Darwin was one of more than 5,200 students in Jefferson Parish who missed school after federal agents arrived in New Orleans on Dec. 3.

Typically, a few schools lose their charters due to low performance or financial issues. But this year, 14 out of 15 up for renewal qualified for extensions.

New Orleans’ only direct-run school is facing a deficit in its second year, and board members are debating whether to shut it down.

Federal agencies say they aren’t targeting schools, but parents and teachers are worried now that Biden-era protections are gone.

Most schools across the state could see their performance scores fall when Louisiana’s new accountability system takes effect this spring. New Orleans, as a district, could fall to a C, based on simulated scores.

Officials expect less than a third of schools to receive As and Bs when new standards take effect this spring, down from more than half this year.

A task force Gov. Jeff Landry assembled is recommending that Louisiana’s colleges and universities join six other university systems from Southern states in a new conservative accrediting body.

Einstein is the latest charter operator in recent years to reduce its capacity, citing low enrollment, as New Orleans’ birth rate has declined and families have left the city.

In February, the district and state asked the court to end the monitoring, arguing they had fulfilled the terms of the settlement. The Southern Poverty Law Center, which represents parents in the related lawsuit, is challenging the request.

Lawmakers passed legislation in the spring to move UNO from the Louisiana University System back to the LSU system, where it had been from its founding until 2013.