Foster youth in California have dismal school outcomes. Two thirds will move schools at least twice during the school year compared with 7% of non-foster youth. Only 19% are proficient in English compared with 44% of non-foster youth. Twelve percent are proficient in Math compared with 33% of non-foster youth. Finally, only 52% of foster youth graduate from high school compared with 84% of non-foster youth.
To address this problem, the Alliance for Children's right has released a toolkit to help professionals working with foster children address the special needs of foster youth.
The Foster Youth Education Toolkit is invaluable for anyone working with foster youth and education, which includes CASA volunteers, social workers, attorneys, guardians, teachers, and school administrators. The Alliance for Children's Rights released the Toolkit this week, and you can download it for free.
According to the Alliance for Children's Rights "The Court Companion includes checklists . . . which gather all the best practices on key education topics that impact youth in care into role-specific reference tools, featuring sample minute order language for judges and sample court report language for social workers and probation officers."
The Alliance for Children's Rights' website has a variety of other valuable resources, including IEP request letters, records requests: guides and samples, partial credit manual, and much more.