L.A. Schools’ White Limits at 11 Schools Is Reinforced

In an effort to ensure integration ratios and crackdown on illegal student transfers, the Los Angeles Board of Education on Monday upheld a controversial administrative directive limiting enrollment of white students at 11 district elementary schools.

About 400 white students will no longer be able to use child-care permits to attend the schools outside their neighborhood, all of which have white enrollments above 70%. District officials are trying to limit white enrollment to 70% to meet court-approved desegregation guidelines.

Attorneys for the district said Monday that the directive is a forceful application of longstanding policies. Monday’s decision, which goes into effect this fall, will bring enrollments at the schools within prescribed ethnic ratios.

‘Shopping Schools’

The action is also aimed at reducing the number of whites who, through fraudulent child-care claims, transfer their children out of heavily ethnic neighborhood schools to predominantly white campuses, officials said. The practice is part of a larger problem known as “shopping schools” that is being investigated by the district.

District policy allows working parents to transfer youngsters to a district elementary school out of their neighborhood if the home school does not provide before- and after-school child-care. About 80 of the district’s 411 elementary schools offer such services. In addition, parents can receive child-care transfer permits if they have arranged for off-campus baby-sitting.

Last year, school officials began a review of the permits to see if district policy met state child-care guidelines and to see if school shopping was a serious problem.

The investigation found that child-care transfers pushed enrollment at the 11 elementary schools above the 70% level.

Attorneys for the district said they found the trend worrisome because in the 1981 settlement of a segregation lawsuit, the district promised not to create any new schools with a white enrollment of more than 70%. Existing schools with more than 70% white enrollment were allowed to maintain those levels.

A policy that allows whites to transfer to a school with an already high white enrollment, attorneys said, might be interpreted by the courts as intentional segregation.

Board Investigation

Investigators are still working to determine the scope of school shopping, according to Richard Mason, an attorney for the district.

Schools that have white enrollment limits are: Canyon and Marquez on the Westside, White Point in San Pedro, and Welby Way, Woodlake, Woodland Hills, Pomelo, Wilbur, Dearborn, Superior and Topanga, all in the San Fernando Valley.

Announcement of the policy created a furor last week, especially at five Valley schools, where parents staged impromptu protests, and two principals voiced concern that the regulations would lead some parents to take their children out of public schools.

West Valley school board member Julie Korenstein objected to the decision and promised to bring it before the board.

At a closed session Monday, Korenstein raised the matter. She said she proposed a “grandfather” clause that would allow all students with child-care permits attending the 11 schools to remain there.

At 10 of the schools, the board agreed to allow students entering fifth and sixth grades next September to stay at those campuses. Their siblings will not be given special consideration if they too want to remain at those schools.

At the 11th school, Canyon Elementary, all of the child-care students must find a new school. About 40 youngsters are bused to Canyon at their own expense from two Westside social service agencies. District officials said to get to Canyon, the buses pass integrated schools with ample space for the children.

Board member Jackie Goldberg said the panel was “compelled by our own rules” not to undermine desegregation guidelines by child-care transfer policies that could jeopardize ethnic ratios.

Korenstein, who remained uncomfortable with the board position, encouraged parents to appeal any rejections of transfer applications.

“My heart goes out to parents who have difficulty finding child care,” she said.