educational stability

  California advocates are hoping a new piece of legislation can prevent the educational disruption of children in foster care by opening up funding for children living with relatives in emergency placement situations.

We’re counting down 10 of the biggest stories The Imprint published in 2018. Each day, we’ll connect readers with a few links to our coverage on a big story from 2018.

Earlier this month, a Rhode Island state senator introduced a bill that would compel the state’s foster care agency to split the cost of transporting foster youth to school with the education system.

Danielle DeMaison woke before sunrise one foggy morning last April and loaded her two daughters into her 2013 Hyundai Santa Fe. Even though the cornstalk-lined roads around her little hamlet of Sanborn on the western edge of New York state were mostly empty, it took DeMaison four hours to get her biological and foster daughters to their separate schools.

As “back to school” sales hit stores across the country, many youth in foster care are facing the anxiety and uncertainty of starting “yet another” new school — a reality many will face throughout the school year as they move from one new foster, kinship, or group home to another.

Today, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a pilot program to ensure that students in foster care have transportation to their so-called “school of origin.” The stopgap measure was designed to bring the county’s 81 school districts into compliance with a federal education law aimed at promoting the educational stability of children in foster care.

Despite a long history of supporting foster youth’s academic success, California failed to comply with a federal deadline requiring all states to submit plans on how to pay for those students’ transportation to school.

When it comes to their children’s education, Donald Trump and Barack Obama are in lockstep. Both understand that uprooting a child from school can impede educational achievement, and disrupt fragile social and emotional development.

Describes the challenges faced by youth who moved from foster care to independence in cities across the country, and illustrates the need for family and informal support networks, preparation for household and financial management, and youth participation in planning.