Just in case this is still a question.. I happened to accidentally click on a wrong button and found this post and I know LA (better than many who wrote on this posting by their answers). I have lots of family there…
There are many high schools, both boys and girls. I know the girls’ better than the guys’ (family and friends there mostly have girls in the high school age).
Girls High Schools:
1. Bais Yaakov, (BYLA)- Only school called BY there but that is not to say the others are not comparable to East Coast BY schools. It is only a high school but it is one of the best high school for yeshivish girls- great, frum, yeshivish girls who do tons of chesed, run chai lifeline programs ect. # in the grade can range from 60-80, and can have 12+ get accepted to BJJ, 12+ to Hadar every year (quite impressive). Plus others who are that type.
2. Chasidish (Different than BY): They have a high school and a girls school. These are the Yiddish-speakers…Their school is quite small, tend to not have every grade so some of this type will go to BYLA. Girls have been known to get married straight from high school (or once or twice in recent past from 12th grade).
3. Bnos Devorah- New school, only about 5 years old. It is supposed to be BY-type but without “Rabbi Bursztyn Pressure”. Not sure how the school is turning out in the past few years but a school this new may still be finding its feet.
All 3 above are located in “the city”.
4. VTC (Valley Torah High School, was once Valley Torah Center, hence the initials that ppl still refer to it by). Location is in Valley. Known to be Chofetz Chaim, but it can depend on the year. It tends to get more of the recent Balei Teshuva or those who are not as BY but still frum and can be Yeshivish. Until Bnos Devorah came around, this was the only real alternative to Chasidish/BY or going to M.O. school. Not sure what “type” go there now that BD is open.
5. YULA (really YOLA, Yeshiva of LA but was once affiliated with YU so the name stuck). They have both a boys and girls schools but different campuses. This is the MO school in LA- students will go off to Penn ect, and they are MO in general (boys and girls might mix, yeshivish kids may not be able to eat at all their classmate’s houses…)
These are generals, but there are of course some mixes at each school, you might get someone who started 9th grade in one and switched before 10th because saw it wasn’t a right fit for them.
DONT WALK THE ALLEYS. Nuff said on that.
About the billboards- those who live there don’t even notice them. they are there, but living there people can clearly label it as “bad” or “treif” and ignore it. unlike in other cities, we can clearly see treif vs. kosher. After being in LA for a bit, I came to NY and was shocked… I didnt like being here with “sneaky billboards” on buses, subways ect. there is pritzus everywhere (ok maybe not on a farm in Kansas), so being in NY doesn’t stop it. go on the buses in boro park and you will still see what you wish you hadn’t.
Elementary schools- there are a lot more than high schools and the lines between them are grayer… so ask around! Just because Rabonim send their kids to one school, it doesn’t mean that it is the best. It could be that there were no other options at that time, or they were too far away ect. For example, Ohr Eliyahu just moved into the heart of the frum neighborhood and many students did not go there because of the distance of the old building. But it is an amazing school that focuses on middos, caring about others and being ehrlich. Besides for an unsurpassed education (especially lemudai kodesh!) that many schools can’t compete with.
Oh, something great about LA? There is a spot in the schools for every child! Yes, people are of course turned away, but you don’t want a girl in BY who hangs out with boys. Unlike in Lakewood, you don’t have dozens or more girls without a seat in high school. BY once had 87 girls in a grade at one point- they just built more lockers!
Good luck with your decision! Daven hard to make sure its right and best for your family! Don’t just rely on any one person because everyone is biased (including yours truly… I tried to write this as unbiased as possible but it probably snuck in). maybe ask someone who is the opposite of your family and see what they say.