Chico Unified staff outline supports for homeless and foster students and announce $6.3 million preliminary community‑schools award

Jamie, the district’s foster and homeless liaison, told the Chico Unified School District board on May 1 that the district has expanded identification and services for students experiencing homelessness or in foster care, and that the work relies heavily on a team of targeted case managers.

Jamie said the district recognizes multiple McKinney‑Vento categories — families in shelters, motels, doubled‑up households, vehicles or unsafe dwellings — and that identification is increasingly driven by training and outreach. "We have four shelters that house our families that have children," Jamie said, and added the district coordinates closely with case managers at the Jesus Center, Esplanade House, Aurora House and Salvation Army programs to maintain seamless educational supports.

The liaison outlined how McKinney‑Vento status is determined and kept: families complete a housing questionnaire and staff reassess annually; services continue through the school year in which a family regains permanent housing. She also described foster‑care criteria (an open case and a social‑worker or probation officer) and a pilot mentorship/mentor‑home model for some 16‑ to 19‑year‑old youth.

Jamie said the district has grown its targeted‑case‑manager corps from 13 to 22 so every school site now has on‑site TCM support. Those staff handle enrollment, transportation and resource referrals, home visits, attendance interventions and multilingual outreach; the district has hired Farsi and Hmong TCMs where needed. "We analyze data to ensure growth in academics, behavior and social emotional," Jamie said, and flagged grant funding — including state and ARP funds — that currently support the work.

Chase Chabale, the district’s community schools coordinator, said Chico Unified had used a two‑year planning grant ($200,000) to develop implementation plans and was notified the state preliminarily approved a five‑year community‑schools award totaling $6,300,000 pending final state approval next week. "We have been awarded preliminary status to receive $6,300,000 over five years," Chase said, calling the allocation a potential major expansion of social‑worker staffing and integrated student supports at seven pilot schools.

Chase described the community‑schools framework as building on MTSS with four cornerstones: extended learning, integrated student supports, family/community engagement and whole‑child alignment. If the award is finalized, staff said the district would close out planning grant accounting, submit expenditure reports by June 30 and begin hiring and program implementation once cash is released.

Board members asked about transportation and post‑secondary supports. Jamie said the district has been exploring Beeline county transit integration and currently uses a token‑transit pass that can be electronically issued while broader service agreements remain under discussion. She also described connections to local higher‑education support staff at Butte College, Chico State, Sacramento State and UC Davis for foster students continuing to college.

The presentation included local data trends: Jamie said McKinney‑Vento identification rose after the 2018–19 Camp Fire and that increased counts likely reflect better identification rather than a new surge. She referenced the state guideline that districts in the area should expect McKinney‑Vento rates in roughly a 5–12% range and said district reporting here was summative end‑of‑year data rather than the census snapshot used by DataQuest.

The board did not take action on the presentation itself; staff said they would return in June with grant‑administration details if the state completes approval. The board recessed briefly and then moved to other agenda items.

The board’s workshop materials and Jamie’s description make clear the district’s approach combines legal protections (enrollment and school‑of‑origin rights under McKinney‑Vento and state foster‑care rules) with a staffing model of TCMs and community partnerships to remove barriers to attendance and learning.

What happens next: staff will finalize planning‑grant closeout paperwork and prepare implementation steps if the state confirms the $6.3 million award. The district will also continue outreach with local transit and social‑service partners to expand transportation and housing supports.