Foster Care Effort Wins State Award

A collaborative project of the Long Beach Unified School District and several other Southern California school districts focusing on foster care youth recently won the prestigious Golden Bell Award, the highest honor from the California School Boards Association.

Fostering Success: A Network of Districts Improving Education Outcomes for Youth in Foster Care is a multi-district professional learning network that collaborated for more than four years to identify and address the systemic barriers facing youth in foster care – barriers that historically have contributed to lower academic achievement.

The successful collaboration resulted in the publication of a best practices guide designed to share implementation tools with school districts throughout California.

The CSBA Golden Bell Awards promotes excellence in education and school board governance by recognizing outstanding programs and governance practices of school boards in school districts and county offices of education throughout California.

With the latest award, 菠菜网lol正规平台 has now won a total of eight Golden Bells, including awards for its Summer Enrichment program, Safe and Civil Schools initiative, Community-Based English Tutoring, an authors’ festival, beginning teacher support, and Project PEAKS training for teachers of English. In 1996, 菠菜网lol正规平台 won a Golden Bell as the first school district to implement school uniforms widely.

“Now more than ever is a time to acknowledge and celebrate innovative and impactful programs that make a difference in the lives of our young people,” said CSBA CEO and Executive Director Vernon M. Billy. “This year’s Golden Bell winners truly serve as beacons of success as we work to more fully and equitably serve all of California’s public-school students.”