FOSTER YOUTH DESERVE TO BE LEFT OUT OF BROWN’S PLAN TO COMBINE CATEGORICAL FUNDS
BY DANIEL HEIMPEL | TOPED – THOUGHTS ON PUBLIC EDUCATION | HTTP://BIT.LY/WLOSEC
1/30/12 :: In 1981, the California State Legislature launched the Foster Youth Services program to address the educational needs of foster children, putting California at the vanguard of a national movement to level the educational playing field for students in foster care.
But dramatic changes to how K-12 education is funded in Governor Jerry Brown’s latest proposed budget threaten this program. The governor’s January budget plan consolidates most of the categorical funding streams for schools and folds them into a new “weighted student formula.” Foster Youth Services (FYS) would be consolidated, leaving it up to the state’s 1,000 school districts to decide whether or not to maintain the program.
Foster youth advocates and experts argue that since FYS is a small, specialized program, targeting a unique and vulnerable studen