Participation Among San Francisco Unified School District Students in Programs Offered by the Department of Children, Youth, and their Families
Description:
In 2012 and 2013, the San Francisco Department of Children, Youth, and their Families (DCYF), San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), and the Gardner Center collaborated to examine SFUSD student participation in DCYF-funded programs. The goal of this partnership was to help DCYF understand which students its programs served and to better match its programs to students who needed the most help. To this end, the Gardner Center linked DCYF program participation records to SFUSD administrative data on students based on student identifiers and demographic characteristics. This allowed the research team to combine SFUSD attendance, discipline, demographic, and achievement data to program participation records from DCYF. This brief presents findings from this analysis that help to characterize SFUSD students' participation in DCYF programs between 2005 and 2011. The analysis found that DCYF had a significant presence among SFUSD students that has steadily increased over time. In addition to serving a significant proportion of the SFUSD student body, DCYF programs were more likely to serve low achieving, minority, suspended, and high-risk students. The analysis also found that a substantial proportion of high school graduates and postsecondary students were exposed to DCYF programs during their time at SFUSD.
Suggested Citation:
Williams, I. (2013) Participation among San Francisco Unified School District students in programs offered by the Department of Children, Youth, and their Families. Stanford, CA: John W. Gardner Center for Youth and their Communities.