These California schools connect kids to community services. Will they survive budget cuts?

Budget cuts may be looming for many California programs, but one multi-billion-dollar initiative has so far evaded the ax: an ambitious push to bring medical and dental care, counseling, parenting classes, cultural activities and other services to public schools. 

Gov. Gavin Newsom has so far spared what’s known as the community school initiative, which pairs schools with local nonprofits and other government agencies to provide services to students and their parents. The goal is to transform schools into social service hubs with strong ties to families and the community – an approach that research shows can boost student attendance, reduce suspensions and raise test scores.

Newsom launched the initiative in 2020 with a series of grants totalling $4.1 billion for schools to roll out community school programs over 10 years. About half the money has been spent already, with the most recent grants awarded last week. 

Now, amid a steep revenue shortfall in California, the Legislative Analyst’s Office has recommended cutting $1 billion from the remaining funding. Some community school advocates fear the state may slash funding even for schools that are midway through the rollout process. The Legislature has until June 15 to make a decision. 

“It is a huge amount of money, but cutting it now would be devastating,” said Anna Maier, a senior researcher and policy advisor at the Learning Policy Institute, an independent think tank that’s researched community schools extensively. “This is an audacious and complicated initiative, and it’s just getting started. We need to keep the momentum going.” 

The community school grant money, which so far has gone to more than 1,000 schools, primarily pays for staff: coordinators, tutors, social workers, after-school staff and others. Over time, the programs are intended to be less reliant on state funds as the outside organizations cover more of the costs and schools start billing Medi-Cal for health services.

Nothing new about social services in schools

The idea of schools providing more than just academics has been around for at least a century, as schools during the Industrial Revolution provided meals, clothing and other necessities for students living in poverty. In 1973, the Black Panthers started what’s thought to be a forerunner of modern community schools by opening a school in Oakland that served meals and offered curriculum focused on Black history and culture and other programs tailored to local families.   

First: Students hang out at the Shop 55 Wellness Center. Last: Dentist Ann Chen, left, and dental assistant Phuong Truong, right, work on a student patient at the Shop 55 Wellness Center at Oakland High School in Oakland on May 10, 2024. Photos by Juliana Yamada for CalMatters

Informally, many schools in middle-class and affluent areas have been community schools for decades. They’ve built strong relationships with local organizations and businesses, encouraged family involvement and offered a slew of activities suited to their students’ needs. In those neighborhoods, the schools’ success is at least partially due to family support and involvement.

The current push for community schools was spurred in part by a 2017 report from the Learning Policy Institute that found in general, schools that integrate social services “help children succeed academically and prepare for full and productive lives.” Low-income students, students of color, students with disabilities and English learners especially benefited from schools with extra services, parent involvement and strong links to outside organizations.

Pandemic upended community school rollout

But so far, evidence of community schools’ effectiveness in California is uneven — in part because the Covid-19 pandemic upended the education system just as community school programs were getting underway. Oakland Unified, for example, has one of the state’s largest and most comprehensive community school programs, but also has some of the most lackluster outcomes. The suspension rate – 4% last year – has barely changed since 2018 and remains above the state average. The graduation rate actually inched downward last year, to 75%. 

Diane Dixon, a Republican assembly member from Newport Beach who sits on the Assembly Appropriations Committee, said she supports community schools generally but is dismayed that test scores for students, especially Black and Latino students, have fallen over the past five years, despite the community school investment. While the pandemic played a role in that decline, she expects better results by now.

“California should have the finest schools in the country, if not the world,” Dixon said. “As legislators, we need to make sure all our children are getting a high quality education, and right now, I don’t know how well we’re doing that.”

Another challenge is accountability. Schools that receive community school grants must report their progress to the state every year and post the reports on their web sites. Nearly all reported their results to the state, but it’s unclear how many schools actually posted those reports publicly. An informal look at a half-dozen districts that received grants showed that none had posted their reports, at least not in an obvious place.

“Community schools give us a chance to address historic inequities. It’s long overdue, but the education system is getting a new mindset, a whole new approach.”

Asher Ki, director of educational renewal and innovation at Californians for Justice

Schools with poor results are supposed to get assistance from the state, and those who fail to improve risk losing their grants. But the assistance program is still getting underway, and participation is not mandatory.

“Community schools are a great idea, but we need to know what’s working, what’s impactful,” said Kimi Kean, director of Families in Action for Quality Education, which advocates for family involvement in Oakland schools. “This is such a significant investment, we can’t overlook the importance of accountability.”

