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  • California looks to the health system to sustain mental health funds in schools

    California looks to the health system to sustain mental health funds in schools


    Credit: Photo: Julie Leopo/EdSource

    To create an education system that has stable funds for mental health, California educators and leaders are turning to the health system and launching a statewide behavioral health initiative to fill funding gaps in fluctuating, sometimes unpredictable school budgets.

    “The health systems and the education systems are not bound together successfully enough to make sure we engage in both prevention and treatment,” said David Gordon, a commissioner at the Mental Health Services Oversight and Accountability Commission. “That’s particularly true for the most underserved communities.”

    Funding for mental health in California public schools typically has come from general education budgets, a reason funds have never been stable. As the need for more mental health services and specialists skyrockets, administrators and experts are turning to the health system to better serve needs that existing education budgets just can’t cover. 

    Schools bridge some gaps by placing nurses, social workers, school counselors and psychologists on campuses, but there’s never enough money to fully meet student mental health needs. Without a built-in, statewide system to fund mental health in schools, districts are left to figure it out themselves. 

    “We’re so used to trying to provide external funding to fund us to some sort of equitable level for every student,” said Loretta Whitson, executive director of the California Association of School Counselors. “It’s never been the general fund will cover us — it’s just sort of baked into the cake.”

    It’s been that way since at least the late 1980s, when Whitson began her education career, she said.

    The Local Control Funding Formula, legislation that changed the way education was funded in California, created more funds for mental health and “a more holistic view and review of schools,” Whitson said. “But if there’s not enough money to go around, then school district administrators need to make very hard decisions.”

    If districts have to rely on general fund money for mental health providers, it creates competition with funding for teachers and education programs, Whitson said. If budgets had more funds specifically for mental health, it would mean more money for education. 

    If we piecemeal it like it’s been, then we’re always trying to find money through categorical programs or grant funding.

    Loretta Whitson, executive director of the California Association of School Counselors

    California doesn’t mandate districts to provide school counselors, social workers, nurses or psychologists, but it is encouraged. Some experts say mandates could ensure there would be mental health specialists at every school. But that goes against the idea of local control, Whitson said, which allows districts to make decisions based on their community’s needs and resources. 

    Grants for mental health have helped, but it’s not sustainable, Gordon said. School districts will receive grants for a few years or even less, and when those dollars run out, the services or mental health specialists do too if districts don’t have money to keep them going. 

    Similarly, districts turned to pandemic relief dollars to boost staffing for school counselors, social workers, psychologists and nurses, but those funds expired in September. 

    Nonprofits and community organizations have stepped in to help fill needs at lower costs, put therapists on school campuses, and taken over doing burdensome paperwork. But if the services aren’t free to school districts, then most money for mental health has to come out of the education budget. 

    Blending two systems

    Gordon credits Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Children Youth and Behavioral Health Initiative for beginning to merge the health and education system. The goal for two major systems to come together is reachable, Gordon said, “but it will take a lot of coordination and collaboration.”

    A key component of the behavioral health initiative is to support partnerships between Medi-Cal managed care plans and schools to increase access for children receiving Medi-Cal — nearly 5.7 million kids in 2022. Another goal is to increase access to early interventions and preventative mental and behavioral health care.

    The behavioral health initiative was part of the Budget Act of 2021 and the governor’s Master Plan for Kids’ Mental Health. The California Department of Health Care Services will invest $4.7 billion over multiple years in youth behavioral services.

    According to the master plan, more than 240,000 children cope with depression, and 66% don’t receive treatment. Suicide rates among 10-18-year-olds increased by 20% in 2019-2020.

    Efforts to implement the behavioral health initiative started in January 2022. So far, hundreds of millions of dollars in funding have been disbursed to dozens of organizations for training and retention of providers, loan repayments and scholarships to increase providers in underserved areas.

    But some of the funding is distributed as grants and won’t last long, Whitson said. 

    “I think it’s important to consider: How do we sustain this? A lot of programs come in as temporary programs, so seed money,” Whitson said. “We look at sustainable money as Medi-Cal a lot of times.”

    The amount of money school districts can bill to Medi-Cal recently increased, thanks to new legislation. The California Education Code was updated in January after AB-2058 passed, allowing districts to bill Medi-Cal for mental health services provided by school counselors.

    A 2018 statewide count of school counselors tallied about 11,000, Whitson said. She estimates there are about 14,000 now. 

