Pilot Program 2026

Overview and Purpose

According to data from the Loving Cities Index 2025 – Sacramento, this city is a community deeply committed to its young people but facing serious gaps in the supports that schools need to help students thrive. Sacramento’s schools operate under significant staffing and capacity limitations, including too few counselors, mental health providers, and instructional aides (only 1.5 support staff per 100 students), limited access to advanced coursework, and inequitable access to gifted and rigorous programs. High levels of student poverty (72 percent), low early childhood enrollment (45 percent), and unstable economic conditions such as only 39 percent of families earning a livable wage and 0 percent of low-income households living near high-frequency transit place enormous pressure on schools to serve as the primary safety net for children and families. These challenges create conditions where educators are expected to do more with fewer staff, fewer resources, and shrinking budgets, even as student needs increase.

At the same time, Sacramento demonstrates strong commitment to student-centered policies, including low suspensions and expulsions, restorative practices, and robust anti-bullying measures, but the district lacks the funding and personnel to fully execute these approaches across all schools. The Loving Cities report makes clear that Sacramento has the will to support its children but not the capacity or budget to meet the level of need present in classrooms and communities. This is exactly where the Sacramento Education Fund is critically needed: to bring in supplemental staffing, invest in enrichment and advanced learning opportunities, expand early childhood access, strengthen mental health and wellness supports, and provide the flexible funding that schools cannot generate on their own. In a moment when schools are stretched thinner than ever, the Sacramento Education Fund (Sac Ed Fund) offers the community’s most powerful tool to close gaps, accelerate equity, and ensure that every child in Sacramento has the resources and opportunities needed to thrive.

The Sac Ed Fund Pilot Program was developed to test out the newly-founded organization’s programmatic approach to serving local public schools in Sacramento City Unified School District (SCUSD). The initial offerings in the pilot program were determined through partnership with SCUSD community schools, in particular with the District School Site Leads and District Community Schools Specialist. Input was collected through surveys to school site leads and analyzed in order to surface common themes and priorities that emerged from the experiences and perspectives of those closest to school community members including teachers, students, and their families. The pilot will roll out the following programs in order of timeline and funding priority:

  • Teachers Choose (Classroom Grants)
  • School Volunteers
  • PTA Connection

Goals

Goals for Teachers Choose

  1. Award three classroom grants totaling $15,000 ($5,000 per grant) to SCUSD community school classrooms at participating pilot sites.
  2. Measure the teacher experience, including ease of integrating the grant process into classroom planning and instructional practice.
  3. Measure the impact of each grant-funded project on students, using metrics that correspond to the chosen project. These may include the number of students reached, academic growth indicators, improved sense of classroom community, development of specific social-emotional skills, or access to new project-based or experiential learning opportunities.

Goals for School Volunteers

  1. Recruit, screen, train, and place six school volunteers across three SCUSD community school classrooms at participating pilot sites.
  2. Implement six ongoing volunteer projects (such as classroom preparation, small-group instructional support, or after-school homework help) and one volunteer event (such as a campus beautification day, field trip support, book fair assistance, or end-of-year classroom closeout).
  3. Measure the impact of volunteer engagement using metrics such as total hours contributed, volunteer consistency, number of students supported, academic or behavioral improvements linked to additional support, and classroom projects or events made possible through volunteer involvement.

Goals for PTA Connection

  1. Establish a schedule of quarterly participation in PTA meetings to report on pilot progress and gather questions, insights, and feedback from families.
  2. Create a structured feedback process that enables PTA members to develop one to three recommendations for the Ed Fund to consider for implementation in 2027.

Evaluation

The Ed Fund will conduct program evaluation using surveys, grant forms, and interviews. Data collected will be analyzed to address the following questions for each program:

  • How can the teacher experience be improved in terms of efficiency and support?
  • How can the student experience be enhanced for relevance, engagement, and care?
  • How can family engagement be improved through clearer communication and greater accessibility?
  • What were the overall costs associated with program implementation?
  • Which stakeholders were not involved but should have been?
  • What factors contributed to the program’s success?
  • How can these success factors be adapted to different school contexts, considering school size, student population, geography, and available resources (e.g., grant amounts, number of classrooms supported, volunteer capacity, PTA size)?
  • What partnerships enabled these programs, and where are gaps that need new or strengthened partnerships?

Final Report and Next Steps

At the conclusion of the pilot program in February 2027, the Ed Fund will produce a comprehensive report summarizing the successes, challenges, strengths, and opportunities identified through the pilot. The report will include actionable recommendations for program continuation, restructuring, and scaling beyond pilot schools. Recommendations will prioritize schools based on community school status, Title I designation, and district input on which schools should receive programming in 2027 and beyond.