for young people. Though still small — just 200 students in a county of 10 million people — it meets two key criteria for helping low-income youth: competitive wages and teaching valuable skills.

Unlike volunteer summer internships that only help the affluent, the program pays the area’s minimum wage of $16 an hour; and avoids making students pick between training for the future and helping families pay immediate bills.

Students also learn skills employers need, often earning industry certifications and benefitting from lessons on workplace communication and etiquette.

Chavez, the son of Mexican immigrants, plans to attend community college this fall to study software engineering, he said he chose this program to have career options and because the skills might help him personally.

“Like if something were to mess up in my own house, you know, it’d be something that I know how to fix,” he said.

After several weeks of building this tiny house and trying out carpentry, plumbing and electrical work, he’s considering building on these lessons to become a general contractor.

“I grew a liking to it, and the skills I learned from it,” he said.

Carlos de la Cruz, also 17 and also a 2022 graduate of the same high school, said most of his friends are working retail jobs this summer, but he’d rather be working with his hands. He said he has liked most skills he has tried this summer and will keep working in construction while he figures out a long range plan.

“I liked plumbing,” he said. “Also, like carpentry, finishing work…I don’t think there’s any part of it (I don’t like) other than, obviously, being in the hot sun, but that’s not so important.”

Dave Lefkowith, who is leading Harbor Freight’s training work in Los Angeles after working with a similar Louisiana program called Jump Start, said there is a real need for teaching more of these skills, but a challenge in expanding them in schools. The equipment and needed space are expensive, he said, other than at full Career Technical Education schools and the tasks need more time than a typical high school class period allows.

So he’s experimenting with mobile training labs at dedicated sites like in this summer program that have whole days to work with students without competing with academic classes.

“I think the best immediate potential for expanding high quality skilled trades training and education…rests in making better use of non-traditional times. non-traditional venues as well,” Lefkowith said. “Certain high quality outcomes are possible but outside of the normal school day, where the barriers to achieving the same accomplishments are very substantial.”

For standard construction trades, building a tiny house — an 8×15  in the L.A. Education Corps. parking lot — fits the bill. It will eventually be moved for a still to be determined owner. For solar installation skills, students split training time between offices of the Grid Alternatives non-profit solar provider near downtown and Alliance for Community Empowerment offices in Canoga Park. Students also travel to two homes nearby that are receiving free solar panels to work with and observe GRID Alternatives employees installing them.

“They’re not working on a mock roof,” said Michelle Fuentes-Miranda, the Alliance’s founder. “The actual roof is an actual install. They get to see the family’s faces that are going to receive this gift.”

Even traditional school officials, who are ramping up their own efforts to connect students to trades, say more programs like this are useful. Esther Soliman, administrator of the Los Angeles Unified School District’s work experience department, said she has not yet learned details of the program, still in post-COVID infancy, but called it a “fantastic idea.”

“Construction is going crazy right now in the area,” she said. Helping kids learn about a possible career in a paid internship, she said, is a “win-win situation.”

Under the protocol — which many states and districts have had in place for months — unvaccinated students who are exposed to COVID-19 can remain in school if all students wear masks, don’t display any symptoms and test twice a week. 

Data suggests “that a school-based [test-to-stay] strategy in a large and diverse county did not increase school transmission risk and might greatly reduce loss of in-person school days,” according to an evaluation of a program in Los Angeles County, one of two studies released with the CDC’s statement. “Thus, schools might consider [test-to-stay] as an option for keeping quarantined students in school to continue in-person learning.”

With schools breaking for the holidays and rising concerns about the spread of the Omicron variant, observers said the announcement — now part of the CDC’s for schools — comes just in time. John Bailey, a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute who publishes a daily newsletter on COVID-related research, called it “welcomed news” that helps schools prepare for the potential Omicron wave in January. But the agency also urged all eligible students to be vaccinated and get a booster shot, and said schools shouldn’t abandon other safety procedures, including social distancing, improving ventilation and handwashing. 

“It’s encouraging that test-to-stay strategies are proving effective both in limiting transmission of the virus and in ensuring that students can remain learning in school, so that entire classrooms or schools do not have to shut down when a case of COVID-19 is discovered in the school community,” Education Secretary Miguel Cardona said in a statement.

It’s unclear, however, how many students those shutdowns have affected. Bailey faulted the Department of Education for not issuing weekly reports on how many students are in quarantine and whether they’re receiving instruction.

“We should not be relying on third parties for that data,” he said. “An agency that is using civil rights authorities to enforce mask mandates should be curious about the civil rights of kids who are not being served in the midst of quarantines.”

The CDC’s two studies show that test-to-stay is significantly minimizing disruptions in learning.

Thirty-nine of Los Angeles County’s 78 school districts implemented test-to-stay. In those that didn’t follow the model, 4,322 students tested positive between Sept. 20 and the end of October, compared to 812 students in the districts that implemented the program.

In Lake County, Illinois, 90 schools implemented test-to-stay between early August and Oct. 29. Just 16 students out of a total 65,384 tested positive. The authors wrote that assuming students would have missed eight school days during a 10-day quarantine, the program “preserved up to 8,152 in-person learning days” for students that were exposed.

Leah Perkinson, a manager at the Rockefeller Foundation, which has worked with districts to implement testing, called this “one of the happiest days for me throughout this whole entire pandemic” and said the announcement will likely prompt more districts to adopt the strategy. “Some people are only willing to move forward when the CDC releases guidance.”

The data, she added, could also inspire other settings, such as child care centers and camps, to see if they can implement test-to-stay.

One challenge, however, is that some rapid COVID tests are not picking up Omicron, according to , director of the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Disease. 

The two studies also noted complications that limit districts’ ability to implement the model, such as staffing shortages, the need for “robust contact identification and tracing” and a lack of support from parents. 

“Some schools reported a shortage of testing supplies, requiring [test-to-stay] participants to access off-site testing, which might have presented a barrier in low-resource school settings,” according to the second evaluation on Lake County, Illinois. “State and local public health and education agencies should strive to ensure that schools in low-resource areas have equitable access to staffing and testing supplies to implement [test-to-stay].”