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La Cañada Unified to take temporary enrollments under Newsom executive order, but district warns capacity limited
Summary
The La Cañada Unified School District told the governing board it will accept students displaced by recent fires under Gov. Newsom's executive order N-625 through the end of the 2024'25 school year, but staff warned capacity is limited and placements will be made on a grade-by-grade, school-by-school basis.
La Cañada Unified Superintendent Wendy told the governing board that the district will accept students displaced by recent fires under Governor Newsom's executive order N-625 and under existing McKinney-Vento protections for students experiencing homelessness.
"We will be enrolling students whose schools and homes have been destroyed based by based on our grade by grade level review of capacity," Superintendent Wendy said, describing a case-by-case intake process the district will use while the order remains in effect through the current school year.
The nut graf: The order creates two different enrollment paths for families: (1) a temporary path under the governor's emergency directive allowing displaced families to enroll for the remainder of the school year, and (2) enrollment under the McKinney-Vento Act for students who become homeless as a result of the disaster, which the district said it is legally required to honor as a district of origin.
District staff described an intake and placement process meant to balance the order's intent to provide immediate stability for displaced children with La C'anda Unified's limited physical capacity. The superintendent said more than 100 families had contacted the registrar to inquire about enrollment, and the district's initial outreach identified roughly 250 students affiliated with fire-zone ZIP codes for follow-up.
Superintendent Wendy said the district has hired temporary hourly staff to speed document intake and is conducting "grade level by grade level, school by school, case by case review of where we can place students." She added that permit students already enrolled in the district who were displaced remain part of the LCUSD community and that staff are working with those families individually.
The board heard that neighboring Pasadena Unified has told LCUSD it can accommodate students who reside in Pasadena and have been displaced; Pasadena staff told the district they could absorb students who remain residents of their district despite school-site damage. The La C'anda staff said they will provide families they cannot place with information about neighboring districts and other local options.
Board members pressed staff for timing and numbers. The superintendent said staff completed initial outreach to about half of the families who had inquired and expected to complete the rest the following day, then triage placements from that list. She characterized the effort as urgent: "Every day counts for these families right now," Board Member Dan said during the discussion.
Ending: The district said it will continue outreach and report back to the board on placement outcomes; board members asked for an update at a future meeting once staff had completed intake and placement decisions.
