Education advocates from across the state have called on the California Board of Education to address the needs of children in foster care. Testifying before the board on Sept. 9, advocates outlined what it will take to develop and implement improved plans for supporting foster youth and made recommendations for increased transparency.

The board reviewed for the first time how school districts, as required by the Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF), are planning to improve the educational outcomes of students in foster care. The LCFF restructured the way California funds education with specific provisions regarding students in foster care, including the requirement of developing accountability plans for this previously “invisible” group of students.

“School districts are eager to best meet the needs of students from foster care and are requesting expert assistance to help them develop plans for foster youth and any improvements they want to make,” said Jesse Hahnel, director of National Center for Youth Law’s Foster Youth Education Initiative. “We have seen high variability in how districts plan to improve the educational outcomes of foster youth, with relatively few districts planning to provide foster youth with unique services or supports.”

Reports by the Stuart Foundation illustrate the educational inequities of children and youth in California’s foster care system. The “Invisible Achievement Gap”, released earlier this year linked data from the California Department of Education and the California Department of Social Services and found that across nearly all education outcomes examined, students in foster care performed significantly worse than their peers from low socio-economic backgrounds.