How Districts Planned for Pandemic Learning: Equity-Driven Practices and Lessons Learned from 2020 Learning Continuity and Attendance Plans

In September 2020, local education agencies ("LEAs") in California adopted Learning Continuity and Attendance Plans ("Learning Continuity Plans"). These plans included key information on how LEAs were preparing to provide instruction, programs and services to their students during the global COVID-19 pandemic. Among other requirements, LEAs had to include information in their Learning Continuity Plans about: (1) their engagement of important stakeholders; (2) additional supports for certain students with unique needs (students in foster care, students in the juvenile justice system, students experiencing homelessness, students who are English learners, students in low-income families, and students with disabilities); (3) planning for in-person instruction; and (4) how they would identify and mitigate instructional loss that their students would likely experience due to disruptions in education during the pandemic. This report provides a snapshot of LEA planning during COVID-19. The authors reviewed Learning Continuity Plans adopted by 48 LEAs across the state. They analyzed these plans not only to determine whether LEAs met legal requirements, but also to find out how these LEAs were planning and investing funds to support all students and especially students with unique needs and students of color, who have been disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. The authors identify in this report a multitude of promising practices that LEAs planned to implement. LEAs can draw on these promising practices as they develop their Local Control and Accountability Plans ("LCAPs") for the 2021-22 school year and make plans for serving students with unique needs. [Laura Flores, Maen Bin Said, and Nicole Gon Ochi provided support for this report. This report was written with Californians Together and Public Advocates.]