    “School counselors are one of the biggest billing forces in the state. It should be bringing in quite a bit of money,” Whitson said. “It could be used to lower the caseloads on all levels — social workers, psychologists, school counselors.” 

    However, the process for school districts to bill Medi-Cal can be long and cumbersome. 

    Sometimes districts won’t get a full refund, and it could take a few years before the money is returned, said Marlon Morgan, founder and CEO of Wellness Together, a nonprofit that brings mental health providers to school campuses in California and New York. 

    “Schools are pretty reticent to use that billing option because they could end up spending $1 million but only get $500,000 back,” Morgan said. “If you’re on a school board and looking at ways to stabilize your budget and to know what to expect, that’s a huge wild card, and frankly one that doesn’t get used very often.”

    In Sacramento County, schools are partnering with the Sacramento County Health Department to have one mental health provider at every school, said Gordon, who is also the superintendent of the Sacramento County Office of Education. The partnership works well because the county health departments already manage Medi-Cal and Medicaid plans — which insure more than 60% of people in the county, he added.

    The purpose isn’t only to provide direct services at schools, but to have someone from the health system stationed at schools interacting with staff, students, and families every day, Gordon said. The goal is to have “centers of wellness and prevention, rather than a center of let’s go out and seek treatment for a problem that should’ve been caught many years ago,” he said.

    Some organizations are combining billing insurance and grant funding to bring providers to schools. Campus Clinic, which aims to remove barriers to health care access by putting providers at schools, has brought mental health providers and other physicians to 14 districts and more than 600 schools in California, said Thomas Shaffer, the organization’s founder and president. 

    Most districts haven’t had to foot the bill. Campus Clinic started paying for all the costs, Shaffer said, and was able to sustain its offerings through billing insurance, including Medi-Cal, and applying for grants. One burden Campus Clinic and other similar organizations lift from districts is handling the paperwork and billing.  

    “We aim to complete, not compete, with existing resources,” Shaffer said. 

    Still, the need for mental health services and providers is too great to catch up with demand. Campus Clinic is contracted with 28 more districts that are still in the planning stages, Shaffer said. 

    Campus Clinic also offers universal health screenings that allow schools to quickly identify which students are showing signs of anxiety, depression and risk of self-harm, Shaffer said. Schools can see responses through a dashboard that includes real-time notifications for students who are at risk of self-harm. Campus Clinic has teams that start reaching out to families to offer services. 

    But it doesn’t come without challenges. Building trusting relationships with families so they feel comfortable accepting services can be an uphill battle.

    ‘The cultural and trust piece’

    Officials at Feaster Charter School in Chula Vista saw immediate results after Campus Clinic gave universal mental health screenings to students in grades six through eight in May.

    Out of the 350 students, roughly 40% were identified as having some level of anxiety and depression, said Karen Haro-Esparza, community school coordinator.

    Teams at Campus Clinic started contacting families right away, Haro-Esparza said. Although it’s a huge help, it also created challenges  — “the cultural and trust piece.” 

    “Because they are not a regular part of our staff, when Campus Clinic communicates with families, they have a lot of questions,” Haro-Esparza said.  “Our challenge has been, ‘How do we educate families further to destigmatize and normalize the partnerships?’”

    The stigma around mental health — especially among people of color and different cultures — is one reason families or guardians don’t seek or access resources for students. Something most mental health experts working in education can agree on is the importance of maintaining trust among schools, providers and families. 

    “It’s not just putting money out to buy services. It’s working to try to put the systems together so that they’re relating and families will come to know and trust the medical system even though they aren’t located in their community.”

    David Gordon

    Campus Clinic providers aim to become part of the school community, Shaffer said. One strategy Campus Clinic providers use is to rotate through different classrooms to speak with students about health and wellness for 15 minutes to become more familiar and create connections. 

    Wellness Together is investing in interns to diversify the workforce and build trusting relationships between communities and mental health providers, Morgan said. Before mental health professionals receive their licenses, they need to complete hundreds of hours that typically are unpaid — some programs won’t even allow future providers to have paid internships. 

    Morgan, who started his career as a school counselor, said he’s seen dozens of people never get their licenses because they can’t afford to work for free. It contributes to the lack of diversity in the behavioral health workforce, he said. Now, the nonprofit has more than 30 partnerships with universities in California to ensure interns are paid liveable wages and receive benefits. 

