Breaking: Departments of Education and HHS Release New Guidance on Foster Children #FosterCare

The U. S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services today released guidance to states, school districts and child welfare agencies on the new provisions in the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) for supporting children in foster care. The guidance aims to assist state and local partners in understanding and implementing the new law, and to inform state and local collaboration between educational and child welfare agencies across the nation for the well-being of children in foster care. The guidance is the first the Department of Education is releasing regarding provisions of the Every Student Succeeds Act, in the coming weeks and months to help states, districts and schools as the implement the new law. In addition, the Education Department is also releasing a letter to states and districts stressing the importance and utility of stakeholder engagement as they begin to transition to ESSA.

Of the approximately 400,000 children and youth in foster care, nearly 270,000 children in foster care are school-aged. Data show that foster youth are more likely than their peers to experience a host of barriers that lead to troubling outcomes, including low academic achievement, grade retention and lower high school graduation rates. Children in foster care often face steep challenges to school success, including high rates of mobility. The new protections for children in foster care under ESSA will apply to all children in foster care enrolled in public schools.

The guidance released today builds upon a new focus in ESSA on the unique needs of foster youth and will equip local partners with an essential tool for implementing the new foster care provisions in ESSA successfully by December 10, 2016.

The guidance, which is not binding and doesn’t impose any new requirements beyond those in the law and regulations, provides clarity in the form of detailed frequently asked questions and answers, touching upon the following key features:

• The importance of the new educational stability requirements;
• The statutory requirement that a child in foster care remains in his or her original school, if it’s in his or her best interest;
• Procedures for jointly determining with the child welfare agency which school is in a child’s best interest to attend;
• Procedures for resolving disputes that may arise over the best interest determination and school placement;
• Transportation procedures developed jointly to maintain children in foster care in their original schools;
• The transfer of relevant records;
• Foster care points of contact for states, districts and child welfare agencies
• Protecting student data and privacy; and
• Best practices and suggestions for interagency collaboration on these issues

You can read the guidance document here.  The press release is available here.