Bell: Santa Clara County Budget Cuts Threaten Future For Foster Youth

Education is often called the great equalizer. But for young people in foster care, education is too often disrupted by instability, interrupted schooling, trauma and a lack of consistent support systems.

At the very moment these students need more guidance, more advocacy and more opportunity, proposed budget cuts in Santa Clara County threaten to remove critical support services.

This would be a tragic mistake.

Cuts to educational support services may reduce budgets on paper, but they increase costs elsewhere in homelessness, unemployment, healthcare and the criminal justice system. Cutting these services now will create far greater public expense in the future.

The question before us is not whether we can afford to continue funding educational support services for foster youth. It is whether we can afford not to.

Foster youth face some of the greatest educational barriers in California. In the 2023–24 school year, 25% of foster youth dropped out of high school, compared to 9% of non-foster students. Only half enrolled in post-secondary education, and just 9% ultimately earned a bachelor’s degree.

These outcomes are the result of systems that fail to provide foster youth with the stability and support they need to succeed. Organizations like Pivotal prove what is possible when foster youth receive the support they deserve.

In collaboration with partners in education, community and county government, Pivotal provides foster youth with individualized, trauma-responsive academic coaching, scholarships, advocacy, career readiness support and connections to essential resources like housing, mental health and food assistance.

For foster youth, academic success is rarely just about academics. Repeated school changes, transportation barriers, housing instability, disrupted relationships and untreated trauma can cause even highly motivated students to struggle.

Pivotal coaches not only support scholars’ academic needs, but they also help navigate the myriad complex systems and resources foster youth need to survive. Through consistent encouragement, they build confidence during moments when giving up feels easier than moving forward. Just as importantly, these programs help students envision a future for themselves.

The results for foster youth participating in the Pivotal program are remarkable.

In the 2024-25 academic year, the statewide high school graduation rate for foster youth was 69%. Pivotal scholars graduated at a rate of 92%. While only 50% of foster youth statewide matriculated into post-secondary education, 81% of Pivotal scholars did so. Most strikingly, 55% of Pivotal scholars earned bachelor’s degrees — more than six times the statewide rate for foster youth. Since 2020, when Pivotal began its education manager partnership with the Santa Clara County Office of Education, the high school graduation rate for all foster youth enrolled in the county has increased by nearly 10%.

These outcomes should reshape the public conversation around funding for foster youth services and affirm the investments we are making. Instead, because education support services are not “mandated,” they are on the chopping block to help balance the budget.

Higher educational attainment is directly linked to increased economic mobility, improved health outcomes and reduced reliance on public systems. Every foster youth who graduates high school, completes college or secures stable employment represents not only a personal triumph, but a stronger and more economically resilient community.

Together, we can ensure the health and safety of children entering the child welfare system while also providing the academic support, caring adult relationships and access to higher education to help them successfully exit it.

Now is not the time to cut support from foster youth who face extraordinary odds. Now is the time to invest in them, and to sustain and strengthen the partnerships that provide protect our youth and help them achieve the success they deserve.

Matt Bell is CEO of Pivotal, a nonprofit serving the educational, career and wellness needs of foster youth in Silicon Valley.

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