Anteus Stinson, 22, entered California's foster care system when he was three. Since then he's lived in a lot of different places and gone to a lot of different schools.
"I was actually in high school in Merced, Modesto, Stockton and then finally here in San Jose," Stinson says. "The curriculum kept changing. I never really caught up to the classes, and never really understood. I always just jumped into a class."
That was the disruptive reality that California's Foster Youth Services program was meant to end, and now the program is often held up as a model for other states. But Gov. Jerry Brown's plan to give local school districts more control over state revenue would also eliminate the $15 million statewide program, delivering that money and responsibility directly to school districts.
Most foster care students share Stinson's experience, says Karen Scussel, executive director of Child Advocates of Silicon Valley. That's why the Legislature established Foster Youth Services in the first place, she says. The program provides counseling and academic support and acts as an advocate for individual kids. The program also makes sure kids' records follow them from school-to-school.
"In years past, sometimes [foster students] would be out of school for a couple of weeks until records were transferred, until everything was put in place in terms of registering for the new school," Scussel says. "So Foster Youth Services ensures that those records are transferred. They make sure that the schools understand their obligations, making sure that the foster youth are getting the education that they need and that they deserve."