Embargoed until 12:01 a.m. Monday, June 29, 2020
Speak UP Survey: Reopening LAUSD
This report analyzes data from 430 parent voices to highlight key
takeaways and recommend plans of action for the fall. The report seeks
to understand how specific groups of students experienced distance
learning and how racial and socioeconomic disparities in virtual instruction
threaten to widen existing performance gaps.

Speak UP’s Reopening LAUSD survey was created by parents, for parents. Parent leaders
representing every LAUSD Board District and each of Speak UP’s advocacy campaigns on
behalf of African American students, kids with special needs, and English Learners met to
develop a set of recommendations for the fall. With this survey, Speak UP heard feedback on
these recommendations from a large cross section of parents from every racial and
socioeconomic demographic and from a wide range of public school models across the district.
We elevate the voices of a diverse population. For example, we heard from about 215
low-income families; 230 Black, Latino, and biracial families; 130 families with English Language
Learners (ELLs); and 120 families with students who have Individualized Education Programs
(IEPs). Approximately 81% of our survey respondents have kids who attend district schools,
while 19% have kids who attend independent charter schools. Ultimately, our population of
responses is large enough for us to understand the discrepancies in experiences and outcomes
for families with different racial/ethnic backgrounds, income levels, and academic needs.

 Executive Summary
Based on the data from the Reopening LAUSD survey, the district should consider the following
when making plans to reopen schools in the fall:
1) Online learning has been inconsistent at best and discriminatory at worst.​ ​Reports
of live instruction and teacher contact varied widely, and clear gaps exist that make the
academic experiences of historically underserved populations worse than those of their
White, neurotypical, and more affluent peers. White students were up to three times
more likely than Black and Latino students to receive live online instruction every day,
and Latino students were seven times more likely to have no interaction with teachers
after schools closed. LAUSD must work with teachers and parents to set clear minimum
guidelines for instruction and services that are fair for all students.
2) Efforts to make devices and internet access free or affordable for all families must
continue.​ ​LAUSD’s efforts to connect all families have largely paid off: Over 80% of the
families who responded are connected, but low-income families are disproportionately
affected by high internet bills or a lack of devices. LAUSD and local cable/internet
companies need to continue to find solutions for an equitable distribution of high-speed
services. Simply having devices and Wi-Fi is also not enough to bridge the digital divide.
Parents also need to know how to use technology, which is why many are requesting
technology training from the district and organizations like Speak UP. Over 90% of
parents of English Language Learners (ELLs), Special Education (SpEd) students,
low-income families, and Black and Latino families all consider parent technology
training a top priority.
3) Schools should not reopen until rigorous health and safety standards can be met.
While some parents are eager to return to work or give their kids a sense of normalcy,
the vast majority of parents do not want to send their children to a campus if they risk
contracting COVID-19. Black and Latino families in particular are much more concerned
about reopening schools without strong safety measures in place, and these populations
have been disproportionately experiencing infections and deaths during this pandemic.
Even parents whose students are in dire need of extra academic support, such as ELLs
and SpEd students, do not want to return to school campuses until safety can be
assured. Any return to school buildings—even if optional—should include regular and
required virus testing for students and staff, contact tracing at the ready to mitigate
outbreaks, personal protective equipment for everyone in the building, and disinfecting
capabilities for custodial staff.
4) Parents want daily live instruction, including feedback and assessments.​ Parents
want to see daily live virtual instruction and interaction with teachers, regular feedback
on student assignments and assessments of student growth, as well as universal
technology training for parents and teachers. Parents with children in vulnerable
populations are even more concerned about having consistent live (synchronous) online
instruction and training to support their students.

1

 Families and Their Online Learning Experiences
As a result of state waivers and local union agreements on distance learning, teachers had
broad discretion on whether to teach any live online classes this spring. Due to the resulting
differences in instruction, we found that inequities emerged for the most vulnerable students,
including low-income kids, Black and Latino kids, kids with special needs, and English Learners.

Experiences with Online Learning
Key Takeaways:
● Experiences with live online instruction varied widely, with some students receiving live
instruction daily and others not once in three months. The most vulnerable groups
tended to experience less live instruction overall.
● Some students interacted with their teachers regularly via the internet, while others
received only one-sided communications, if anything. Students from underserved
populations had a particularly one-sided experience with their teachers.
● All students in the district need options for live instruction and interactive teacher contact.
LAUSD must develop minimum guidelines for the frequency and quality of live online
instruction and live student-teacher interactions so that all students can feel connected
and receive meaningful feedback.
Live Online Instruction
There was no consistency in the experiences of our respondents when it came to online
learning this spring. Reports varied widely in terms of the frequency of live online
instruction—while two in every five students may have had live instruction every day, over 12%
of our survey respondents never had the opportunity to participate in live, synchronous classes.

