Conference Call Notes: March 18, 2009

Fostering Connections: Education Provisions

1)Welcome and Introduction: Kathleen McNaught, Project Director of the LegalCenter for Foster Care and Education

  1. The LegalCenter has developed a factsheet summarizing the education provisions of the Fostering Connections Act which is available at We will soon release an “implementation checklist” for states.

2)States Represented on the Call: NY, CA, OR, OH, MI, AZ, PA, NJ, IA, MD, FL, DC

3)Overview of Fostering Connections Act: Education Provisions

  1. School Stability and Continuity: Case Plan Requirements
  2. Documentation of appropriateness of education setting and proximity of school are included in case plan.
  3. Need for collaboration with local education agencies
  4. Child welfare has coordinated with local education agency to ensure child can remain in school at time of placement unless not in their best interest.
  5. Best interest determinations: Who makes this decision? What individuals should be involved with this decisionmaking process? Is there a dispute procedure? Overlap with McKinney-Vento?
  6. Assurances by child welfare and education agency that if remaining in home school is not in the child’s best interest, then child will be immediately and appropriately enrolled in a new school with records transferred.
  7. Clear process developed? Overlap with McKinney-Vento?
  8. Best practices: need for child welfare and education liaisons
  9. School Stability and Continuity: Transportation Funding
  10. The definition of “foster care maintenance payment” was amended to allow for IV-E reimbursement for reasonable travel to child’s school.
  11. January 2007 federal guidance clarified that IV-E administrative dollars could be used for transportation to school.
  12. Best practices: child welfare and education should collaborate to determine how to provide transportation to child’s school.
  13. Enrollment and Attendance: TitleIV-EState Plan Requirements
  14. State must provide assurances that children of compulsory school age are enrolled and attending school; limited exceptions.
  15. Best practices:
  16. Older Youth Education Provisions:
  17. Education Training Vouchers and Chafee Independent Living Programs expanded eligibility for youth adopted to who enter guardianships over the age of 16.
  18. 90 Day Transition Plan includes education element.
  19. State option to extend care to age 19, 20, or 21.

4)State Implementation Discussion

  1. New York – (Cara Chambers/Jennifer Pringle) – How are states approaching the issue of funding for transportation, particularly in light of tight budget constraints?
  2. In Pennsylvania, child welfare agency has said that foster parents receive an increased payment for providing school transportation. Costs are reimbursed on a quarterly basis to the local county agency.
  3. In Oregon, they pay foster parents for school transportation through a transportation log system. In some counties, the caseworkers work with the McKinney-Vento liaisons to see whether school funding for the transportation is available. One issue: taxi rides are uncomfortable/inappropriate for some students and criteria is needed to make sure that feasibility is considered (e.g. length of commute, age of the child).
  4. Best interest determinations: In Oregon, caseworker schedules a meeting with foster parents, parents, child’s attorney, CASA, etc. and then the proposed decision of the group is shared with the court and ultimately the court makes the determination.
  5. Timeframe? In Multnomah County, Oregon (Portland) upon removal there is an emergency hearing and at that hearing the judge orders that the placement must be close to school and that the child remain in the school. These decisions are subsequently reviewed at the next hearing date (30- 45 days thereafter)
  6. How have states involved education regarding implementation of Fostering Connections?
  7. Oregon – has state legislation that requires child welfare to pay for and arrange transportation to the school of origin. Perhaps states need legislation to implement it?
  8. Michigan – certain state legislation maybe a barrier to implementation – state residency laws may be construed to conflict with Fostering Connections. Under state law, a child is considered to be a resident of the school district or attendance area where the child is placed. Thus, there is concern that children are being required to move schools every time a placement changes and compliance with Fostering Connections will be a significant change to existing practice.
  9. New Jersey – Trying to develop MOU on educational needs of children in out-of-home care. Grappling with how to use the Act to further school stability and continuity. Child welfare and education are both involved in workgroup.
  10. Florida – School has assumed the cost of providing transportation; now with Fostering Connections they plan to investigate whether child welfare agency can reimburse using IV-E funds. They have a calculated cost per student for the cost of transportation, but this gets complicated because it is a very case-by-case difference in the transportation needs.
  11. Pennsylvania – Child Welfare and Education are meeting together to address implementation issues and plan to issue consistent guidance to LEAs and county child welfare agencies (with joint cover memo) to ensure coordination and collaboration at the local level through by providing checklist of issues to be addressed, model MOUs etc.
  12. Could states request an extension for implementation of the Act and who did?
  13. They had the option to request a one year extension for implementation if they said that state legislation was required to implement the Act – unclear how many states did request, but we are aware Iowa did. Michigan and Pennsylvania did not. We encourage everyone to contact your state child welfare agency to find out because they would have been the ones to make the request for extension.
  14. Have any states dealt with the “appropriateness of education setting” question? Who makes the decisions? What are the criteria? States are working this out. May be useful to start by looking at similar factors used in McKinney Vento analysis.