Coming into Focus: States Can and Must Ensure School Stability for Youth in Foster Care

For over a decade, the Legal Center for Foster Care and Education, a project of the American Bar Association Center on Children and the Law, Education Law Center, and Juvenile Law Center, has advocated for changes to policy and practice at the federal, state, and local level, to improve educational outcomes for students in foster care. One of the most exciting recent developments in the field came in December 2015, when Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (“ESSA”), which includes provisions about child welfare and education agencies’ responsibility to ensure and prioritize school stability for all children and youth in foster care.