Figure 1. ​Frequency of live online instruction per student.

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 There were also some troubling patterns in our vulnerable populations:
● English Language Learners (ELLs) were almost twice as likely as non-ELLs to have
received live online instruction once a week or less.
● Low-income students received live instruction once a week or less at triple the rate of
their higher-income peers.
● Black and Latino students were also twice as likely to have never received live online
instruction when compared to White students. White students were also two to three
times more likely than Black or Latino students to have received live online instruction
every day.

Figure 2. ​Frequency of online instruction received by students in each racial/ethnic group.

There is no excuse for such vastly different learning experiences within the same district. In the
absence of a vaccine for COVID-19, distance learning will continue to be at least a component
of instruction during the 2020-2021 school year. The state is in the process of determining
minimum requirements for distance learning this fall, and the district's agreement with teachers
on distance learning expires June 30. The state and the district must develop minimum
guidelines for online instruction to guarantee a consistent, high-quality learning experience
across all schools under their control. Parents want live online instruction on all days that
students are learning from home, and we believe that three hours a day of live online instruction
should be the minimum. The District should also make recorded lessons available for students
and their parents to access later when there are schedule conflicts, internet connectivity
challenges, or other issues.
Interactive Teacher Contact
Students had slightly better experiences with teacher contact than live instruction. While
interactive contact with teachers occurred more frequently, one of every three students still only
interacted with their teachers once a week or less. Furthermore, 9% of students experienced no
interaction with teachers in the three months that schools were closed.

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 Figure 3. ​Frequency of interactive teacher contact per student.

This effect was again compounded in vulnerable populations:
● Students with Individualized Education Plans (IEPs) were 2.5 times more likely than their
peers without an IEP to have ​never​ interacted with teachers since schools shut down.
● Low-income students missed out on teacher interaction at four times the rate of
higher-income kids.
● Latino students were seven times more likely and Black students 3.5 times as likely to
have never had interactive teacher contact when compared with White students.

Figure 4. ​Frequency of teacher interaction experienced by students in each racial/ethnic group.

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 Parents know that regular contact and feedback from teachers is essential for students to stay
engaged in their work. LAUSD must set an expectation for teachers to evaluate student work
and repurpose some of the remaining school hours not being used for instruction to hold weekly
office hours or regular individual check-ins for students to ask questions and receive feedback.

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 Experiences with Technology
Key Takeaways:
● Most of the families surveyed have devices and internet at home. However, some
low-income families are still struggling to connect.
● The district should distribute clear information to parents about how to request new or
replacement devices for children who do not have one or have a lost/broken device.
● LAUSD should also continue to advocate directly to local cable/internet companies and
send information about discounts, special pricing plans, and funds available for
low-income families.
Thanks in part to the efforts of LAUSD, the vast majority of families surveyed have access to
digital devices and adequate Wi-Fi:

​Figure

5. ​Access to digital devices (left) and internet connections (right) across all households.

However, those without access are disproportionately low-income:
● One in four low-income households reported insufficient access to devices for all who
need them. This includes parents, as we have encountered many families whose
children were learning on parents’ smartphones. While the district may be under the
impression that every child has a device, parents who are sharing their personal devices
with multiple children may not agree.
● Low-income households were also over ten times more likely to report issues with or a
complete lack of home internet connection, often citing high bills and pandemic-related
unemployment as explanations.
● Low-income households who do have a Wi-Fi connection are often limited to the most
basic plans, which lack bandwidth and slow down when multiple children are trying to
work at once.

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 Many parents also reported internet providers throttling connections, poor service in their
neighborhoods, and not having enough devices for multiple children to have their own. LAUSD
will need to continue its efforts to equip every student with a device for academic purposes, and
the district should collaborate with parents and advocacy groups to pressure local cable/internet
companies into making discounts, special pricing plans, late fee forgiveness, and funds
available for low-income families.

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 Demographic Information
Our respondents represent families from a variety of backgrounds. We surveyed our members
via email, social media, and personal outreach. We heard from a diverse cross-section of
families from every racial/ethnic background, socioeconomic status, and school model in
LAUSD. While the numbers of respondents do not equally reflect the demographics of LAUSD,
there are groups representing every demographic from LAUSD, and we used their responses to
draw comparisons between groups.

