First Supervisorial District Education Pilot Program

About the Program

Category: Children and Youth (Best in Category)

Year: 2010

Los Angeles County First Supervisorial District Supervisor Gloria Molina created a pilot project to address the educational needs of youth in foster care in partnership with the Chief Executive Office, Education Coordinating Council, Department of Children and Family Services, and the Montebello and Pomona Unified School Districts. Launched in April 2008, the goals of this project are to raise the educational achievement of DCFS youth by improving their school stability, increasing their high school graduation rates and encouraging them either to enroll in post-secondary education or to secure full-time employment. The program’s innovation lies in the ability to collaborate across agencies to develop and implement meaningful educational plans for foster youth. Preliminary results have already demonstrated significant success: 67 percent of pilot students who graduated from high school in June would not have done so if not for the intervention of the pilot project. Moreover, 83 percent of graduation pilot students have enrolled in either a 2-year or 4-year college compared to the national average of 20 percent of foster youth.