State Legislation
Students in foster care face many barriers to educational success that can be addressed through multi-strategy approaches at the federal state and local levels. One of these strategies includes passing and implementing state legislation to support the needs of students in foster care. This brief highlights critical education topical areas in which states can pass legislation to improve educational experiences and outcomes and provides an example in each category. While we acknowledge that there can often be other state legislation not specific to child welfare involvement that can have a positive impact on students in foster care, this series will focus on state legislation specifically addressing the education of students involved with the child welfare system.
State Examples
ENSURING SCHOOL STABILITY AND PROPER ESSA IMPLEMENTATION
Arizona SB 1205 (2023): Lists the individuals who should be consulted and factors to be considered when making a best interest determination; clarifies transportation responsibilities among agencies for children in care; requires data collection related to education stability.
All states have been working on implementation of the school stability provisions found in ESSA since 2015. Several of those states have passed state laws to advance these implementation efforts. State legislation trends have emerged to:
Codify best practices for best interest determinations.
Ensure transportation is arranged, provided, and funded.
Establish child welfare and education state and local points of contact and ensure they have the necessary training and capacity.
Establish dispute resolution protocols to quickly resolve disagreements between agencies while minimizing disruption to a student’s education.
Promote collaboration between education and child welfare agencies.
ADDRESSING EDUCATION THROUGH CHILD WELFARE COURTS
Idaho code § 16-1622: For permanency plans and hearings, requires the department to document, and the court to inquire as to the efforts made to ensure educational stability for the child, including the efforts made to keep the child in the school in which the child is enrolled at the time of placement or that remaining in the school is not in the child's best interests.
Courts oversee a child’s foster care placement. This oversight needs to include a focus on the child’s well-being, including their education stability and success. State legislation trends have emerged to:
Require courts to inquire about and consider a child’s education in child welfare proceedings.
Require courts to appoint or identify educational decisionmakers (EDMs) for children.
CLEARLY IDENTIFIED EDUCATIONAL DECISION MAKERS (EDMS)
Washington RCW 13.34.045: Requires an educational liaison for students in grades 6-12 to be identified at each hearing in the dependency process. The liaison is presumed to be the youth’s parent, and if they cannot serve as the liaison, it is preferred to be a relative or someone known to the youth. This person should be committed to providing ongoing educational supports for the youth.
Students in foster care need to have a clearly identified educational decision maker throughout their time in care. This often remains with the parent, but at times another individual may need to be appointed. State legislation trends have emerged to:
Respect parental rights by retaining their educational decision-making authority when appropriate.
Ensure clear appointment and identification protocols are in place.
Require and provide training.
Ensure kinship caregivers have the necessary authority to participate in educational decisions for children in their care.
DATA COLLECTION AND INFORMATION SHARING
Michigan HB 4677 (2024): Requires the child welfare and education departments to provide an annual report with data including the number of children in foster care and data about that group regarding school stability, discipline, absenteeism, test scores, special education, and graduation.
A critical multi-system strategy to support students in foster care is to improve information sharing and data collection across systems. State legislation trends have emerged to: Collect data about students on foster care across a range of outcomes such as attendance, school stability, academic performance, graduation, discipline, etc. ◦ ◦ Make the data publicly available and share findings in a report. Track and share data for individual students so schools, child welfare agencies, and caregivers have the information they need to support students in care and promote seamless school transitions.