Figure 6.​ Racial/Ethnic backgrounds of our respondents. 39 respondents (9%) chose not to answer this
question and are therefore not included in this graph.

Half of our respondents were parents of low-income families. About 81% of parents have kids
attending LAUSD district schools, including traditional public schools, affiliated charter schools
and magnet programs, while the remaining 19% sent their children to independent charter
schools. Given the variety of experiences, we collected many comments on individual schools’
approaches that worked and did not work this spring, as well as suggestions for how LAUSD
schools can improve and learn from each other.

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 Figure 7.​ Type of school attended per child. “Other LAUSD” includes bilingual education programs, pilot
schools, etc.

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 Parent Support for Fall 2020 Demands
The vast majority of parents surveyed support increased COVID-19 safety precautions and all
13 recommendations put forth by our parent leaders. Parents do not want their children to return
to classrooms until the virus is no longer an issue, but neither will they tolerate inconsistent and
poor-quality learning experiences or the lack of support many witnessed in the spring.

COVID-19 Precautions
Key Takeaways:
● Parents strongly agree with keeping schools closed until COVID-19 risks can be
mitigated. Over 370 parents would rather deal with the difficulties of at-home learning
than potentially expose their family to infection. This makes it imperative that LAUSD
improve the quality of distance learning this fall.
● A small faction of parents disagreed with the precautions because they were concerned
about their ability to work, their children’s mental and emotional health, and the district’s
ability to uphold rigorous academic standards virtually. These are serious concerns that
must be addressed no matter what form school takes in the fall.
● Parents from more vulnerable groups voted for safety first. These more vulnerable
groups are often the ones who would experience the most illness and death if COVID-19
infections increase, so their voices must be elevated to demand their safety from those
in power. Black and Latino families in particular, populations who see double the rate of
infection and death from COVID-19, were between three and seven times more likely to
agree with these recommendations than White families.
We asked parents to rate their level of agreement with three health and safety criteria for
reopening schools. Over 370 parents agreed with each of these measures:

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 Figure 8. ​Parent agreement with three COVID-19 precautions.

Around 10% of parents disagreed with each precaution, however. Parents often mentioned
concerns about their ability to work, their children’s mental and emotional health, and rigorous
academic standards when disagreeing. These are all serious concerns: How will parents be
able to provide for their families while also providing childcare and monitoring schoolwork? And
how will our schools educate the whole child from behind a screen? These parents’
apprehensions cannot be ignored simply because they were outvoted. Regardless of what
academics look like come fall, the district must also plan to support families and
social-emotional learning from a distance.

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 It is also important to note that parents of children in more vulnerable populations agreed more
strongly with each of these recommendations:
● Parents of ELLs chose “Strongly Agree” 10-15% more often across all three safety
criteria.
● Parents of low-income households strongly agreed 20-30% more with every COVID-19
precaution.
● On average, Black and Latino parents were almost five times more likely to agree with
these demands than White parents.

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 Figure 9. ​Parent agreement with three COVID-19 precautions by racial/ethnic group. On average, White
parents were four times more likely to disagree than Black or Latino parents.

The fact that every one of the more vulnerable populations examined agreed more strongly with
health and safety precautions—even if that means struggling through at-home learning for
longer—tells us that protection from the virus is a top priority. Parents in more privileged
positions may be more willing to send their children to school, but they also generally have more
privileged access to health care: Latinos are uninsured at double the rate of White people in
California, and one in five Latinos have no usual source of medical care (Source: ​California
Health Care Foundation​). Black families are also more prone to preexisting conditions and less
likely to have health insurance, making them less willing to expose their family to health risks
(Source: ​Forbes​). We also received comments from many families with elderly parents or
grandparents in the home and autoimmune disorders in the family, making them much less
willing to take risks in favor of a sense of normalcy.
It is important to explain why most parents are concerned so those few parents who are not as
worried can ally with their demands. At the time of this report, the most recent nationwide
weekly mortality rate from symptoms related to COVID-19 was just under 10% (Source:​ ​CDC​),
but it has jumped as high as 28% in past weeks. Black people are also dying at over twice the
rate of any other racial group (Source:​ ​APM Research Lab​), and LA County now has the most
COVID-19 cases in the nation (Source: ​The Guardian​) with over 2,000 new cases daily (Source:
County of Los Angeles Public Health​). Based on the most up-to-date data from the county, the
mortality rate in LA is approximately 4%. This means that if your child’s school reopens with the
typical class sizes and sees COVID-19 begin to spread within the building, you can expect at
least 1-2 children per classroom experience a death in the family, and this burden will be more
unevenly placed on our Black families. Sending students to schools without protective measures
cannot be an option until the virus is eradicated or a vaccine is developed.

