Santa Barbara County ranks fourth out of California’s 58 counties for number of English learners and third for students experiencing poverty.
Santa Barbara County Superintendent of Schools Susan Salcido highlighted those statistics during a State of Education address hosted by the Santa Maria Valley Camber of Commerce on May 18. She also spoke about mental health, substance abuse rates, student enrollment numbers, test scores, and highlighted student and teacher successes.
“For youth experiencing homelessness—according to Kids Data—Santa Barbara County is first in terms of the highest percentages of students experiencing homelessness,” she said.
About 9 percent of Santa Barbara County’s students experience homelessness, in comparison to almost 3 percent at statewide levels. Salcido noted that the data’s definition of homelessness includes families living with multiple families in one building.
“During the 2017-18 school year, more than 250,000 California school-aged children were recorded as homeless,” the Kids Data study stated. “This figure represents more than 1-in-6 of the record high 1.5 million homeless public school students nationwide.”
Homelessness at any point in a young person’s life can cause severe trauma, stunt their development, disrupt relationships, and put health and safety at risk, the study said.
Part of combating these issues on a local level includes providing more resources and support for these students, Salcido said during her address, adding that more state funding will trickle into the county since Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a $123.9 billion Pre-K and K-12 education package, the highest level of education funding in state history.
“It’s not set yet, but what’s coming ahead is increased allocations for our schools—both on the cost of living adjustment as well as how schools are funded. So we have increased funds for schools and [for] areas of focus so that our schools can help provide more support,” Salcido said.
Through this funding package, schools could add more summer programs and learning periods, community sites for families to access education resources, expand transitional kindergarten for 4-year-olds, and provide students access to free breakfast and lunch for whoever requests it, she said.
The County Education Office will also begin countywide community conversations to discuss important topics—like students experiencing homelessness—and how to address them in order to create a better education environment, she added.
“One emphasis we have in our schools is this: Very practically speaking, we want every student to wake up to go to school and be excited about going to school that day,” Salcido said.
This article appears in May 26 – Jun 2, 2022.
