Medi-Cal is a Key Support for K-12 Students from Multilingual Homes

Millions of California students come to school with an invaluable asset: living in homes where a language other than English is spoken. Ensuring these students can leverage their linguistic assets and succeed at school requires meeting their basic needs, including access to affordable medical care.

Health care should be accessible and affordable to all Californians, especially school-aged children. Medi-Cal is our state’s health coverage program for residents with low incomes and is essential for the health and well-being of millions of K-12 students and their families.

More than 1.4 million California K-12 public school students who live in homes where a language other than English is spoken participate in Medi-Cal. Medi-Cal provides preventive care and treatment for health conditions that allows students from multilingual homes to attend and thrive at school – including achieving the opportunity of biliteracy.

Medi-Cal is a critical part of the social safety net that combats poverty, meets basic needs, and helps students attend school and prepare for the future. By providing access to affordable health care, Medi-Cal frees up household resources for other basic needs such as rent, utilities, or food. Without the support Medi-Cal and other social safety net programs provide, students’ basic needs may not be met and they would be less likely to regularly attend and engage in school.

Support for this report was provided by The Sobrato Family Foundation.

Nearly 1.2 million California public K-12 students are English learners who bring an invaluable asset with them to school: speaking a language other than English. Ensuring these students can leverage their linguistic assets requires them to attend and succeed at school.

Having a safe, stable place to live is crucial for student development and educational success. But, more than 245,000 of California’s public K-12 students experienced homelessness in 2022-23. This includes children temporarily staying with other families due to economic hardship, and children living in motels, shelters, vehicles, public spaces, or substandard housing.

Students who are English learners disproportionately experience homelessness. English learners comprise 1 in 5 California K-12 public school students, but English learners were more than 1 in 3 of the state’s students who experienced homelessness in 2022-23. Housing instability is one reason English learners experience high rates of chronic absenteeism, which causes them to lose critical access to curriculum, opportunities to leverage their linguistic assets, and social structures that schools, educators, and peers offer.

Policymakers should boost investments in safe, affordable housing and target additional funding and resources for students who are more likely to experience homelessness, including California’s English learners. Policy solutions should also be rooted in equitable interventions that build community trust and integrate culturally and linguistically competent practices to ensure every California K-12 student can thrive in school and life.

Support for this report was provided by The Sobrato Family Foundation.

Millions of California students come to school with an invaluable asset: living in homes where a language other than English is spoken. Ensuring these students can leverage their linguistic assets and succeed at school requires meeting their basic needs, including sufficient access to food.

Access to affordable food is essential for everyone, especially for school-aged children. The CalFresh program helps Californians put food on the table by providing monthly benefits for people with low incomes, including K-12 students and their families.

More than 1 out of every 4 California K-12 public school students (27.6%) who live in homes where a language other than English is spoken participate in CalFresh, providing vital food assistance to the households of more than 650,000 students.

CalFresh is a critical part of the social safety net that combats poverty and helps students attend and succeed in school. By providing additional resources for food, CalFresh also frees up household resources for other basic needs such as rent, utilities, or medical care. Meeting the basic needs of many students from multilingual households would be more challenging without the support CalFresh provides.

Support for this report was provided by The Sobrato Family Foundation.