Hawthorne Education Foundation

The Hawthorne Education Foundation was established in 2003 to fundraise on behalf of and uplift the work of the Hawthorne School District. Founded in 1907, the Hawthorne School District is composed of seven elementary schools, three middle schools, and one charter high school. The district is responsible for educating nearly 10,000 kindergarten through 12th-grade students each year.

Since 2015, under the leadership of Superintendent Dr. Helen Morgan, the Hawthorne School District has partnered with Footsteps2Brilliance, an innovative digital early literacy platform. Through the citywide literacy initiative Literacy Launch, students and families with young children receive free access to three of the Footsteps2Brilliance mobile apps in both English and Spanish. The initiative, which aims to prepare children for kindergarten and ensure reading proficiency by third grade, became all the more critical in 2020, when the COVID-19 pandemic forced the suspension of in-person instruction.