Description
The purpose of this study was to identify how school districts are allocating and providing services and support for foster youth as documented in the California Local Control and Accountability Plans (LCAP) under the Local Control Funding Formula. The study sought to identify specific and unique supports intended solely for foster youth. A document analysis was completed of 27 LCAPs from the 2021-2022 school year. Four themes emerged as a result of the review of 1,077 actions included in the 27 LCAPs. The four themes that were identified included that foster youth are consistently identified as a targeted population in the actions of the reviewed LCAPs. Despite being consistently identified in the LCAPs, specific and intentional support to foster youth as the only identified population was sparse, and novel practices intended to solely support this population were nearly nonexistent. Finally, the LCAP document itself was a common template, however, approaches to completing and documenting actions were inconsistent across local education agencies (LEAs). The recommendations include both state-level suggestions such as increasing the voice of foster youth as educational partners in the LCAP development process and ensuring greater consistency among LCAP development. Finally, recommendations at the LEA level include increasing foster family partnerships and college and career opportunities for these students.