    Wellness Together pays interns working toward their licenses to be social workers, clinical and mental health counselors, licensed marriage and family therapists, and a pupil personnel services credential. 

    “The biggest challenge is finding staff and making sure the staff reflects the communities they’re serving,” Morgan said. “By paying interns and paying associates, we now have an option and an opportunity to really hire the best person for the job and often hire a person who is local and from the community.”





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  • Safety concerns on the rise in LAUSD; Carvalho looks to police

    Safety concerns on the rise in LAUSD; Carvalho looks to police


    Four years after removing district police from individual campuses, the Los Angeles Unified School District has temporarily restored officers to two schools — reviving longstanding debates and dissatisfaction over school policing. 

    Superintendent Alberto Carvalho attempted to restore officers to 20 school sites to make campuses safer, according to a May 13 memo to school board members. Those campuses were chosen based on “relevant safety data.”

    “As we near the end of the school year, we continue to refine our protocols to ensure our schools are safe and welcoming environments for students and staff,” he said in the memo. “It is critical that we are aware of the specific needs of our schools, and respond accordingly.” 

    A day later, amid a backlash, Carvalho’s plan collapsed, with the district limiting police to only two of the 20 schools until the end of the school year because of “heightened activity” in the region: Washington Preparatory High School and Northridge Middle School. At each of the campuses, police could be stationed either all day or during specific times, including dismissal, according to an LAUSD spokesperson.

    The district will decide weekly whether to keep police in place. It is unclear what the district will do next. 

    The district’s own data shows a 45% spike from 2017-18 to 2022-23 in incidents involving suicide risk, fighting/physical aggression, threats, illegal/controlled substances and weapons. And 25% in the year ending 2022-23.

    Weapons incidents rose from 994 to 1,197 in the year ending 2022-23.

    Police were restored to the two campuses after gun incidents. In one, a student died in a shooting a few blocks from Washington Prep. During that incident, a member of the Safe Passage program — which involves community members monitoring routes to and from school to keep students safe — allegedly failed to intervene. 

    Meanwhile, at Northridge Middle School, police came to arrest two students who had brought loaded semi-automatic handguns. Afterward, members of United Teachers Los Angeles rallied in support of student safety, alleging the district failed to issue a lockdown and did not communicate adequately. LAUSD did not respond to the union’s allegations.

    Members of United Teachers Los Angeles rallied in support of student safety at Northridge Middle School in May.
    Credit: Courtesy of UTLA

    “The recent uptick in interest in bringing police back to schools happened because of a few incidents on campuses,” said Amir Whitaker, senior policy counsel at the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) of Southern California. “And, as always, the immediate response is to bring in police — when oftentimes we know the police wouldn’t have prevented the situations in the first place.” Whitaker is also the primary author of a 2021 report titled “No Police in Schools,” which concluded police in schools have “devastating and discriminatory impacts on tens of thousands of California students.”

    How LAUSD is dispatching its police is part of a continuing EdSource investigation that revealed the vast presence of police in K-12 schools in California. EdSource obtained nearly 46,000 call logs from 164 law enforcement agencies for the period January to June 2023. LAUSD’s police department refused to release its data.

    The current debate over school police is part of a longstanding tug-of-war over student safety. Some community members have advocated during board meetings for more law enforcement, while others maintain that school police should be abolished altogether. 

    “There isn’t security on campus, and that obviously affects our children,” said Efigenia Flores, a district parent and member of Our Voice/Nuestra Voz, a group of Latino parents that has consistently advocated in meetings with district officials for an increased police presence, alongside mental health and counseling supports. 

    “This is unacceptable,” she added in Spanish. “That is why we want a clear and transparent plan that incorporates our voice.” 

    According to a recent district safety and school climate presentation, a range of safety concerns have increased across the district in recent years, leaving many parents worried about their children’s well-being and eager for the district to restore a presence on individual campuses. 

    Last Tuesday, a fourth grader at Glassell Park Elementary brought a loaded handgun to school. Nobody was injured, and Principal Claudia Pelayo said in a message to the campus community that the school acted immediately and asked the Los Angeles School Police Department and Region West Operations to investigate.

    “In alignment with our commitment to comprehensive safety measures and as an ongoing practice, we continuously review relevant statistical data and implement enhanced on-campus support from a number of departments within our District as deemed necessary,” a district spokesperson said in a statement to EdSource.

