Welcome to Answering Your ESSA Questions! This next question is about an often-overlooked area of the Every Student Succeeds Act.
Question: What is new for children in foster care under ESSA?
Answer: ESSA made some key changes for this important population. First off, it for children in foster care (as well as homeless and military-connected children), just like they just like they do for other 鈥渟ubgroups鈥� like racial minorities, kids from low-income families, and students in special education.
Also, the law calls for (a term the law did not define) even if it鈥檚 no longer their neighborhood school. The state must work with school districts and local child welfare agencies to provide transportation. That was supposed to be in place one year after the passage of ESSA.
But state agencies, including those in places with high populations of foster children, aren鈥檛 doing such a great job of complying with that requirement, earlier this year.
The national news site, which covers child welfare, surveyed all 50 states, beginning in November of last year. Forty-four responded to the Chronicle. Of those, 33 said they were working with local school districts to comply with the law.
But according to the Chronicle鈥檚 reporting, it鈥檚 less clear that other states have implemented ESSA鈥檚 requirements, including Florida, Illinois, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. Responses from Alaska, Kentucky, Minnesota, Missouri, and New York suggest that school districts have tried to comply with the law, but the state agencies could not 鈥渄efinitively confirm鈥� that they had.
The Chronicle says that 162,000 foster children, about 37 percent of those in foster care nationally, are living in states where compliance is in question.
Got another ESSA question for us to tackle? Email us at aklein@epe.org, or aujifusa@epe.org.
Want to see what other readers are wondering? Here are links to past installments of this feature:
Want to learn more about the Every Student Succeeds Act? Here鈥檚 some useful information: