Los Angeles Schools Strike Narrowly Averted In Last-Minute Deal

Source: NYT

The strike would have shut down classes on Tuesday for hundreds of thousands of students in the nation’s second-largest school district.

By Shawn Hubler and Jill Cowan
Reporting from Los Angeles

April 14, 2026
Updated 6:10 a.m. ET

A strike that would have shut down classes for hundreds of thousands of students in the nation’s second-largest school district was narrowly averted early Tuesday, as Los Angeles schools struck a last-minute deal with the last of three major unions.

Officials at the sprawling Los Angeles Unified School District reached an “agreement in principle” with a union representing some 30,000 members of school support staff — including bus drivers, custodians and cafeteria workers — at around 2 a.m. Pacific after marathon negotiations.

In a brief announcement, just a few hours before schools were scheduled to open, the district said the union and school officials would work together to finalize the details.

Two other major district unions representing teachers and administrators had reached deals on Sunday with Los Angeles Unified. Those groups had committed to walking out on Tuesday at around dawn in solidarity with the third union, had it not also reached an agreement.


Students in Los Angeles walk to class in a photo from 2025.Credit...Gabriella Angotti-Jones for The New York Times

Read more: https://www.nytimes.com/2026/04/14/us/los-angeles-schools-strike-deal.html