    Uneven access to community-based safety 

    Several community organizations, however, have maintained that law enforcement heightens fears around racial profiling and violence against students of color — and say the district has “really failed to commit to implementing” community-based safety efforts that could help tackle “root causes” of violence, according to Joseph Williams, director of Students Deserve, a community organization focused on “making Black lives matter in schools.”

    Those community efforts include Safe Passage and restorative justice practices, which are designed to help students understand the impact of negative behavior and address underlying challenges that may have caused them to occur in the first place. 

    LAUSD spokesperson Shannon Haber maintained, however, that the district has “really leaned into our safety initiatives and restorative justice practices,” citing efforts to hire more mental health professionals and partnerships to promote safe passage, among other initiatives.

    School board member Tanya Ortiz Franklin has long supported restorative practices in the district — and said the fears Black students experience around police “is not something I want to perpetuate, personally.”  

    “Everybody’s job in the school district is to make sure kids are safe; and, some people think only officers focus on safety,” Ortiz Franklin said in an interview with EdSource.

    “Your teachers are focused on safety, your principals focus on safety, your campus aides are focused on safety — everyone understands that is our primary concern. And so, where we need to improve and grow as a system is not just with one department. It’s with everyone.”

    LAUSD’s current law enforcement landscape 

    In 2020, in the wake of George Floyd’s murder at the hands of police in Minneapolis, LAUSD’s school board voted to cut the district’s Los Angeles School Police Department by 35% and remove police officers from all campuses. 

    The district’s police department saw a $25 million reduction in the 2020-21 budget, including more than $14 million in salaries and over $10 million in overtime pay, according to a Dec. 15, 2020, report by the Board of Education.

    Since then, the district has adopted a “patrol model,” where an officer is assigned to patrol a neighborhood in a car, both before and after the school day. 

    Some officers also patrol during the evenings when there could be potential trespassing or vandalism — and they are often present during evening events, including football games, Ortiz Franklin said.

    If an incident takes place on campus, she said, a school principal or designee can call the police, and the district department has a response time that ranges from three to seven minutes. 

    The district did not disclose how many calls were made to district police over the past several years. 

    “We have public education dollars to spend on teaching kids to get ready for college, career and life; and, if we choose to spend education dollars on law enforcement, that to me feels like a disservice and a missed opportunity,” Ortiz Franklin said, while emphasizing that the district anticipates “dire budget cuts” in the coming years. 

    With incidents on the rise since 2017-18, some parents are asking for more police in schools to keep their children safe. 

    “Because there is no security, this will continue: the distribution of drugs, fights, bullying and sexual harassment,” said Maria Hernandez, a mother of four LAUSD students and a member of Our Voice/Nuestra Voz. 

    “There are many mothers who are saddened by the deaths of their children, and I don’t think they are hoping for more,” she added, speaking in Spanish. 

    Evelyn Aleman, who runs Our Voice/Nuestra Voz, added that “we, as the adults, really have to step in and take charge of the safety of the students.”

    She also questioned whom principals would call in an emergency if there aren’t district police at schools. 

    “They’re going to call LAPD. Do we want the principals doing that?” 

    ‘A visceral response’

    Venice High School senior Lindsey Weatherspoon saw a man in a blue uniform enter her classroom a couple of weeks ago. Aware of allegations that district police had targeted students of color, she panicked. 

    “I could just feel my heart literally beating out my chest — thinking it was wrong, and they’re conducting random searches or something,” Weatherspoon said.

    Fearing police violence, she wondered: “‘Is this going to happen to me? Is this going to happen to one of my friends?” 

    The uniformed person entering the school turned out to be a maintenance worker, but Weatherspoon found it “mind boggling” to have “such a visceral response.”  

    Weatherspoon is part of the ACLU of Southern California’s Youth Liberty Squad, one of many community organizations that has called for an end to school policing altogether — whether by district or municipal law enforcement agencies.

    Several students from these organizations also attend district board meetings and speak out against policing during public comment sections — claiming the district police force has disproportionately profiled and policed students of color and consistently posed a threat to their emotional safety at school.

    Despite being roughly 8% of LAUSD’s population, Black students account for roughly a quarter of arrests, citations and diversions, according to a 2022 report released by the Police Free LAUSD Coalition, a group of community organizations that oppose school policing. 

