LAUSD reaches tentative deals with two unions, averting school shutdown for now

Los Angeles Unified School District bought itself a brief reprieve Sunday, reaching tentative deals with United Teachers Los Angeles and the Associated Administrators of Los Angeles while leaving a strike threat from SEIU Local 99 unresolved. Nearly 400,000 students avoided immediate disruption, but families still faced the possibility of lost meals, child care, supervision and counseling if the remaining talks fell apart.

The teachers’ agreement covered roughly 35,000 teachers and counselors and raised salary scales by 11.65% over two years. It also lifted the beginning teacher salary to $77,000 a year, added four weeks of district-paid parental leave, expanded student mental health supports, reduced counseling ratios and created a first-ever 20:1 ratio for special education specialist teachers. District officials said bargaining with United Teachers Los Angeles had gone on for more than a dozen sessions since February 2025.

The administrators’ deal, reached with Associated Administrators of Los Angeles, provided an 11.65% salary increase over two years and included a reopener for year three. For a district that enrolls more than 520,000 students across about 710 square miles, stretching across most of Los Angeles and parts of 25 other cities and unincorporated Los Angeles County, the twin agreements bought time and reduced the chance of an immediate shutdown.

That calm remained fragile because SEIU Local 99 had not settled. The union, which represents bus drivers, classroom aides and other classified staff, said its members were set to strike on April 14 unless a deal was reached, with picket lines planned from April 14 through April 17. The union has pressed for wages above poverty level, more hours, more staffing and no subcontracting, arguing that many members still live below the poverty line even after earlier raises. It also said the district was sitting on more than $5 billion in reserves. LAUSD said it would keep meeting with SEIU Local 99 in hopes of keeping schools open Tuesday.

The wider labor fight has been building for weeks. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, which says it represents more than 800,000 union members across more than 300 affiliated unions, sanctioned the strike effort on April 1. A three-union walkout would have involved roughly 70,000 employees and marked the third LAUSD strike in seven years, following work stoppages in 2019 and 2023. For now, the tentative contracts softened the threat, but they did not settle the deeper dispute over how Los Angeles funds and staffs its public schools.