Report Analyzing All Los Angeles Unified Resolutions since 2006
A comprehensive review of board resolutions and recommendations for LAUSD leadership and local education advocates. Resolution Insights reviews all resolutions LAUSD adopted over the last 16 years with a focus on four key policy areas: equity, development of a diverse teacher and administrator workforce, expanded learning opportunities, and COVID-19 response.
Researchers analyzed all 956 adopted resolutions from 2005-06 through 2021-22, categorizing by primary issue area, developing 71 categorical subcodes, using Dedoose software for coding, conducting a qualitative review of 114 substantive resolutions across four key policy areas, and performing quantitative trend analysis. 842 resolutions were excluded from full-text analysis.
The sections below pull out the major points from the full report — the data, the examples, and the context behind the findings.
Beyond its minimum duties — passing an annual budget and overseeing the superintendent — the board has wide latitude to govern much more, and its primary lever is the resolution. Over the 16 years reviewed, the board proposed 1,151 resolutions and adopted 956, but the pace varied sharply: some boards issued more than 100 in a single year while others adopted as few as 31. Longtime board member Mónica García alone authored or co-authored almost 400 resolutions across the period.
Superintendents shape the agenda too. While they led a minority of resolutions overall, their share swung widely by year — from a low of 10% under David Brewer III (2007–08) and Michelle King (2016–17) to a high of 35% under Ramón Cortines (2010–11), a reminder that what the board legislates is only a partial picture of what actually governs L.A. schools.
| Issue area | Share of resolutions |
|---|---|
| Celebratory | 29.7% |
| Appointment / reappointment | 11.6% |
| Health | 11.6% |
| Budget | 6.5% |
| Staff / personnel comp. & benefits | 5.8% |
| Subgroup / equity focus | 5.2% |
GPSN analysis, issue breakdown of all passed resolutions, 2006–2022. Celebratory, appointments, and health together account for more than half of all resolutions considered.
Substantive equity policy has grown over time: beginning in 2018–19, 11% or more of resolutions in a given year primarily focused on equity, whether through targeted funding or support for specific student groups. Yet the tools of accountability lagged. Across all 956 adopted resolutions, researchers identified only 16 that built in genuine stakeholder engagement, and half of those reached the board only in the last five years. The three Student Equity Needs Index (SENI) resolutions stood out as prime examples of engagement that leveraged advocates and community members to craft policy.
At the same time, the number of resolutions adopted each year has declined even as the board has increasingly voted as a unified block — a signal that the policies now reaching the floor are the ones members can build consensus around and support.
A resolution is the legislative function of the board — the mechanism by which members direct the superintendent and staff to implement a specific approach in schools or at the central office. Its implementation depends on the superintendent, local district superintendents, and cabinet-level leaders. In other words, a resolution on the books is a commitment, not a guarantee of change.