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Our Project
The Legal Center for Foster Care and Education (Legal Center FCE)
is a collaboration between Casey
Family Programs and the
ABA’s Center on Children and the Law, in conjunction with
the Education
Law Center-PA and the Juvenile
Law Center.
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.
The Legal Center FCE focuses on supporting direct education advocacy
efforts for children in foster care, as well as promoting federal,
state and local laws and policies that address the education needs
of this population. The Legal Center builds on the ever-increasing
momentum behind meeting the education needs of children in foster
care; an issue that can help establish safety, permanency and well
being for children involved with the child welfare system.
This project was made possible with the support of Casey Family Programs, whose mission is to provide, improve - and ultimately prevent the need for - foster care.
What's New !
Questions and Answers: Education for Older Youth
Click here to download the factsheet
The Legal Center for Foster Care and Education has developed two checklists designed to assist states with implementing the education provisions of the Fostering Connections Act. But, we need to hear from you! We encourage other advocates to share additional examples and strategies of implementation efforts as well as issues or barriers encountered around implementation in your state.
Checklist 1: Setting the Stage lays out the foundational questions for implementing Fostering Connections: What do child welfare agencies, education agencies, courts, and legislators need to do to prepare for implementing the Act?
Checklist 2: Education Obligations and Considerations under the Fostering Connections Act details the responsibilities of the various agencies under Fostering Connections, and suggests the questions and considerations for each.
As a reminder, the Legal Center for Foster Care and Education is available to provide technical assistance to states around implementing the education provisions of Fostering Connections.
Click here to download the checklists
National Working Group on Foster Care and Education
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.
Project Publications
Please click here to access a list of all materials and publications developed by the Legal Center for Foster Care and Education, including the Blueprint for Change, fact sheets, and articles.
The project publications page includes documents relating to special education decisionmaking, data and information sharing, school stability and continuity and the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008.
Searchable Database
Please click here to access our interactive database of resources and documents related to the education needs of children in foster care. It is searchable by topic, state, and type of document. This database includes hundreds of state and national tools and resources about the education needs of youth in out-of-home care. This is a great resource for in depth research around specific issues and topics. We continue to update it with new resources and documents.
Please send us anything that we should include.
Conference Calls
Upcoming dates:
Wednesday, December 2 from 2:30 (ET) (Topic: Clearing the Path to School Success for Students in Out-of-Home Care "REPEAT") Notes and Handouts
The interactive webinar will provide a framework for liaisons, educators, and child welfare advocates to ensure immediate, appropriate school enrollment for students "awaiting foster care placement" under McKinney-Vento, as well as for other students in foster care. The emphasis will be extremely practical, as we will use a case study to help schools and child welfare agencies understand their respective roles and responsibilities for the school success of students in care. We will address questions like:
- Is the student "awaiting foster care placement?
- Is it in the student’s best interest to remain in the school of origin?
- How can we ensure immediate enrollment?
- How can we ensure full participation?
- How can we support academic success?
- How will we ensure the student’s basic needs are met now and in the future?
We also will share basic information and resources about the McKinney-Vento and Fostering Connections Acts.
To register for the webinar, please visit: http://www.serve.org/nche/web/group.php
