Every child deserves to grow up safe, supported, and surrounded by people who are equipped to help — not systems that fail them when they need help most. I know this firsthand: my siblings and I were part of the DCFS system growing up, and I remember what it felt like to sit in Children's Court, uneasy and always expecting the worst. My grandmother took us in and with the support of our state’s social services, our family had the resources to grow up in a safe and familiar environment. That experience shapes how I think about foster care, child services, and the safety net families rely on every day.

As State Senator, my approach has three parts:

Foster care that supports families instead of just monitoring them. I will push for state investment in prevention and reunification services — parenting support, housing assistance, and mental health care — so that removal is a last resort, not a first response. For young people who do enter the system, I will fight to strengthen extended foster care support past age 18, expand tuition waivers and housing stipends for foster youth in college, and require trauma-informed training for everyone who interacts with these kids, from caseworkers to court staff.

As LA Mayor’s Director of County and Regional Affairs, I led the first Los Angeles Foster Youth Shadow Day at City Hall, giving foster youth delegates a real seat at the table to advocate for the policies that affect their own lives — that's the type of community empowerment I'll bring to Sacramento.

Social workers who are funded and supported. Social worker turnover and burnout directly hurt outcomes for kids. I will advocate for adequate state funding for county child welfare staffing and training, so social workers have manageable caseloads and can build real relationships with the families they serve instead of just processing files.

A "no wrong door" approach to social services. Too many families don't get help not because they're ineligible, but because the system is impossible to navigate — different agencies, different forms, no one to walk them through it. I will work to fund and expand benefits navigators and multilingual case management, embedded in schools, health clinics, and community organizations, so families don't need a law degree to access CalFresh, Medi-Cal, child care subsidies, or housing assistance.

I will fight to protect programs families depend on to stay afloat, and work to expand the ones that keep kids safely with the families who love them.