OXNARD : Funding Shortage Threatens Foster Children’s Tutoring

children who are behind in school, probably will end unless more funding can be found, officials say.

About 20 children were tutored after school by college students working at the Oxnard Tutoring Center. The $1,600-per-month cost of the project was financed by the Children’s Services Auxiliary, a private nonprofit support organization that assists foster children.

But the auxiliary can’t afford to continue the program, said Joan Roberts, president of the group.

“We’ve run out of money,” Roberts said. “It’s not for lack of children.” The auxiliary is applying for grant funding, she said, but those funds are not easily acquired.

The auxiliary financed the pilot project through August. Then a donation came through enabling the free tutoring to continue through September, she said. But there is no money available for October.

In Ventura County nearly 500 children have been placed temporarily in foster homes by the court because they have been abused, neglected, abandoned or molested by their parents, said Jane Reimann, volunteer and community coordinator for Children’s Services, a division of the county’s Public Social Services Agency.

Often children in foster homes attend school sporadically, she said. Sometimes they are two or three years behind in school.

At the Oxnard Tutoring Center the children, in 1st through 10th grades, were tutored twice a week for two hours.

“We were pleased with the results,” Reimann said. The tutors “made it fun” and rewarded the children’s progress, she said.

Allan Hanlon, who operates the center, said every foster child tutored was at least one year behind in school.

He said some of the students made significant improvements. A high school sophomore, who was getting nearly all Fs in school, raised her grades to Cs, and even received a B in math after scoring an A on a final exam. Another child received an award from his elementary school for most improved student.

Hanlon said some foster parents are continuing to bring the children in for tutoring, even though it is no longer free.