Additional $30 million for Students in California's Foster Care during COVID
The 2021 California budget included $30 million to support the education needs of students in foster care who were been particularly hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic. NCYL in collaboration with First Star and John Burton Advocates for Youth recommended to the Governor’s office necessary investments that recognized the historic opportunity gap students in foster care face and the compounded impact of the pandemic.
Our recommendations included:
- $30 million one time investment emergency federal coronavirus funding to provide direct education interventions to K12 students in foster care to address reengagement, social and emotional well being, learning recovery, educational counseling and coaching to improve the post-secondary success for students in foster care.
- Funding to be allocated to county offices of education FYSCP programs for direct services to students through contracts with CBOs to work in collaboration with educators to ensure that the pandemic learning loss does not have a lasting impact on students in care.
We are thrilled that support for students in foster care has been highlighted as an important investment for the state and we look forward to working with the administration to ensure the budget closely aligns to our recommendations.
We look forward to a final budget that realizes the vision of this policy and ensuring the appropriate services are delivered to students in foster care.