    “Rather than arresting (students) and pushing them out of our schools, we truly need to find out the root cause of what is really going on with our youth. What is it that’s going on at home? What’s going on mentally, as well?” said Steven Ortega, the director of youth organizing at the East Los Angeles-based non-profit InnerCity Struggle. 

    “We’re not saying, ‘Let’s let young people get away with anything.’ We’re saying that there still needs to be accountability, but more holistically.” 





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  • California tribal college looks to become independent, but financial questions loom

    California tribal college looks to become independent, but financial questions loom


    A California Indian Nations College flag inside the college’s classroom at College of the Desert’s Palm Springs campus.

    Michael Burke/EdSource

    After operating for the last six years as an affiliate of a nearby community college, California Indian Nations College (CINC) appears likely to become the state’s only standalone, fully accredited tribal college. It’s something education experts say would be a boon for Native American students who now start and complete college at lower rates than other ethnic groups.

    But first, money has to be found to ensure the college can survive, let alone expand and build its own campus.

    A two-year and mostly online institution based in the Coachella Valley in Riverside County, the college achieved a big step forward toward its goals recently. It got preliminary approval for accreditation, allowing it to independently offer classes and transferable credits and distribute financial aid. The college expects to have full accreditation within the next year. 

    The college opened its doors in fall 2018 as an extension of UC Riverside for one semester. Since 2019, its degrees have been awarded via a partnership with College of the Desert. Students dually enroll at both campuses, though starting next semester students will be able to enroll solely at CINC and still get an accredited degree.

    College of the Desert also provides classroom space for the tribal college at its temporary Palm Springs campus, made up of a set of trailers. Inside the tribal college’s classroom trailer, visitors can find Native crafts such as dream catchers, fliers with information about transferring to four-year colleges and even a makeshift basic needs center — a filing cabinet with dry food. 

    College of the Desert’s temporary Palm Springs campus, where California Indian Nations College has a classroom.
    Michael Burke/EdSource

    CINC enrolls about 150 students and is planning for many more, but it faces an uncertain future even if it achieves full accreditation. It is running low on money and is asking the state for a $60 million infusion in this year’s budget: $50 million to build its own campus and another $10 million in annual funding for operational costs. 

    Officials say the money is necessary for the college to grow long term and offer a culturally relevant education to Native students who often distrust the U.S. education system. That distrust dates back to the 19th century, when the government began to forcibly send Native children to boarding schools intended to assimilate them, a practice that didn’t end until the late 1960s. 

    “There’s so many of us here who feel a void and think, ‘Who are we?’ So having an institution that’s empowering and teaching us the truth about who we are is really important,” said Mayra Grajeda Nelson, who graduated last year from CINC with an associate degree in sociology and another in social and behavioral sciences. Originally from Banning, Grajeda Nelson now works as a health educator for the Indian Health Council in northern San Diego County.

    The college is not a typical community college governed by the state’s board of governors; instead, even with state funding, it would remain chartered by the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians, a federally recognized tribe in Southern California.

    It would be the only accredited tribal college in the state but not the first. D-Q University operated in Davis from the early 1970s until closing in 2005 after losing accreditation and eligibility for $1 million in federal funding. Across the country, there are more than 30 accredited tribal colleges and universities, spread out across the Southwest, Midwest and other regions. The first tribally controlled college, Diné College in Arizona, was established in 1968 and still operates.

    California has the largest Native population of any state, with a concentration of tribes in the desert regions of Riverside County. Yet, American Indian or Alaska Native individuals have the lowest college-going rate of any racial or ethnic group in the state, according to a report published in December by the California Indian Culture and Sovereignty Center at Cal State San Marcos. 

    “But if you look at American Indian students who go to tribal colleges or universities, they’re four times more likely to earn their bachelor’s degree,” said Shawn Ragan, CINC’s chief operations officer. 

    In a recent report following a campus visit, the accrediting commission praised the tribal college for providing “culturally sensitive, academically rigorous” courses and degrees that incorporate Native American culture and for “fostering an environment where both Indigenous and non-Native students can thrive.” The report found that CINC has “solid financial planning in place for the short-range” and noted that the college is still figuring out its long-term funding planning. Otherwise, the commission found only minor problems that college leaders say will be easy to address, such as requiring the college’s board of trustees to undergo a self-evaluation. 

    California lawmakers, though, have not committed to providing funding this year for CINC, and no funding was included in Gov. Gavin Newsom’s January budget proposal. 