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 Recommendations for Fixing the Fall
Key Takeaways:
● All 13 recommendations were deemed important by an overwhelming majority of our
respondents. Parents especially want to see LAUSD solicit parent input, provide regular
grades/feedback and assessments, and offer live online instruction.
● We learned that our more vulnerable populations often had different priorities when
examined separately from the entire population.
Recommendations from the General Population
Parents were presented with a five-point scale and asked to rate 13 recommendations for
reopening schools brainstormed by Speak UP’s parent leaders. 1 was labeled “Not Important”
and 5 was labeled “Very Important”. Since a 3 was a neutral response, a parent choosing 4 or 5
considers the item important, while choosing 1 or 2 considers it to be less of a priority.
Every single recommendation was deemed important by over 75% of parents. The graph on
page 16 displays every recommendation presented to parents as well as the percentage of
parents who voted that recommendation to be a top priority for the fall.
A summary of the recommendations from the general population is presented below:
● Some of the parents’ top recommendations to LAUSD express concerns about the
quality of the learning experience provided through online learning. An average of 90%
of parents want LAUSD to ​mandate grades/feedback​ and ​administer assessments of
student growth​ to ensure that their children are engaged and challenged by work that is
appropriate to their skill level.
● Other top recommendations include widespread calls for consistency, including ​offering
consistent live online instruction​ and ​daily interactive teacher contact ​through a
consistent school-wide schedule​. Parents are frustrated after three months of minimal
teacher contact and overlapping demands on their child’s time, and LAUSD schools
must use the summer to adapt to the new online environment to prevent these same
issues from tarnishing the fall.
● Parents also prioritized basic support that LAUSD could easily provide. Over 85% of
parents are asking the district to ​include parent input ​in reopening plans, ​provide
technology training​ for teachers and parents, and ​improve the commitment to free
devices/internet​ for all families. Speak UP is already providing parents with free
technology training through our iFamily program, but the extent of parent agreement
indicates that these needs are still great and programs such as these must be expanded
to reach all stakeholders.
● About 80% of parents want flexibility built into the plans for the fall, including ​use of
outdoor spaces​ to distance classes on campuses, ​recorded class meetings​ for
students and parents to review online sessions, and ​cross-campus enrollment ​so kids
can access college prep and elective classes that are not available at their own schools.
These options were especially important to our low-income families, reflecting the lack of
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 ●

●

rigorous academic options in their home schools as well as the scheduling and child care
challenges that limit their ability to attend scheduled meetings.
Over 80% of parents want to see ​increased federal/state stimulus​ for parents who
cannot work or must pay for childcare while children are learning from home. Those who
were neutral or deprioritized this item provided many comments questioning how
feasible this item could be. If LAUSD and advocacy organizations like Speak UP can
work to identify sources of funding and ask the California legislature and the federal
government to make this a priority for low-income parents, we are confident that many of
the respondents who sent neutral ratings now will actively support this item once it has a
clear path forward and is targeted to those who need funds the most.
We received the most negative feedback from ​surveying parents bi-weekly​—and that
was our mistake! All the comments disagreeing with this item reflected the frequency of
surveys, especially when bi-weekly was interpreted as “twice per week” and not “every
two weeks”. No parent left comments disagreeing with the idea of surveys, however, so
going forward we will recommend ​regular​ parent surveys and encourage LAUSD and its
individual schools to work out the frequency with their parents.

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 Figure 10. ​Percentage of parents rating each recommendation (4) “Important” or (5) “Very Important”.

