As extreme heat increases across Los Angeles, research shows Latino students are more likely to attend schools with less shade, fewer trees, and hotter outdoor spaces.
At recess, the temperature on an elementary school playground can soar far above the day’s official high.
On the hottest afternoons, black asphalt absorbs enough heat to reach temperatures capable of causing burns in seconds. Children dash from one patch of shade to another, while teachers shorten outdoor activities and encourage constant water breaks. Inside classrooms, air conditioning hums. Outside, however, thousands of students still spend part of their school day on campuses with little tree cover and few places to escape the sun.
As climate change drives longer and more intense heat waves across Southern California, a growing body of research suggests the burden is falling disproportionately on schools in predominantly Latino neighborhoods.
The question is no longer whether Los Angeles is getting hotter. It is whether its schools are keeping up.
A Climate Divide Across Los Angeles
The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), the nation’s second-largest school district, serves more than 520,000 students on hundreds of campuses spread across more than 710 square miles. Districtwide, about 73% of students are Latino, making heat resilience a major educational equity issue.
Researchers at UCLA’s Latino Policy and Politics Institute found that Latino neighborhoods across California experience 1.6 times more extreme heat days than comparable non-Latino White neighborhoods. Those same communities have less than one-fourth the tree canopy and substantially more asphalt and concrete, which trap heat and create the urban heat island effect.
In Los Angeles County, the disparity is even more striking. Latino neighborhoods average 25 extreme heat days each year, compared with eight days in comparable White neighborhoods. Tree canopy averages only 4% in many Latino communities, versus about 9% in wealthier White neighborhoods.
Those numbers mirror the geography of many LAUSD campuses.
Neighborhoods including Boyle Heights, Pacoima, Panorama City, Arleta, Sun Valley, South Los Angeles, Watts and Wilmington consistently rank among the city’s hottest during summer heat waves while also serving overwhelmingly Latino student populations.
Schools Built for Another Era
Many LAUSD schools were built decades before climate scientists warned that extreme heat would become one of California’s fastest-growing public health threats.
A landmark study of 509 LAUSD elementary schools found that nearly 20% of campuses had playgrounds with no tree canopy at all and 100% paved play surfaces. Some schools had more than 90% of their grounds susceptible to the urban heat island effect, leaving students surrounded by asphalt that absorbs and radiates heat throughout the day.
Researchers concluded that many campuses most vulnerable to extreme heat were located in neighborhoods already facing environmental and economic disadvantages.
Air Conditioning Helps—But It Doesn’t Solve Everything
LAUSD officials say all permanent classrooms now have air conditioning, a significant improvement over previous decades and an important safeguard during heat waves.
Yet air conditioning addresses only part of the problem.
Students still spend hours outside during recess, lunch, physical education, sports practices and arrival and dismissal. Portable classrooms, gymnasiums, cafeterias and other facilities may have aging HVAC systems or require additional upgrades, while playgrounds often remain exposed to direct sunlight.
The challenge is not simply cooling classrooms. It is creating campuses where children can safely learn and play throughout the school day.
The Numbers Tell a Different Story
Recognizing the growing threat, LAUSD has launched one of the nation’s most ambitious school greening initiatives.
The district has adopted a goal of ensuring every campus reaches at least 30% green space by 2035, replacing asphalt with trees, gardens, permeable surfaces and shaded outdoor learning areas.
But current conditions show how much work remains.
District documents indicate:
671 LAUSD campuses
Only 106 schools (16%) currently meet the district’s 30% green-space goal.
85% of LAUSD students attend schools with little or no tree canopy.
The district aims for 20% tree-canopy coverage on school grounds.
Approximately $1.2 billion has been committed through Measure US and related capital programs for greening, shade structures and climate resilience projects.
In other words, most students still attend campuses with limited natural protection from extreme heat.
Where Heat and Inequality Overlap
Heat is not distributed equally across Los Angeles.
Neighborhoods with fewer parks, fewer mature trees and more pavement can be 10 to 20 degrees hotter than greener areas during peak summer afternoons. These differences often reflect decades of unequal investment, housing patterns and land-use decisions.
Environmental advocates argue that the result is a new form of climate inequality: children in historically underserved neighborhoods are more likely to attend schools where the environment itself makes learning harder.
Medical research has linked extreme heat to dehydration, reduced concentration, lower academic performance, increased absenteeism and greater risks for children with asthma and other chronic conditions.
For families, the issue is deeply personal.
Parents cannot choose the weather.
But they expect schools to be prepared for it.
Geographic pattern
One pattern stands out: many of the campuses with the lowest greening scores are clustered in South Los Angeles, East Hollywood, and nearby communities—areas with high summer temperatures, dense development, and predominantly Latino student populations. LAUSD’s Greening Index explicitly factors in extreme heat and CalEnviroScreen environmental burden to prioritize these schools for investment.
