The Slow Demise of Summer School

Looking forward to putting your child in summer school? You may have to look long and hard and have a few dollars to spend to get that done.

Remember Summer School? It’s Possible Your Grandkids Won’t

Summer School 2012 in my school district was about to start. I was one of a handful of teachers (all special education) to be chosen for this assignment.

All the students attending were those eligible for special education services. They had a section in their IEP (Individual Education Plan) checked off for ***Extended School Year (ESY), ***and/or had a course or some credits to make up. The number of students for this session were small. But, the ever-shrinking summer school program was surviving for one more year.

Fifteen to twenty years before this moment, summer school was much more than a small group of students and teachers. Regular education courses were offered to those who failed during the school year. Summer Bridge programs — courses co-sponsored by UCLA — were meant to prepare incoming freshmen for high school life. The bridge programs were popular among district teachers and students.

After 2012, funding issues changed and put new life into summer school. Still, the problems haven’t gone away.

Fast forward to 2026; teachers and general education students have to look somewhere else for summer school. Worst yet, students’ parents had to go to private programs in which they had to pay upwards of $300 to $500 for enrollment. In my district, the parents came from a lower socioeconomic background, meaning they had to struggle to make ends meet.

My district wasn’t alone. Summer schools at public schools in the state of California were going the way of the dinosaurs.

Today, some districts have managed to hold on to them. Others have trimmed their offerings to only the basic academic courses such as math and English. Others have turned to private schools and leased out their campuses to them during this time of the year.

In many cases — whether the school district has a limited form of summer school or don’t have any — students are told to sign up in another district

Increasingly, many have turned to credit recovery programs that can be done over the computer, thus relegating the summer school teacher to being only a facilitator in a classroom that was there to only open up a course for students who had several courses they needed to make up.

Many districts, on the other hand, have done away with them. State funding for education is at an all-time low, meaning drastic cuts have reduced what can be offered. In these particular districts, summer school was the first casualty.

In many cases, summer school is more about recovering credits rather than enrichment.

The Demise Started Early

Much of the erosion has been blamed on the current economic situation. Enrollment in California schools have been down for the year. Attendance is often a major source of funding for public schools in the state.

While the economic upheaval of the last half of the previous decade played a crucial role, the damage was done much earlier.

In 1978, voter-approved Proposition 13 was enacted. This radical proposition, created and funded by a “tax-reform” group known as the Howard Jarvis Group, curtailed property tax throughout the state. While the proposition was seen as a relief to homeowners, it had seriously curtailed funding for public schools.

In the mid to late seventies, summer schools offered many things such as arts and craft programs, field trips, sports and other activities for elementary and junior high students.

Some of these things were offered at the high school level. However, the emphasis was on academics. Students could either take courses to make up credits, or take courses to advance in their education.

Over the next 35 years, school programs started to erode. The effects were immediately felt in summer schools. After the summer of 1977, most of the programs at the elementary and junior high level were scaled back.

Summer schools now consisted mostly of academic courses with little or no frills added. Many affluent school districts managed to hold onto their programs. But, eventually, they either turned it over to private schools or to other districts. Again, the offerings were often for credit recovery.

As time marched on, the choices were few. In many cases the only students attending were there for mandatory reasons (make-up).

In later years, the California Lottery was formed on the grounds that it would help fund public education. However, after its implementation, much of the money went to overhead costs. Very little money came from it (in fact, one of the most popular saying in California when referring to the schools’ conditions and the lottery for the last two decades was : “I thought that money was going towards education.”)

The Great Recession Closes Summer School

The summer of 2009 was the first summer in years I didn’t work summer school. That year, nothing was being offered. Even ESY was in limbo. Adult transition was the only survivor and that was only for a specific group of students and teachers. That summer, most of the campuses in the district were shut down.

The reason was that funding for schools dried up. The Great Recession created many hardship throughout California and the rest of the country. As well as rampant unemployment, many public programs were slashed during this time.

Oddly enough, this event was more drastic than the pandemic year of 2020. During the pandemic and lockdown, only a few courses were offered as online credit recovery courses. The campuses, however, were open for meal delivery. The summer of 2021 saw the reopening of the campus for summer school; however, the numbers were small and a lot of precautions were put into place.

Some Bright Spots

LAUSD and other large school districts have implemented year-round schools, thus, in many cases, the idea of summer school doesn’t really apply. Various city civic centers have picked up the slack in terms of offering enrichment programs. They offeredsummer programs in the arts or sports (and still do). Also, private and public organizations have helped to establish pre-schools or sports programs such as the LA-Watts Summer Game, which has been going on for more than 40 years.

Also, there has been an increase in tutoring companies, online schools, and vocational education programs offered by the local Regional Occupational Centers (ROP). Many schools have formed agreements with ROPs, which have had sessions during the summer, offering various courses such as auto repair, digital production, and horticulture (it needs to be noted, however, that ROPs have been affected by the state’s financial problems and have reduced their offerings or had contracts with school districts terminated).

Another alternative is that local colleges and universities have summer enrichment courses for high school students. For years, the local community college, El Camino College, has offered this program to our students. In addition, universities in the area such as Cal State Dominguez Hills and UCLA offered programs that can be counted as UC/CSU eligible courses that not only goes toward credits for graduation, the course are also recognized by admissions officers in the state’s two public institution of higher learning.

How it Affects Teachers

Still, the decline of summer schools has had a profound effect on teachers. Summer school is the closest thing teachers have to having paid-overtime. Its demise means that they will have to look for work somewhere during the summer months. Some may opt to teach in a low-pay private summer school program or start tutoring friends or family members’ children.

Photo by Bui Hoang Lien on Unsplash

Often, at least in my school district, it’s open to all teachers to apply; however, those who get first dibs at a position or those that hadn’t taught summer school the year before applying.

The exceptions are for those teaching students with moderate/severe disabilities, considering many of the students are in adult transition programs and have ESY written into their IEP.

My district brought summer school back after a year or two of not offering it. It’s comprehensive and it can be used by both general and special education students. That’s the plus; however, another problem has persisted, making this situation more dire than before.

Not enough students are showing up for summer school. This leads to courses being closed out. In some cases, the course gets cancelled two or three weeks into summer school due to attendance. Due to this, administrators and teachers are constantly on the phone trying to convince students to attend summer school in order to keep a course open.

So Happening to Summer School Going Forward?

Back in 2012, the state of summer schools appeared to be declining. Briefly, it returned. But, in the midst of COVID pandemic, funding issues for districts, and even the current crackdown on immigration, as well as falling enrollment, summer school offering are still minimal. It feels as if that in a few years, many districts, including mine, will cease to offer summer school, again.

In addition, summer school has been relegated to credit recovery. This is unfortunate because this takes away a chance for eager students to enrich their education experience.

from Lincoln High School site in Des Moines, Iowa (2013)

Work Cited

• California State Board of Equalization: California Property Tax: An Overview (2025)
• Diana Lambert, Lasherica Thornton, John Fensterwald, And Daniel J. Willis: “California schools face budget cuts as enrollment drops by 74,961 students”: Ed Source.org (April, 2026

Related Article by Author

• Extended School Year Helps Students With Special Needs