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H.R. 3087, the Education Stability for Foster Youth Act

July 16, 2015

H.R. 3087, the Education Stability for Foster Youth Act

Congressman Danny K. Davis and Congresswoman Karen Bass

In the ongoing national effort to provide better opportunities for the nearly 400,000 young people in the U.S. foster care system, Congressman Danny K. Davis (D-IL) and Congresswoman Karen Bass (D-CA) introduced the Education Stability for Foster Youth Act, legislation that would address some of the education challenges foster youth face when they enter the foster care system and are forced to change homes and schools or school districts.

Recent studies have found that school aged children in foster care experience on average over three placements, often forcing them to change schools when they change homes. Studies have consistently concluded that foster youth change schools more often than students not in the foster care system, and children who change schools frequently make less academic progress than their peers. One of the biggest reasons foster youth face delays in enrolling in school when they are initially placed in foster care or when they change homes is lost or misplaced school records. A study in New York City found that 42 percent of foster youth experienced a delay in school enrollment while in foster care, and nearly half experienced a delay because of lost or misplaced records. Unfortunately, the problem is not unique to New York City.

The Education Stability for Foster Youth Act will address several of the obstacles experienced by young people by:

  • Ensuring that foster youth can remain in their current school when they enter care or change placements when doing so is in their best interest;

  • Allowing immediate enrollment in a new school, prompt access to educational records, and assistance in transferring and recovering credits to remain on track for graduation, if a change in school is in the student’s best interest;

  • Assuring a point of contact for foster youth within the education system when such a contact exists in the corresponding child welfare agency;

  • Requiring local school districts and child welfare agencies to work together to ensure funding for transportation exists to allow students to remain in their schools of origin and to remove negative effects of unreliable transportation; and

· Mandating that the Department of Education and Health and Human Services report on the progress made in and remaining barriers to addressing educational stability.

Since 2008, child welfare agencies have been required to collaborate with school districts to ensure educational stability for children in foster care. But the fact is that this collaboration is more likely to happen if there are similar obligations for collaboration imposed on both the child welfare agency and the school district. Education Stability for Foster Youth Act simply requires collaboration between the school district and child welfare agency on commonsense steps that promote the educational opportunity for foster youth.

Issues:Education