Children in foster care cannot be allowed to fall through cracks in education system

Each year, approximately 800,000 children spend time in the U.S. foster care system due to abuse or neglect. Many are taken from their families and communities and placed in a system that is designed to protect and care for them but that is often overwhelmed and under-supported. Mounting pressure to ensure the safety of children in foster care, coupled with a dearth of safe and appropriate foster family homes and other supports needed to serve families and children, the educational needs of children often fall by the wayside.

As children are moved from one placement to another, there are generally new schools, new teachers, new classmates and new curriculums to navigate — if they are enrolled in school at all.  This is particularly troubling in light of research that demonstrates that school stability is an important factor in school success. A child’s school environment plays a key role in a child’s social and academic development by establishing positive relationships with supportive teachers, school-based counselors, and classmates. These types of relationships cultivate in children and youth a sense of support and a desire to achieve. For foster youth, these relationships also can provide a measure of protection from the disruption and uncertainty associated with out-of-home placements.

If we, as temporary parents of children in foster care, were graded on how we are doing to meet their educational needs, the emerging research would serve as a stinging indictment of our failure.  Only 54 percent of foster youth earn a high school diploma. Although most teens in foster care — 70 percent — say they want to attend college, only 35 percent actually do attend college, with only 3 percent graduating.

With the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, we have the opportunity to dramatically improve the educational outcomes for children and youth in foster care. The McKinney-Vento Homeless Assistance Act, which is embedded in ESEA, is designed to address the unique education needs of highly mobile children and youth. The law currently restricts the McKinney-Vento protections to a subset of children involved in foster care — those “awaiting foster care placement.” Unfortunately, states vary widely both in how they define this phrase and in what protections they offer to this population. As a result, many children and youth in the foster care system have no federal protections that guarantee education stability, immediate enrollment in schools, the timely transfer of records or other necessary services and supports. With this reauthorization, we must ensure that states apply educational laws related to children without permanent homes equally, rather than allowing geographical happenstance to determine critical educational protections and services.

We have a responsibility to ensure that the educational needs of children in our care due to abuse and neglect are met. Barbara Jordan once said, “Education is the key to both economic and political empowerment.” Congress must work to enact policies to protect the access of all children to this gateway to success.

Davis is a member of the House Education and Labor Committee and co-chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus Education Task Force.

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