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Schooling Issue a Complication for Foster Care
Schooling Issue a Complication for Foster Care
By Linda Jacobson Article Tools http://www.edweek.org/ew/articles/20...rkids.h27.html Policymakers from Congress to the state and local levels are sharpening their focus on the educational needs of children in foster care, a population that can exceed 700,000 nationally in the course of a year and which has doubled in the past two decades. In many cases, their strategies coincide with recommendations outlined in a recent report on California’s massive foster-care system: access to preschool for foster children, specialized training for teachers, and making sure child-welfare agencies have educational liaisons. “A focus on school readiness and school success may not heal all the damage already inflicted early in the lives of foster children, but it can give these children—and many of their peers—the fighting chance they need and deserve to thrive as adults,” says the report http://www.cftl.org/documents/2008/FCfullreport.pdf released last month by the Center for the Future of Teaching and Learning in Santa Cruz, Calif., and Mental Health Advocacy Services Inc., a Los Angeles-based public-interest law firm. Among the signs of renewed attention to the educational needs of foster children: • The reauthorization of the federal Head Start preschool program last fall lists children in foster care as one of the groups designated to receive priority for enrollment. • Efforts are under way in Congress to include foster children in the federal McKinney-Vento Act, which is meant to provide school stability, transportation, and other educational services for homeless children. • A six-state project launched by the National Governors Association last month includes improved school performance for foster children as one of its goals in an effort to cut the number of children in foster care by 50 percent in the next 12 years. Added Challenges Such efforts are intended to help compensate for a range of challenges facing children in foster-care placement. Foster-care providers tend to have fewer resources to support learning than do traditional families, according to William O’Hare, the coordinator of Kids Count, a project of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a Baltimore-based philanthropy. For example, U.S. Census Bureau data show that the average income in foster households is lower than that of traditional homes with children—$56,364, compared with $74,301. In addition, Mr. O’Hare said, foster parents are more likely than traditional parents to be unemployed and have less than a high school education. At a recent presentation to a Population Association of America conference in New Orleans, where he outlined those statistics, Mr. O’Hare said such factors can have serious drawbacks for the educational success of children in foster care. Foster families “have fewer human resources and fewer financial resources,” he said in a subsequent interview. “It’s got to have a negative impact.” The NGA pilot program begun last month seeks to address some of those issues, even as it aims to bring down the numbers of children in out-of-home placements. http://www.nga.org/portal/site/nga/m...1a01010aRCR D The association’s Center for Best Practices has chosen six states— Arkansas, Florida, Oklahoma, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and South Carolina—to participate in a “policy academy” to work on the project. One of the states’ tasks will be to improve collaboration among various agencies that all might have an interest in helping the same child. A lack of cooperation between social workers and educators is often blamed for gaps in children’s learning. For More Info For more stories on this topic see Curriculum and Learning. And while the primary aim is to bring down the numbers of children in foster care, the initiative also will seek to improve school performance, said Joan Smith, the senior director of systems improvement at Casey Family Programs, a partner in the project. In addition, at least two of the states, Pennsylvania and Ohio, have included education officials as team members. Scarce Resources In California, which is home to more than 10 percent of the nation’s children in foster care, the recent report by education and mental-health experts outlines a variety of strategies that policymakers and practitioners can use to reverse the many learning deficits among such children. The report is the culmination of work conducted in 2005 and 2007 by the California Education Collaborative for Children in Foster Care, a committee that included child-welfare and education experts, former foster children, lawyers, and researchers. The Stuart Foundation, based in San Francisco, has supported the project with a $326,000 grant. It notes that children in foster care are more likely to repeat grades, to be in special education, and to leave school without a high school diploma. The authors place a special emphasis on making sure children under age 5—who make up 32 percent of the more than 74,000 foster children in the state—receive preschool and early-intervention services. Social workers, foster parents, and other caregivers, the authors recommend, should receive training on early brain development and the developmental problems that can occur for foster children. Preschool slots should also be increased in neighborhoods with high concentrations of foster families, such as low-income and minority neighborhoods, the report says. “This is a population,” said Jane Henderson, a consultant who worked on the California report, “that already qualifies for a lot of special services.” See Also See other stories on education issues in California. See data on California's public school system. California and Delaware also have taken steps to allow children to stay in the schools they were attending before being placed in foster care, an effort to address the problem of high mobility that can disrupt children’s education. “That is a discussion that is happening in a lot of jurisdictions,” added Robin Nixon, the executive director of the Washington-based National Foster Care Coalition, an advocacy organization. But Ms. Henderson said that a 2003 California law never specified who would cover the cost of transportation if children are placed in foster homes outside their schools’ attendance zones. Ms. Henderson noted that while California’s multibillion-dollar budget deficit won’t allow for major new initiatives in this area, existing legislation could be more fully implemented. California’s 2003 law also allows for foster children to enroll in schools even if they lack the proper records and for students to receive partial credit for a course. But advocates say there is sometimes still resistance among school staff regarding such matters, and that more awareness is needed. “There is so little sunshine on the issue, and the kids are kind of invisible, and they get bounced around,” Ms. Henderson said. Higher Profile Ms. Nixon and other advocates say they have seen an increase in efforts elsewhere to elevate foster children’s educational needs. Eight