The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education unanimously voted on June 13 to approve the “Community-Based Safety Analysis and Expansion” resolution authored by board members Tanya Ortiz Franklin and Kelly Gonez Rocío Rivas. The resolution affirms the board’s commitment to a holistic vision of school safety, creating a safe, welcoming, culturally and racially responsive school team supported by community partnerships that respond to on-campus incidents in constructive, non-criminalizing ways.

“Today, we take a step further to improve the safety and well-being of our students and community,” Franklin said. “This resolution uplifts the importance of working together to make our campuses more supportive of the safety – physically and emotionally – of our students. It is crucial to reimagine traditional approaches to safety issues on-campus, which can be authoritarian or punitive, and instead modernize our approaches to prevent harm and trauma to our students by working with community-based organizations and community-trusted leaders.”

To achieve this vision, the board directs the Independent Analysis Unit and municipal partners to conduct a landscape analysis of community-based safety approaches to increase availability and access to support positive school climates on campus and in surrounding communities.

To increase community-based safety partnerships on school campuses, the district will build understanding and awareness of the procurement process through sharing guides with helpful information and examples and bringing partners and thought leaders together to identify solutions and opportunities to collaborate.

“Community-based safety is a necessary component to ensure our students and employees remain safe and secure,” Superintendent Alberto M. Carvalho said. “This, along with other tenets and procedures outlined in All Schools Safe, will keep our school communities protected and our campuses the safest place for our students.”

“This resolution will accelerate and deepen L.A. Unified’s community-based safety initiatives, which the Board set as a priority in its previous budgets,” Gonez said. “We can and must do more to learn from partners and to leverage community-based safety approaches across our system. I look forward to seeing our school district continue its leadership in supporting students and building a better school climate for all.”

The district will create a final comprehensive plan to strengthen community-based safety approaches that will be posted online and presented to the board by May 2024.