Foster Care Youth
Student Well-Being & Movement
Teens Released From Foster Care Too Early, Report Says
States should extend foster-care services to youths until age 21 because young adults who leave the child-welfare system at 18 face steeper challenges in becoming independent adults than those who stay in foster care, a national study unveiled last week says.
School & District Management
Study: Foster Children Often Trail Their Peers in School
Foster children in the Chicago public schools tend to fall behind their peers early in their school careers and remain at risk for educational failure throughout their teenage years, a study released last week by the University of Chicago concludes.
Education
Report Roundup
Foster Care
Children adrift in the nation’s foster-care system can find safety, permanence, and security with grandparents and other caregivers as an alternative to remaining in such care, a study suggests.
School & District Management
Foster-Care Children Are Poorly Educated, 3-State Study Charges
The future of young people who "age out" of foster care is severely compromised because they lack strong academic backgrounds, concludes a three- state study of 17-year-olds ready to leave the system.
Student Well-Being & Movement
Academic Fate of Foster Children Gaining More Attention
Although the educational needs of children in foster care have generally not received the level of attention that many experts say they should, efforts to change that situation appear to be growing around the country.
Special Education
Mass. Districts Feeling Pinch of Foster Youths Moved to New Schools
Massachusetts school systems saddled with the rising costs of serving foster children who transfer from other districts may soon get some financial relief.
Education
Casey Grants To Target Foster Care, Mental-Health Services
The Annie E. Casey Foundation announced last month that it will award more than $28 million to two initiatives designed to help states improve their foster-care systems and mental-health services for low-income children.
Education
High Court Ruling Limits Right To Sue in Foster-Care Cases
The U.S. Supreme Court last week ruled 7 to 2 that a federal child-welfare law does not give children in state foster care a private right to sue in federal court to improve state services or conditions.
Education
Bill Would Focus On Prevention of Foster Placement
Washington--Maintaining that "the system that should deal with families in crisis is itself in crisis," Representative Thomas J. Downey, Democrat of New York, introduced a bill last week that would reorient child-welfare services toward preventing foster-care placements.
Education
Foster Youths Said To Get Little Help With Educational Deficits
Rather than pointing a finger at the foster-care system, experts acknowledge that the abuse and neglect that many foster children suffer in their family lives before entering foster care are at the root of the educational and social problems they face in school.
Education
Foster-Care Reforms Often Ignore Problems Children Face in School
To understand the emotional quandary that many foster children face, picture a piece of tape, Robert Ayasse, a social worker in Contra Costa County, Calif., says.
Education
In Calif. Districts, Foster-Youth Program Helps Rescue 'Throw-Away Students'
Under normal circumstances, Marcie Miller, vice principal of Olympic High School here, would have recommended that the transfer of a student who was returned to school by police after repeated truancy be revoked.
Education
U.S. Court Declares Foster-Care System In District of Columbia Unconstitutional
In what experts say is the first ruling of its kind, a federal judge has declared the District of Columbia's foster-care system unconstitutional.