years ago, Advocates for Children of New York—a nonprofit organization that focuses on securing educational services for children at risk of school failure—was trying to get New York City child-welfare agencies to share data on children in foster care. The intention was to better understand the educational needs of those students, many of whom qualify for special education services. The advocacy group ran a pilot project from 2002 to 2004 in the now-closed Louise Wise Services, a child-welfare agency, in which members of the group’s staff, including education lawyers, were placed inside the agency to focus on children’s academic needs. Advocates for Children made a big push to make sure the child welfare agencies in the city were enrolling children in tutoring services under the No Child Left Behind Act, said Gisela Alvarez, a senior project officer at the organization. The city has even created an education unit within its Administration for Children’s Services, which contracts with agencies to handle child placements. “Just the presence of having someone focused on education really changed the culture of the agency,” said Ms. Alvarez. An Inconvenient Truth about Child Protective Services, Foster care, and the Child Protection "INDUSTRY" Child Protective Services Does not protect children... It is sickening how many children are subject to abuse, neglect and even killed at the hands of CPS. every parent should read the free handbook from connecticut dcf watch... http://www.connecticutdcfwatch.com Number of Cases per 100,000 children in the US These numbers come from The National Center on Child Abuse and Neglect in Washington. (NCCAN) Recent numbers have increased significantly for CPS Perpetrators of Maltreatment Physical Abuse CPS/Foster care 160, biological Parents 59 Sexual Abuse CPS/Foster care 112, biological Parents 13 Neglect CPS/Foster care 410, biological Parents 241 Medical Neglect CPS/Foster care 14 biological Parents 12 Fatalities CPS/Foster care 6.4, biological Parents 1.5 Imagine that, 6.4 children die at the hands of the very agencies that are supposed to protect them and only 1.5 at the hands of parents per 100,000 children. CPS perpetrates more abuse, neglect, and sexual abuse and kills more children then parents in the United States. If the citizens of this country hold CPS to the same standards that they hold parents too. No judge should ever put another child in the hands of ANY government agency because CPS nationwide is guilty of more harm and death than any human being combined. CPS nationwide is guilty of more human rights violations and deaths of children then the homes from which they were removed. When are the judges going to wake up and see that they are sending children to their death and a life of abuse when children are removed from safe homes based on the mere opinion of a bunch of social workers. THIS IS AMERICA'S HIDDEN HOLOCAUST Currently Child Protective Services violates more constitutionally guaranteed liberties & civil rights on a daily basis then all other agencies combined, Including the National Security agency/Central intelligence agency wiretaping programs… THE CORRUPT BUSINESS OF CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES BY: Nancy Schaefer Senator, 50th District of Georgia http://www.senatornancyschaefer.com/...s.php?filter=6 This is Child Protection? By Gregory A. Hession, J.D. http://www.jbs.org/node/4632 Mercenary Motherhood: "Memoirs of a Babystealer." http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/...nion-rightrail FOSTER CARE IS A 80 PERCENT FAILU. A Brief Analysis of the Casey Family Programs. Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study. By Richard Wexler http://www.nccpr.org/reports/cfpanalysis.doc HOW THE WAR AGAINST CHILD ABUSE BECAME A WAR AGAINST CHILDREN http://www.nccpr.org/issues/1.html Adoption Bonuses: The Money Behind the Madness DSS and affiliates rewarded for breaking up families By Nev Moore Massachusetts News http://www.massnews.com/past_issues/...May/mayds4.htm A recent study has found that 12-18 months after leaving foster ca 30% of the nation’s homeless are former foster children. 27% of the males and 10% of the females had been incarcerated 33% were receiving public assistance 37% had not finished high school 2% receive a college degree 50% were unemployed Children in foster care are three to six times more likely than children not in care to have emotional, behavioral and developmental problems, including conduct disorders, depression, difficulties in school and impaired social relationships. Some experts estimate that about 30% of the children in care have marked or severe emotional problems. Various studies have indicated that children and young people in foster care tend to have limited education and job skills, perform poorly in school compared to children who are not in foster care, lag behind in their education by at least one year, and have lower educational attainment than the general population. *Casey Family Programs National Center for Resource Family Support 80 percent of prison inmates have been through the foster care system. The highest ranking federal official in charge of foster care, Wade Horn of the Department of Health and Human Services, is a former child psychologist who says the foster care system is a giant mess and should just be blown up. http://abcnews.go.com/print?id=2017991 Four rigorous studies have found that at least 30 percent of America’s foster children could be home right now if their parents had decent housing. This study found thousands of children already in foster care who would have done better had child protection agencies not taken them away in the first place. Front-page story in USA Today. http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/...m?csp=34#Close Read the studies online. Casey "alumni" study: "Improving Family Foster Ca Findings from the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study," http://www.casey.org/Resources/Publi...lumniStudy.htm MIT study: "Child Protection and Child Outcomes: Measuring the Effects of Foster Care," http://www.mit.edu/~jjdoyle/doyle_fo...arch07_aer.pdf Texas comptroller's "Forgotten Children" reports: www.window.state.tx.us/forgottenchildren The bottom line? - Child Protective Services and the Foster Care system for the most part turns out young adults that are nothing more than walking wreckage... CURRENTLY CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES VIOLATES MORE CONSTITUTIONALLY GUARANTEED LIBERTIES & CIVIL RIGHTS ON A DAILY BASIS THEN ALL OTHER AGENCIES COMBINED INCLUDING THE NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY/CENTRAL INTELLIGENCE AGENCY WIRETAPPING PROGRAMS.... CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES, HAPPILY DESTROYING THOUSANDS OF INNOCENT FAMILIES YEARLY NATIONWIDE AND COMING TO YOU'RE HOME SOON... BE SURE TO FIND OUT WHERE YOUR CANDIDATES STANDS ON THE ISSUE OF REFORMING OR ABOLISHING CHILD PROTECTIVE SERVICES ("MAKE YOUR CANDIDATES TAKE A STAND ON THIS ISSUE.") THEN REMEMBER TO VOTE ACCORDINGLY IF THEY ARE "FAMILY UNFRIENDLY" IN THE NEXT ELECTION... |
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