California lawmakers are hoping to significantly boost funding over the next few years for a program aimed at supporting students and their families who are new to the U.S.
Newcomer students — those who are born outside of the country, have arrived recently and are new to the U.S. school system — are served through the California Newcomer Education and Well-Being program. The program funds English language development, specific instructional programs and courses for newcomer students and professional development for educators serving newcomer students, among other things.
The legislature’s budget plan, which was approved June 15 but has not been signed by the governor as of early Friday afternoon, included a $350 million investment into the CalNEW program, administered statewide by 20 school districts and the Los Angeles County Office of Education.
The $350 million included in the legislature’s budget plan would fund the program through 2032.
It had received $6.9 million annually from the state to split amongst the school districts and the Los Angeles County Office of Education for the past few years. But this year, legislators opted to ensure school districts would be getting a piece of a much larger pie.
About 237,000 newcomer students enrolled in schools across the state last year, according to Assemblymember Matt Haney, D-San Francisco. California, he said, is home to the largest population of immigrant and newcomer students in the country.
Two of those school districts that utilize CalNEW are in Orange County: Garden Grove Unified and Santa Ana Unified.
In Garden Grove Unified, 59% of all enrolled students speak another language, said Lorena Luna Sanchez, assistant superintendent of K-12 educational services for the district.
Garden Grove Unified operates five resource centers for families in its district to connect them with direct services or services from partners in the community.
A variety of services are provided, Sanchez said, depending on a family’s needs. Those could include emergency needs, food assistance, healthcare or housing support, as well as providing parents with legal resources and mental health counseling for them and their children, the district says.
When newcomer families look for help, Sanchez said, a full-time liaison connects them with district staff who speak the same language to help them find services to address basic needs, such as clothing, food or school supplies. This liaison position is funded by the CalNEW program, she said.
CalNEW funding also helps the district’s family resource centers host workshops for parents on topics like technology literacy.
And if a family needs something outside of what the district already offers, Sanchez said, the liaison connects families with community organizations, such as for mental health resources or to aid with housing insecurity.
The CalNEW funding also helps Garden Grove Unified hire part-time tutors or instructional aides.
Support for these newcomer students and their families is needed now more than ever, Sanchez said, as the ramp-up of immigration enforcement in Garden Grove under the Trump administration has made many families in the community fearful.
“If they need an attorney or they have a situation and they don’t know where to turn to, they don’t know who to trust, we connect them with our trusted partners who look out for our parents and who can guide them,” Sanchez said.
“Services like that help the parents navigate the American system, whether it’s an education, or knowing their rights, or mental health services, and just supporting them through stressful situations, as it has been shown very recently,” she added.
According to data provided by Garden Grove Unified staff, the number of newcomer families served in the 2025-2026 school year was 653, down from the 1,184 families served the year prior.
However, despite the drop, the amount of services provided at the district’s five family resource centers remained relatively unchanged: over 2,000 services were provided through the district’s five family resource centers in both the 2025-2026 and 2024-2025 school years.
That data reflects all families who engage with the district’s resource centers, not just newcomer families, however.
Still, Sanchez said those services are even more crucial for newcomer families, particularly now.
CalNEW is the state’s only funding source dedicated specifically to the needs of new immigrant students, said Sen. Sasha Renée Pérez, D-Pasadena, who was among the legislators championing the budget boost.
“As California is home to more newcomer students than any other state,” Pérez said, “it’s critical that we invest in the academic, mental health and language support needed so each student and their family can get adjusted and thrive.”
CalNEW initially began as a three-year pilot endeavor in 2017, said Sam Finn, director of newcomer policy and practice for Californians Together, an advocacy coalition that supports high-quality education for multilingual learners.
The initial idea was to support schools and serve newcomer students during the first Trump administration.
The funding increase proposed in the state legislature’s budget plan would help to better resource the school districts already in CalNEW, Finn said, while also allowing for more school districts across the state to join the program.
Martha Hernandez, Californians Together’s executive director, said CalNEW serves around 30% of the state’s newcomer students. With the increased funding, the state program would be able to serve all of them.
Assemblymember Avelino Valencia, D-Anaheim, whose district encompasses the Santa Ana Unified School District, said the proposed $350 million allocation for services statewide is a “worthwhile investment” into students and families building their future here in California.
“Every child in California deserves the chance to learn, thrive and feel like they belong in their classroom, no matter where they were born. As the son of immigrants who worked hard to build a life and a future here, I know what it means for a family to find its footing in a new community, and I know how much it matters when schools meet students where they are,” Valencia said.
An agreement on the state’s budget will have to be reached between the legislature and Gov. Gavin Newsom by the end of the month, as California’s fiscal year begins July 1. The legislature’s budget plan, AB 109, was passed on June 15.
Funding for the program, administered by the state’s Department of Social Services, comes from one-time Proposition 98 general fund dollars, according to a June 11 floor report by the state Assembly’s budget committee.