The Legal Center FCE serves as a national technical assistance resource and information clearinghouse on legal and policy matters affecting the education of children in the foster care system. The Legal Center FCE provides expertise to states and constituents, facilitates networking to advance promising practices and reforms, and provides technical assistance and training to respond to the ever-growing demands for legal support and guidance.
Please visit this link to access all project publications.
Blueprint for Change: This publication is the framework education success for children in foster care. Learn more about the publication, including the “8 Goals for Youth".
Fostering Connections Act: Among its many provisions are requirements on the child welfare agency to ensure school stability and continuity. Learn more about the education provisions of the Act, and access tools for state implementation.
School Stability and Continuity: For children in out-of-home care, school mobility is a barrier to their educational needs. Federal and state laws exist to improve the school stability of children in foster care. Learn more >>
Questions and Answer Factsheets: To learn more, please access a series of two-page factsheets on an array of important issues related to education and foster care.
Special Education Decisionmaking: To learn more, please access a series designed to help educators, caseworkers, attorneys, judges, foster parents, and youth understand the rights and obligations around special education decisionmaking for children in foster care.
Data and Informationsharing: To learn more, please access publications about how to legally and appropriately share information between education and child welfare agencies for children in foster care.
To ensure successful educational outcomes for children and youth in foster care across the country, ten organizations have joined together as the National Working Group on Foster Care and Education. The working group heightens national awareness of the educational needs of children and youth in care, and promotes best and promising practices and reforms across educational, child welfare, and juvenile and family court systems.
The legal center has developed three charts which help identify federal and state laws that help to support education stability and continuity for children in care.
Learn More:
NEW!
Please visit our newly updated searchable database to access hundreds of state and national tools, documents, and laws about the education needs of youth in out-of-home care that correspond to the framework of the 8 Goals of the Blueprint for Change.
Send us your questions/comments of additions.
Please access this link to the old database.
Fostering Connections Webinar – TransportationThe Legal Center co-hosted a webinar with the Fostering Connections Resource Center about providing transportation for children in out-of-home care, including an analysis of the Fostering Connections Act, an outline of key considerations for states, and a discussion of state examples of providing and funding school transportation.
The slides are available here and the audio recording of the presentation will be available shortly. Please contact us if you have any questions or comments.
Please visit notes and PowerPoints from past calls.
