Funding struggles put Healthy Start in unhealthy position

Local Healthy Start programs are scrambling to survive the state's budget crisis.

The programs, which provide counseling and tutoring to poor children and help their families meet basic needs, often have to scrounge for funds to keep afloat. Now they may be unable to count on help from sources whose own funds are being cut as the state wrestles with an estimated $9 billion deficit.

Most Healthy Start centers are at elementary schools. In addition to academic support, they often provide students with supplies, uniforms, backpacks, hygiene kits and other items. They help parents find English classes, food banks, clothes closets, medical care, housing assistance, even referrals for domestic violence programs.

The goal? Remedy anything that might be getting in the way of the child's academic success.

"Some of our kids often come to school late or unprepared, or they haven't eaten," said Julie Kaufman, who runs a Healthy Start center at Sacramento City Unified's Bret Harte Elementary. "Kids come to school with their toes hanging out of shoes, in highwaters (pants short in the hem), in pajamas with slippers on. They don't have tools or backpacks, so we give them a backpack or a new shirt. … You see a smile on their faces."

She told of a child who came to her in second grade with problems stemming from a parent's drug use. Kaufman said the boy's grandmother stepped up to care for him, but had few resources.

The center helped her navigate the legal system to get guardianship, then helped her find counseling, mentoring and health insurance for the boy.

"This was a child people were looking at as emotionally disturbed," Kaufman said. "He was going to be sent (away)."

The boy is still at Bret Harte, doing well in fourth grade.

Since its launch in 1991, Healthy Start has served more than 1 million children in nearly 1,400 schools statewide.

Healthy Start districts receive state seed money for up to the first five years of their programs, but when those grants finish, they have to cobble together the funds to stay afloat. Common strategies include applying for state and foundation grants, Medi-Cal reimbursement dollars or federal money earmarked for needy kids.

Districts tap into general funds or get more creative when these tactics still leave them strapped.

"Part of why Healthy Start is at such risk this year is because I get a lot of funding from principals (whose schools host Healthy Start centers)," said Barbara Kronick, director of Support Service for Sacramento City Unified.

The district, which launched Healthy Start in 1992, has 19 centers and 11 coordinators. This year, the $2.7 million program has served more than 12,000 children.

Principals support their centers with funds from various sources, Kronick said. But in this lean year, she doesn't know what help – if any – principals will be able to provide.

"It's like a trickle-down effect," she said.

And it's about to become more of a struggle.

Bracing for a dismal budget year, many districts have sent cautionary pink slips to employees who run or support Healthy Start centers. Sacramento City Unified sent notices to a third of its Healthy Start staff members; Elk Grove, which started the program in 1993, gave pink slips to 10 of 12 staff members.

Things could get worse, said David Vollmar, Elk Grove's director of student support and health services. The district faces a $25 million budget shortfall for the 2008-09 school year.

If the shortfall remains, the district could lose all its Healthy Start centers and staff, he said.

"It's not fluff," said Kronick, who is Kaufman's supervisor. "We provide mental health services (in tandem) with the county, partner with the Department of Human Assistance to help families on welfare. We have a very strong partnership with Sac State – over 30 social work interns."

It's not just about losing the funding, but about losing the ability to leverage all those services, Kronick said.

"In the end, it's for the kids, so they can do better in school."

The River Delta Unified School District has just one Healthy Start center, down the road from Bates Elementary in Courtland.

Holly Pauls, a registered nurse and the Healthy Start coordinator, has run the $450,000-a-year program since 1999.

It serves about 1,200 children annually, more than half the district's population. Many, but not all, are children of farmworkers.

The River Delta center survives on Medi-Cal reimbursements, private grants and local donations, unreliable sources sometimes called "soft money." Over the years, Pauls, the only full-time staffer, has cut the center's days from five to three.

"I love my community," Pauls said. "We provide a great service and our families are very empowered, but I am burnt out on soft money. There are no resources out here, and once we close our doors, I don't know where people will go."

The center hands out food baskets and warm clothes. It provides tutors for children and translators for parent-teacher conferences, medical visits and income tax documents. It also offers transportation in an area where there's no grocery, doctor or dentist for miles around.

"If they take away this program, we will die," said Araceli Alcantar, who has two sons, Eric, 11, and Jose, 9. "Where will we run for help?"

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