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 Recommendations from Vulnerable Populations
One of the primary goals of this survey was to understand the discrepancies between
experiences and outcomes for families of different backgrounds. By examining each of our more
vulnerable academic groups, income levels, and racial/ethnic backgrounds, we hope to build a
more nuanced understanding of how parents in the district are reacting to virtual schooling.
In each of the sections below, we explore how the more historically underserved populations
among us prioritized these 13 recommendations differently. We begin by presenting our
understanding of the population’s current experiences to inform our investigation. We follow this
up with the top three recommendations from each group as well as the recommendation with
the biggest difference compared to the ratings of those not in the group, and we conclude with
an interpretation of the data in terms of what these priorities may mean to these families.
Considering all the work the district has already done and continues to do surrounding free
devices and Wi-Fi, we have omitted this recommendation from the lists below. We acknowledge
that this is still a top priority—especially for low-income families who are still struggling to
connect—but given that the district has already identified this as a priority, we have removed it
to focus on the issues that LAUSD has not yet prioritized.
Special Education (SpEd) families
The data we have on SpEd students suggests that they are struggling more than non-SpEd
students with online learning:
● Students with IEPs were slightly more likely than their peers without IEPs to have never
experienced live online instruction—15% never participated in a class meeting.
● 17% of SpEd students never experienced interactions with their teachers since
transitioning to virtual learning, making them more than twice as likely as non-SpEd
students to be limited to occasional one-sided communications.
Parents of SpEd students ranked the following recommendations as their top three most
important priorities:
1. Immediately develop a plan to ​include parent input​ ​and give parents a seat at the table
during decision-making about how schools reopen in the fall, including the parameters
for hybrid/distance learning. ​(95.8% Important)
2. Receive​ grades and/or feedback ​on assignments. ​(93.3% Important)
3. Offer​ consistent live online instruction​. ​(92.4% Important)
Additionally, the biggest jump in ratings was seen with the recommendation about ​universal
technology training​, which an extra 16% of SpEd parents rated very important when compared
to non-SpEd parents.
Taken together, these differences suggest that SpEd parents are focusing more on the quality
of their children’s education and opportunities for growth. By definition, students with IEPs need
individual attention and interaction, but parents reported these students to have been ​more
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 isolated from their schools on average. Many parents have also shared with us that their kids
did not receive necessary services such as speech therapy virtually. The boost from this group
to consistent live instruction implies that SpEd parents want their children to be actively
participating in classes and receiving live feedback. The large increase in importance for
technology training also indicates that SpEd parents may want to learn how to better support
their students at home. They also appear to expect schools to be able to provide better
accommodations and services as well as high-quality assignments for their children.
English Language Learner (ELL) families
The data we have on ELL students suggests that they are struggling more than non-ELL
students with online learning:
● A third of all ELL students were reported to experience live online instruction once a
week or less, which is almost twice the rate of non-ELL students.
● ELL students were slightly more likely than non-ELL students to have had interactions
with teachers once a week or less, with 13% never having contact with their teacher.
Parents of ELL students ranked the following recommendations as their top three most
important priorities:
1. Immediately develop a plan to ​include parent input​ ​and give parents a seat at the table
during decision-making about how schools reopen in the fall, including the parameters
for hybrid/distance learning. ​(95.4% Important)
2. Make ​universal technology training​ ​available for parents and required for teachers.
(92.3% Important)

3. Receive​ grades and/or feedback ​on assignments. ​(92.3% Important)
Additionally, the biggest jump in ratings was seen with the recommendation about ​federal/state
stimulus for parents​, which an extra 12% of ELL parents rated very important when compared
to non-ELL parents.
Taken together, these differences suggest that ELL parents are more acutely concerned about
their child’s access to technology and feedback for online learning. ELL parents want training to
support their student at home as well as feedback and progress reports from teachers to
understand how their child is performing. With the majority of ELL families qualifying for free or
reduced lunch, it is also no surprise that increased stimulus as well as free devices and internet
access are essential to provide equitable opportunities for these students and their families. ELL
parents are also twice as likely to have three or more children to attend to, so these families
may feel the impact of childcare costs and unemployment even more strongly than the average
non-ELL family.
Low-income families
The data we have on low-income students suggests that they are struggling much more than
their higher-income peers with online learning:

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 ●

●

Students from low-income families were three times as likely to experience live online
instruction once a week or less, and they were over twice as likely to have never
received live online instruction at all.
Low-income students were four times more likely than non–low-income students to have
never interacted with their teachers in the past three months.

