Foster and At-Risk Youth Programs

ABC Unified School District offers specialized programs and services to serve youth and families experiencing homelessness, affected by foster care, and/or military-connected youth. The goal of these services is to ensure that all children have an equal opportunity to achieve and succeed in school.

Our At-Risk Youth Achievement Program serves students identified as homeless under the federal McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act. The McKinney-Vento Act defines "homeless children and youth" as individuals who lack a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence. The term includes:

• Children and youth who are:
• Sharing the housing of other persons due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason (sometimes referred to as doubled-up);
• Living in motels, hotels, trailer parks, or camping grounds due to lack of alternative adequate accommodations;
• Living in emergency or transitional shelters;
• Abandoned in hospitals; or
• Awaiting foster care placement;
• Children and youth who have a primary nighttime residence that is a public or private place not designed for, or ordinarily used as, a regular sleeping accommodation for human beings;
• Children and youth who are living in cars, parks, public spaces, abandoned buildings, substandard housing, bus or train stations, or similar settings; and
• Migratory children who qualify as homeless because they are living in the circumstances described above.

ABC Unified School District's Foster & Homeless Youth Liaison is Tina Porter, LCSW, PPSC. 

If you have questions or need assistance related to the Foster Youth, At-Risk Youth, and/or Military-Connected Youth programs please contact Child Welfare & Attendance at Ext. 21104 or e-mail [email protected].