How Does This Grant Project Support Youth in Foster Care and Youth that are Homeless?

The Los Angeles County Office of Education's (LACOE) Center for Distance and Online Learning (CDOL) in the Division of Curriculum and Instructional Services is in its second year of this 3-year grant project. The project, entitled the Promising Learners Project (PLP), supports Baldwin Park, Keppel, Monrovia, and Norwalk-La Mirada school districts in Creating Positive Learning Experiences Through a Multi-Tiered System of Support Using Social-Emotional Learning and the Arts! at a total of 11 school sites and 110 classrooms. This grant was awarded through the California Department of Education's Learning Communities for School Success Program (LCSSP) in the fall of 2020.

The Promising Learners Project presents teachers with the opportunity to create engaging environments and learning experiences to provide students the ability to achieve academic and social success, focusing on TK-third grade youth in foster care and youth that are homeless. This project's unique aspect is its ability to provide Social Emotional Learning (SEL) and Arts Integration strategies to lead students to achieve greater depth of knowledge and a supportive environment where they are given confidence through a personalized appeal to art. The first year of the project focused on youth in foster care and this year we will scaffold best practices to help our district partners widen that lens to include youth that are homeless to ensure LCAP alignment.

The project goals will be accomplished by providing the district teachers, administrators, family, and community access to teaching artists, mental health professionals, LACOE Foster Youth Services (FYS) staff, and LACOE Homeless Children and Youth through CDOL's high-quality learning model and Collective Impact Partnerships.

Project Goals

The Promising Learner Project participating school districts will gain and refine strategies and best practices that