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6-Day Teachers Strike Cost LAUSD $151 Million

LOS ANGELES (CBSLA) — The six-day teachers strike and the steep drop in attendance will cost the Los Angeles Unified School District more than $151 million.

As teachers return to the classroom Wednesday, more than 600,000 students are expected to return with them. "A vast super-majority" of the more than 30,000 members of United Teachers Los Angeles voted to approve the tentative agreement hammered out over the long holiday weekend, with the help of Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti.

But even as the more than 1,000 schools overseen by the district get back into normal operations, it will have to grapple with the major revenue shortfall caused by the strike.

According to numbers released by the district, the first day of the strike saw attendance drop to 156,774, costing the district $22.8 million. On the second day, the number of students out of school rose to 171,480, but cost the district slightly less at $21.7 million.

The strike only got more expensive on day three, with 134,724 students out of school, costing the district $24.4 million. On the fourth and fifth day, attendance dropped to 84,160 and 87,559, respectively. Even though these days saw more students in school, they cost the district the most – about $28 million each day.

On Tuesday, the last day of the strike, 110,881 students were at LAUSD schools, which lost $26.2 million that day.

The total gross revenue lost during the strike is $151.4 million, based on the attendance numbers available Tuesday. The district notes that all the numbers provided were what were available at the time of reporting, and that attendance needs to be validated.

Average daily attendance funds all California schools and is the single largest source of revenue for districts.

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