who are k-12 students from multilingual homes?
Students from multilingual homes are 5 to 18 years of age who attend a public K-12 school and speak a language other than English at home.
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.
