US: Eight Years After Federal Law to Improve School Stability for Foster Youth, States Still Scrambling
Imprint – February 21, 2023
Children taken into foster care suffer many losses: The loss of their parents. The loss of their homes and sibling bonds. Sometimes the loss of their traditions, culture, and kinship networks. There’s another foundation frequently wrenched from beneath them as well: schools, which can be a child’s central source of safety and stability. In 2015, for the first time, Congress took that need seriously, completing a long-awaited update to a federal education law regulating school funding. The updated law, known as the Every Student Succeeds Act, included a provision that cemented foster children’s right to remain in their school of origin, even if they change homes and move out of the district. It also required child welfare agencies and education departments to work together on reducing the number of school transfers. Eight years later, however, many states have fallen short on implementing that provision of the law. And the pandemic has only exacerbated one of the biggest logistical challenges: finding and paying for enough buses and drivers to transport the children from foster homes to their original schools. Education and child welfare experts who are familiar with the inner workings of the Every Student Succeeds Act say these woes are emblematic of a larger issue with the federal reform that precedes COVID-19 – its absent enforcement, reliable funding, and accountability.
https://imprintnews.org/top-stories/eight-years-after-federal-law-to-improve-school-stability-for-foster-youth-states-still-scrambling/238809