(a) Subject to the availability of funds in the annual Budget Act for this purpose, the office of the President of the University of California shall provide each participating campus with funding to support postsecondary education programs for foster youth and former foster youth. The office of the President of the University of California shall develop a funding formula that allocates funding to each campus that offers a foster youth support program. The formula may authorize each participating campus to maintain a minimum baseline funding amount. The formula shall be based on the number of students participating in the program at each participating campus.
(b) Funding allocated to each campus pursuant to subdivision (a) shall be used to provide support services to students who are foster youth and former foster youth, which may include, but are not limited to, outreach and recruitment, consultation and eligibility verification, consultation and referrals for students deemed ineligible, service coordination, counseling and academic advising, grants for books, supplies, tutoring, childcare, housing, or transportation, independent living and financial literacy skills support, frequent in-person contact, career guidance, referrals to health services, mental health services, housing assistance, and other related services, and direct financial support.
(c) A campus program may provide all the services described in subdivision (b) to enrolled students who are foster youth or former foster youth but whose courses have not yet commenced, if those services are necessary to enable the student to be successful upon the commencement of the academic term. Funding may also be used to support these services during the summer term for students enrolled in the upcoming fall term.
(d) Each participating campus shall offer all of the following as part of its program provided pursuant to this section:
(1) A full-time designated staff program director or coordinator with experience relevant to working with foster youth and former foster youth.
(2) Campus office and meeting space.
(3) A range of student supports to address academic and nonacademic needs.
(4) Opportunities for peer mentors.
(e) To the extent possible, services provided under this section, including those required pursuant to subdivision (d), shall supplement, and shall not supplant, other services provided by the state, a county, or a campus. Where existing targeted programs for foster youth and former foster youth exist on campus, funding shall be used to continue and expand these programs.
(f) Commencing March 31, 2024, and every two years thereafter, the office of the President of the University of California shall submit a report to the Department of Finance and the Joint Legislative Budget Committee describing all of the following:
(1) Efforts during the previous academic year to serve students who are foster youth and former foster youth, including uses of the funding allocated pursuant to subdivision (a) and uses of other internal and external resources supporting foster youth services.
(2) Enrollment, retention, and completion rate data for students who are foster youth and former foster youth and participated in programs funded pursuant to this section on a campus-by-campus basis, and other metrics as appropriate.
(3) As feasible, systemwide data on enrollment, retention, and completion rates for students who are foster youth and former foster youth and participated in programs funded pursuant to this section, and other metrics as appropriate, disaggregated by race, ethnicity, and gender.
(Added by Stats. 2022, Ch. 54, Sec. 45. (AB 183) Effective June 30, 2022.)