Parents of low-income students ranked the following recommendations as their top three most
important priorities:
1. Immediately develop a plan to ​include parent input​ ​and give parents a seat at the table
during decision-making about how schools reopen in the fall, including the parameters
for hybrid/distance learning. ​(92.1% Important)
2. Receive​ grades and/or feedback ​on assignments. ​(92.1% Important)
3. Make ​universal technology training​ ​available for parents and required for teachers.
(90.2% Important)

Additionally, the biggest jump in ratings was seen with the recommendation about
cross-campus enrollment​, which an additional 30% of low-income parents rated very
important when compared to non–low-income parents.
These top-ranked recommendations for low-income parents are mostly the same as those of
the general population. Overall, low-income parents are demanding a consistent and rigorous
school experience for their children in the fall, one which includes regular teacher feedback and
consistent training of parents and teachers. The large increase in support for cross-campus
enrollment also suggests that low-income parents may be concerned about the college prep
and elective classes that will be offered virtually through their home schools and want to ensure
their child has access to equitable options.
It is also important to note that ​improving the commitment to free devices/internet​ was the
number one priority for low-income families. The increased importance of free digital devices
and internet access for this population in particular highlights the struggle of many of the
low-income families we heard from to receive enough devices for every child and pay high
internet bills and late fees. Based on the numbers reported to us by parents, low-income
families are also 5.5 times more likely to have three or more children in the house, meaning the
most affordable and basic internet plans are often insufficient for multiple students trying to
participate in classes and complete online work throughout the day.
Black and Latino families
Black and Latino students’ online learning experiences illustrate how the district’s response to
COVID-19 has reinforced existing inequities.
● The average White student was twice as likely as the average Black student and three
times as likely as the average Latino student to receive live online instruction every day.
● 50% of White students were able to interact with their teachers every day, compared to
only 34% of Black students and 24% of Latino students.

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 ●

White families are twice as likely as Black families and four times as likely as Latino
families to have enough devices for everyone in their household, and White families are
seven times more likely than Latinos to have access to adequate Wi-Fi in the home.

The data we received concerning Black and Latino students also suggest that they are
experiencing slightly more frequent challenges with online learning when compared to all other
demographics:
● Black students missed out entirely on live online instruction at about the same rate as
their non-Black peers, but they were also slightly more likely to interact with their
teachers once a week or less.
● Latino students were more than three times as likely as non-Latino students to have
received live online instruction once a week or less, and about one in six Latino students
never had live instruction at all.
● 45% of Latino students interacted with their teachers once a week or less, making the
average Latino student over three times more likely than the average non-Latino student
to miss out on teacher contact.
Black parents ranked the following recommendations as their top three most important priorities:
1. Make ​universal technology training​ ​available for parents and required for teachers.
(100.0% Important)

2. Offer ​consistent live online instruction.​ ​(94.4% Important)
3. Mandate a ​consistent school-wide schedule​ without overlapping class conflicts.
(94.4% Important)

The most significant differences for Black parents when compared to the non-Black population
were with ​offering recordings of live instruction​ and ​federal/state stipends​, which saw a
25% and 21% increase in strength of Black support, respectively.
The three top-ranked recommendations for Black parents are completely different from those of
the general population, although over 80% of Black parents still think every recommendation is
important. The shift in priority may indicate that Black families are experiencing and prioritizing
issues at different rates from non-Black families, and Black parents may be more interested in
holding schools accountable for quality of instruction and creating a consistent schedule for their
children over most of the other concerns.
Having examined both the general population and the Black population, a glance at Latino
parents’ priorities reveals that their experiences might be halfway between the two groups:
1. Immediately develop a plan to ​include parent input​ ​and give parents a seat at the table
during decision-making about how schools reopen in the fall, including the parameters
for hybrid/distance learning. ​(94.7% Important)
2. Make ​universal technology training​ ​available for parents and required for teachers.
(94.7% Important)

3. Receive​ grades and/or feedback ​on assignments. ​(94.7% Important)
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 The most significant difference for Latino families when compared to all non-Latino families was
with ​cross-campus enrollment​, which saw 27% stronger support among Latino parents.
Half of these recommendations supported by Latino parents mirror those of the general
population, while the other two parallel the concerns raised by Black parents. This suggests that
while Latino parents also want a say in the resources and plans developed by their schools,
they, like Black families, want to take a more active role in advocating for and supporting their
children’s academic growth and educational experience within the home.
The wide gaps in experiences of Black and Latino families can only be explained by pervasive,
systemic racial injustice that leads to an inequitable distribution of resources and support to
families. Speak UP parents will continue to lift their voices and ensure that Black and Latino
children get access to the educational resources they have identified as most important for their
families.

Speak UP​ is a grassroots organization of parents who want a more powerful voice in education
policy. Kids don't have lobbyists, and kids don't have a union. Kids have parents, and parents
are the only people whose sole interest is the success of kids. Learn more or become a member
at ​speakupparents.org
Do you need free technology training for software such as Zoom? Does your child need a
volunteer tutor to assist them during distance learning? Check out our iFamily program ​here​!
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