Angelica Jongco, deputy managing attorney for Public Advocates, one of a dozen organizations that promotes community school policy in California, said the accountability — and results — will improve with time. Schools have only been getting grant money for two years, which is far too soon to expect results.

“Attendance, test scores, suspension rates — these things do not change automatically,” Jongco said. “That’s all the more reason we need to maintain this investment. Especially in times of challenges and uncertainty, we need to be investing in what works.”

‘A whole new approach’

Some schools have shown dramatic progress since winning community school grants. Anaheim High School, for example, since 2016-17 has seen its graduation rate jump 15 percentage points and the number of students meeting California college admission requirements jump almost 40 percentage points, according to state data.

“The community school money has provided services to students who otherwise would not have them. Simple as that.” 

Pamela Moy, oakland high school principal

And hidden within otherwise mediocre data, some schools point to individual success stories. Eureka City Schools, for example, had a high rate of chronic absenteeism last year, but over a 60-day period one homeless student went from 40 absences to just one and another student went from 26 to one. Oakland Unified has seen improvements in the number of students completing the classes required for college admission, as well as a ten-fold increase in the number of students enrolled in college while still in high school.

For Asher Ki, attending a community school would have made all the difference in his education. As a high school student in Fresno in the early 2010s, Ki said he felt “alone and unsupported.” Part of the reason was that his family, who is African American, did not feel welcome and were not engaged. 

“For them, school wasn’t a place you wanted to be. It wasn’t where you’d go for a meaningful education,” Ki said. “So they couldn’t help me, because they didn’t know where to go, who to talk to…. Any chance at pushing the status quo was met with racism and dehumanization.”

That experience is what drove Ki to advocate for community schools. Ki is now director of educational renewal and innovation at Californians for Justice, a social justice advocacy group that’s one of a dozen nonprofits that jointly promote community school policy in California. If he had attended a community school, he said, those years would have been much different: He and his family would have had more of a stake in his education. 

“Community schools give us a chance to address historic inequities,” Ki said. “It’s long overdue, but the education system is getting a new mindset, a whole new approach.”

Museum visits, health care and more at Oakland High

Oakland High School, a 1,500-student school in Oakland Unified where nearly all students are low-income, receives $360,000 a year in community school state grant money. Among other things, the money pays for museum tickets, yoga classes, college visits, tours of tech companies and other activities for Black girls in a club called Sisterhood. 

Members of the Sisterhood club serve themselves lunch during an end-of-year celebration at Oakland High School in Oakland on May 10, 2024. The Sisterhood club is supported by the California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP), which allows the students to participate in activities such as college campus visits. Photo by Juliana Yamada for CalMatters

When Oakland high received its grant, Black girls had the school’s highest suspension rate. The club was a way to help Black girls build friendships, connect to role models and learn about opportunities beyond high school, said principal Pamela Moy.

On a recent Friday meeting of Sisterhood, a few dozen girls shared lunch, chatted about their summer plans and reflected on their year with the club leaders, African American women they referred to as “aunties.” Overall, more than 100 girls have participated in club activities.

Senior Habakkuk Johnson said the club has given girls a place to relax and connect.

“If people come from bad environments, they can come here and be around good people. It helps people do better,” Johnson said. “It helps people change.”

Princess Momoh, a junior, said the club helped her “find Black girls I can relate to. It gave me a chance to talk to more people and make more friends.”

Third-year student Princess Momoh at Oakland High School in Oakland on May 10, 2024. Momoh is a member of the Sisterhood club at Oakland High, which is supported by the California Community Schools Partnership Program (CCSPP). Photo by Juliana Yamada for CalMatters

Since the pandemic, the suspension rate among Black girls at Oakland High has dropped from 13.5% to 9.6% – still high, but a bigger decline than other groups experienced. School counselor Faith Onwusa said she is certain the club is a primary reason for the improvement.

“When I was in school we had nothing like this,” Onwusa said. “It’s just super necessary.”

Community school money also goes toward the school’s wellness center, which offers everything from first aid to mental health counseling to assistance for recent immigrants and their families. The center has more than 40 employees from a variety of agencies, and sees a constant stream of students. Spacious, brightly decorated and always stocked with snacks, the center is an inviting place for students as well as staff. Some students just go there to hang out.

“The community school money has provided services to students who otherwise would not have them,” principal Moy said. “Simple as that.”