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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

The Legal Center FCE sponsors conference calls that focus on important and timely topics of interest to advocates working in the field of foster care and education. All are welcome to participate in the calls. Each will be held at 3pm (EST).

Upcoming dates:
August 11, 2009 (Topic: Linking Education to Permanency)

Conference Dial-in Number:
218-339-4300

Participant Access Code:
427775

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