"Foster Care" means substitute care for children placed by the Department of Human Services or a tribal child welfare agency away form their parents and for whom the department or agency has placement and care responsibility, including placements in foster family homes, foster homes of relatives, group homes, emergency shelters, residential facilities, child care institutions and pre-adoptive homes.
Children in foster care experience much higher levels of residential and school instability than their peers. Children experiencing this type of instability, including may students in foster care, are thus more likely to face a variety of academic difficulties. Unplanned school changes may be associated with delays in children's academic progress, leaving highly mobile students potentially more likely to struggle academically and fall behind than their less mobile peers academically. Student in foster care at age 17 are also less likely to graduate from high school.
Educational stability is a key component in a foster care student's success. At the federal and state level, laws have been passed that require local and state child welfare and education agencies to fully and faithfully understand an implement legislation focusing on continuity and stability in a foster care student's education.
Contact: Kevin Blanco,
Foster Care Point of Contact
503-835-0518
