diff --git a/pyproject.toml b/pyproject.toml
index a07fb52ef..c826b767e 100644
--- a/pyproject.toml
+++ b/pyproject.toml
@@ -91,6 +91,7 @@ test = [
     "pytest-randomly",
     "pytest-memray",
     "pytest-mock",
+    "filelock",
     "matplotlib",
     "scikit-learn",
     "openpyxl",
diff --git a/tests/conftest.py b/tests/conftest.py
index 683ca5ce7..b38ab4a65 100644
--- a/tests/conftest.py
+++ b/tests/conftest.py
@@ -13,12 +13,14 @@
     from dask.base import normalize_seq
 else:
     from dask.tokenize import normalize_seq
+from filelock import FileLock
 from scipy import sparse
 
 import anndata as ad
 from anndata.tests.helpers import subset_func  # noqa: F401
 
 if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from collections.abc import Generator
     from types import EllipsisType
 
 
@@ -75,6 +77,39 @@ def equivalent_ellipsis_index(
     return ellipsis_index_with_equivalent[1]
 
 
+@pytest.fixture(scope="session")
+def local_cluster_addr(
+    tmp_path_factory: pytest.TempPathFactory, worker_id: str
+) -> Generator[str, None, None]:
+    # Adapted from https://pytest-xdist.readthedocs.io/en/latest/how-to.html#making-session-scoped-fixtures-execute-only-once
+    import dask.distributed as dd
+
+    def make_cluster() -> dd.LocalCluster:
+        return dd.LocalCluster(n_workers=1, threads_per_worker=1)
+
+    if worker_id == "master":
+        with make_cluster() as cluster:
+            yield cluster.scheduler_address
+            return
+
+    # get the temp directory shared by all workers
+    root_tmp_dir = tmp_path_factory.getbasetemp().parent
+
+    fn = root_tmp_dir / "dask_scheduler_address.txt"
+    lock = FileLock(str(fn) + ".lock")
+    lock.acquire()  # can’t use context manager, because we need to release the lock before yielding
+    address = fn.read_text() if fn.is_file() else None
+    if address:
+        lock.release()
+        yield address
+        return
+
+    with make_cluster() as cluster:
+        fn.write_text(cluster.scheduler_address)
+        lock.release()
+        yield cluster.scheduler_address
+
+
 #####################
 # Dask tokenization #
 #####################
diff --git a/tests/lazy/test_concat.py b/tests/lazy/test_concat.py
index d2c5efdb4..7825a6e91 100644
--- a/tests/lazy/test_concat.py
+++ b/tests/lazy/test_concat.py
@@ -215,14 +215,11 @@ def test_concat_to_memory_var(
 
 
 def test_concat_data_with_cluster_to_memory(
-    adata_remote: AnnData, join: Join_T, *, load_annotation_index: bool
-):
+    adata_remote: AnnData, join: Join_T, local_cluster_addr: str
+) -> None:
     import dask.distributed as dd
 
-    with (
-        dd.LocalCluster(n_workers=1, threads_per_worker=1) as cluster,
-        dd.Client(cluster),
-    ):
+    with dd.Client(local_cluster_addr):
         ad.concat([adata_remote, adata_remote], join=join).to_memory()
 
 
diff --git a/tests/test_dask.py b/tests/test_dask.py
index 4865758e2..15af3bd39 100644
--- a/tests/test_dask.py
+++ b/tests/test_dask.py
@@ -4,6 +4,8 @@
 
 from __future__ import annotations
 
+from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
+
 import numpy as np
 import pandas as pd
 import pytest
@@ -22,6 +24,11 @@
     gen_adata,
 )
 
+if TYPE_CHECKING:
+    from pathlib import Path
+    from typing import Literal
+
+
 pytest.importorskip("dask.array")
 
 
@@ -103,7 +110,12 @@ def test_dask_write(adata, tmp_path, diskfmt):
     assert isinstance(orig.varm["a"], DaskArray)
 
 
-def test_dask_distributed_write(adata, tmp_path, diskfmt):
+def test_dask_distributed_write(
+    adata: AnnData,
+    tmp_path: Path,
+    diskfmt: Literal["h5ad", "zarr"],
+    local_cluster_addr: str,
+) -> None:
     import dask.array as da
     import dask.distributed as dd
     import numpy as np
@@ -111,10 +123,7 @@ def test_dask_distributed_write(adata, tmp_path, diskfmt):
     pth = tmp_path / f"test_write.{diskfmt}"
     g = as_group(pth, mode="w")
 
-    with (
-        dd.LocalCluster(n_workers=1, threads_per_worker=1, processes=False) as cluster,
-        dd.Client(cluster),
-    ):
+    with dd.Client(local_cluster_addr):
         M, N = adata.X.shape
         adata.obsm["a"] = da.random.random((M, 10))
         adata.obsm["b"] = da.random.random((M, 10))
diff --git a/tests/test_io_elementwise.py b/tests/test_io_elementwise.py
index 3991b46f7..92f6abdb1 100644
--- a/tests/test_io_elementwise.py
+++ b/tests/test_io_elementwise.py
@@ -5,6 +5,7 @@
 from __future__ import annotations
 
 import re
+from pathlib import Path
 from typing import TYPE_CHECKING
 
 import h5py
@@ -77,7 +78,7 @@ def store(request, tmp_path) -> H5Group | ZarrGroup:
 
 
 @pytest.fixture(params=sparse_formats)
-def sparse_format(request):
+def sparse_format(request: pytest.FixtureRequest) -> Literal["csr", "csc"]:
     return request.param
 
 
@@ -346,7 +347,9 @@ def test_read_lazy_subsets_nd_dask(store, n_dims, chunks):
         assert_equal(X_from_disk[index], X_dask_from_disk[index])
 
 
-def test_read_lazy_h5_cluster(sparse_format, tmp_path):
+def test_read_lazy_h5_cluster(
+    sparse_format: Literal["csr", "csc"], tmp_path: Path, local_cluster_addr: str
+) -> None:
     import dask.distributed as dd
 
     with h5py.File(tmp_path / "test.h5", "w") as file:
@@ -354,10 +357,7 @@ def test_read_lazy_h5_cluster(sparse_format, tmp_path):
         arr_store = create_sparse_store(sparse_format, store)
         X_dask_from_disk = read_elem_lazy(arr_store["X"])
         X_from_disk = read_elem(arr_store["X"])
-    with (
-        dd.LocalCluster(n_workers=1, threads_per_worker=1) as cluster,
-        dd.Client(cluster) as _client,
-    ):
+    with dd.Client(local_cluster_addr):
         assert_equal(X_from_disk, X_dask_from_disk)