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May 2012Vol. 13 No. 4Foster Care and Education Database

Improving educational outcomes for children and youth involved with the child welfare system requires a collaborative effort. To facilitate that collaboration, the American Bar Association (ABA) Center on Children and the Law developed a new online resource for legal and other related child welfare professionals.

The Legal Center for Foster Care and Education Database is an interactive database of State-specific resources pertaining to the educational needs of children and youth in foster care. Visitors can search for information and materials by State, topic, or document type. A variety of legal documents are available, including court orders, consent decrees, legal briefs, memorandums of understanding and other interagency agreements, reports addressing foster care and education issues, resources from education summits and forums, training materials, implementation resources, advocacy materials, and more.

Visitors can search for documents on the following topics:

  • Confidentiality and information sharing
  • Drop-out and truancy
  • Education decision-making
  • Education of young children birth to age 5
  • Equal education access and opportunities
  • Financing
  • Foster care eligibility for McKinney-Vento
  • In-court education advocacy
  • In-school education advocacy
  • Involving youth in their education planning
  • Postsecondary education
  • School discipline
  • Special education
  • School enrollment stability and continuity

The database corresponds to the framework of eight goals in the Center on Children and the Law's Blueprint for Change. In fact, visitors can search by Blueprint goal. ABA's Center on Children and the Law will update the database as new resources become available.

Read the Blueprint for Change here:

http://www.americanbar.org/groups/child_law/projects_initiatives/education/blueprint.html

The database is available here:

http://www2.americanbar.org/blueprintforchange/pages/default.aspx