    Assemblymember David Alvarez, chair of the state Assembly’s budget subcommittee on education, said in an interview that he’s supportive of the tribal college and that there is “room for conversation” about funding. But he acknowledged that the timing is not ideal: California’s public universities are facing budget cuts, and it could be difficult to find money for new spending. 

    To date, the state has given CINC $5 million — a one-time funding allocation in 2022 to help the college apply for accreditation.

    Now that the Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges has awarded the college candidacy status, CINC can also apply for federal funding, but that too is an uncertainty under the Trump administration. President Donald Trump recently rescinded a White House initiative aimed at strengthening tribal colleges. His proposed federal funding freeze, currently blocked by the courts, would also prevent the colleges from getting federal grants and contracts. The Trump administration’s hostility to any programs promoting racial diversity could also have a chilling effect and make it harder for those colleges to secure funding. 

    CINC previously received $9 million in seed money from the Twenty-Nine Palms Band of Mission Indians. Most of that has been spent, and the college is now surviving off its reserves, which should last for at least the next year. 

    Open to both Native and non-Native students, the college mostly uses part-time faculty and offers associate degrees in sociology and liberal arts. Students in the liberal arts program can pick one of three concentrations: arts and humanities, business and technology or social and behavioral sciences.

    Students at California Indian Nations College’s 2024 graduation ceremony
    Courtesy of California Indian Nations College

    In addition to courses specific to their major, students are required to take general education classes as well as six units for a Native American breadth requirement. For that requirement, they choose between courses such as Native American literature, Native performing arts and Native languages. 

    Most classes are online, but the college often holds in-person events, including cultural workshops like basket weaving. There are also talking circles, an Indigenous practice similar to group therapy. Many of the events are led by Kim Marcus, the college’s Elder in Residence and an enrolled Tribal Elder with the Santa Rosa Band of Cahuilla Indians.

    Grajeda Nelson, the recent graduate, enrolled at CINC in 2023, more than a decade after first enrolling in college at Crafton Hills College in Yucaipa. She also attended Mount San Jacinto College, but didn’t receive a degree from either institution. 

    With some credits carrying over from her previous stops, she was able to finish two associate degrees within one year at CINC. During that time, she found the talking circles especially helpful to share her past challenges and get support from people with similar experiences.

    “That’s how the Native community is. There’s that closeness and support because we’re all kind of dealing with very similar challenges, especially with intergenerational trauma, substance usage, depression, poverty,” she said. “So having that space gives us time to process those emotions so we don’t have to walk away and feel that grief.” 

    Kristina Glass, whose family is part of the Cherokee Nation, did make it to and through a non-tribal college, having graduated from Cal State Long Beach in 2014 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology. 

    In debt and laid off from her job as a graphic designer, Glass last year decided to return to college. She’s pursuing an associate degree in Spanish language from College of the Desert and has been taking general education classes at CINC, including Native American literature. 

    As a student at Cal State Long Beach, Glass said she felt isolated because she didn’t meet any other Native students. Her experience at CINC has been much better. Just hearing Native American blessings, performed before events on campus, regularly brings her to tears. “It’s special, because you feel that connection to this land and these people,” she said. 

    Faculty try to incorporate elements of Native culture into the curriculum, even in courses that aren’t part of the Native breadth requirement. Roseanne Rosenthal, an anthropology professor, instructs students to learn about the history of their tribes from elders in their communities.

    “Having students going back and bringing that knowledge into the classroom, I think is great,” said Rosenthal, the college’s only full-time faculty member.  

    If the college can secure more funding, officials plan to add additional full-time faculty and new associate degrees including in business, engineering and food sovereignty.

    At the top of their wish list, though, is their own campus, which would take a few years to build. In the meantime, the college will continue to use the College of the Desert facility and UC Riverside’s Palm Desert campus, where CINC’s administration is housed. 

    Ragan said the college is still looking at potential sites for a permanent campus but expects to stay in Riverside County. He said having a campus would “enable students to come together and build community” by having more in-person events and classes and would allow the college to offer more vocational training.

    He added that the college is looking into additional funding possibilities, such as from other tribes, but said the state “is the best option right now.” 

    “What we’re asking for, it’s not a large amount. So ideally we’ll have some wiggle room and can get us added to the budget,” he said. “California has a tremendous need for tribal colleges. What we’re doing is historic and is going to change lives.”





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