As we mark the second anniversary of our Read LA! campaign, I’m filled with both pride and urgency. Two years ago, Families In Schools took a stand to address the decades-long literacy crisis in L.A. and across California. With our Read LA! Coalition, we set a bold goal: by 2030, at least 70% of LAUSD’s third graders reading on grade level.

Since then, we’ve seen what’s possible when families, educators, and communities unite:

• Hundreds of families joined literacy workshops, learning how children learn to read.
• The majority of LAUSD's K-5 educators have been trained in science-based reading instruction.
• 88 Literacy Ambassadors are championing early literacy in their communities.
• The California legislature unanimously passed early literacy legislation.

We celebrate and thank Governor Newsom for signing AB 1454—a bill FIS fiercely championed. This victory will bring evidence-based reading instruction to TK-5 classrooms. And we applaud LAUSD for demonstrating the largest gains in the state for all student groups, including in reading. These milestones affirm that, when we invest in families, equip our teachers, and elevate our expectations, our children rise.

But even as we celebrate, we cannot ignore growing challenges. Too many vulnerable families are being targeted—their voices dismissed, their rights threatened, and their children’s futures put at risk. Just this week, the Trump administration took steps towards dismantling the Department of Education, a direct attack on students as I detailed in a piece for The 74. At FIS, we will not be silent. We will continue to speak out and work with partners to create a society that sees every family and every child as a source of strength. 

We have much more work to do to make education and well-being equitable for all our children. Together, we can—and we will—make it happen.

With gratitude, courage, and hope,

Meeting the Moment

During the 2023–24 school year, nearly one in three Latino kindergarteners in LAUSD was chronically absent. Attendance has improved since the pandemic, but significant disparities persist, and too many young learners continue to miss the instructional time essential for early literacy and long-term success.

To better understand the underlying challenges, Families In Schools partnered with Dr. Kevin Gee to conduct focus groups with 48 Latino parents and caregivers across eight LAUSD schools. Their insights shaped a comprehensive set of district-aligned recommendations grounded in what families identified as the most pressing barriers to daily attendance.

Ideas We're Watching

“Laguna Beach USD receives more than twice as much

funding per student each year than LAUSD.”

To better understand how funding differs among California’s school districts and why “Basic Aid” policy leads to a lack of educational equity, we spoke with Todd Collins, a former Palo Alto school board member, educational advocate, and founder of the California Reading Coalition. In this interview, Todd shared his insights on how LCFF’s Basic Aid affects most of California’s students and the urgency in addressing it so that all students have equal opportunities for school success:

How does funding for school districts work in California?

School funding in California is really a tale of two systems. The majority of schools are funded by the state through the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF). The LCFF provides every district with a base amount per student, plus additional funding for “high-need” students, which include low-income students, foster youth, and English learners. Districts with over 80% high-need students receive even more funding. The core principle is clear: the higher the need, the higher the funding.

However, about 10% of districts operate as a holdover from an older era when local property taxes funded individual communities' schools. Examples in the LA area include Beverly Hills, Malibu, Laguna Beach, and Newport-Mesa. These are now called “Basic Aid” districts, and they represent the wealthiest districts in the state. Some of these can have two or three times the funding of neighboring state-funded schools, despite having a far smaller number of high-need students.

Read the full interview here.

Impact Snapshots

FIS in the News

With the launch of the beta version of the Read LA! App, the Beverly Press and Park Labrea News published an article diving into the app’s purpose, the content it will provide to parents and families, how it will advance Read LA’s core campaign goal of getting 70% of LAUSD third graders to read proficiently by 2030, and what key developers behind the app had to say about our partnership with ReachWell to create it. Read here.

Reporting on our Chronic Absenteeism Report

As part of the attention generated by the report, FIS President and CEO Yolie Flores joined KMEX TV Univision34 (A Primera Hora) for an interview discussing the impact chronic absence has on students’ education and what can be done to combat this issue. Watch here.

For 25 years, Families In Schools (FIS) has served low-income, immigrant, and communities of color, knowing that education remains the single most important opportunity for them. The mission of Families In Schools is to involve families and communities in their children’s education to achieve lifelong success.