The need for specific college programming aimed at supporting juvenile justice impacted students has been a key advocacy focus for the Youth Law Center. Through this advocacy, legislation and funding for the creation of Juvenile Justice Rising Scholars programs has been implemented through the partnership of the California Community College Chancellor’s Office and Youth Law Center.
This year, as with last year, the California State Budget for 2025-2026 includes funding for the Rising Scholars Network, which aims to expand access to higher education for students impacted by the justice system. While Governor Newsom’s initial budget proposal for 2025-2026 included $30 million in ongoing funding to expand the Rising Scholars Network, the May revision to the budget reduced this proposed funding for the Rising Scholars Network to $10 million in ongoing funds, and the revised amount was ultimately included in the new state budget. With this new funding, the Rising Scholars Network’s annual budget will increase from $25 million to $35 million.
“With increased investment, colleges can strengthen or launch programs that support academic achievement, ease reentry transitions, enable transfer, and create pathways to livable wage careers—continuing our collective work to build opportunities for justice-impacted students.” – Rising Scholars Network
We are thrilled our advocacy through our Pathways to Higher Education for Juvenile Justice Impacted Youth project has scored another victory in expanding access to, and success in, postsecondary education for young people in the juvenile justice system in California. We launched this project in 2018 to ensure justice involved youth have meaningful pathways to college and career. Through envisioning community colleges as both institutions of learning and powerful alternatives to incarceration where youth can access opportunity, our advocacy is heavily influencing this highly effective juvenile justice intervention that is tangibly rehabilitative, offers youth a pathway to economic freedom, re-entry and diversion, and can protect youth from entering the adult criminal justice system.