Region 13 Foster Care Liaisons

Foster Care Liaisons facilitate the enrollment in or transfer to a public school or open-enrollment charter school of a child in the district or area served by the charter school who is in the conservatorship of the state.

The Foster Care Liaisons at Region 13 Service Center strive to address the unique educational needs of foster youth. Our department works collaboratively with the LEA Foster Care Liaisons by providing workshops, consultation, support, and resources.

The responsibilities of the Foster Care Liaison are:

  • Ensure foster youth are enrolled immediately
  • Monitor school attendance and academic achievement
  • Encourage and sustain school stability
  • Ensure equitable access to resources
  • Advocate for appropriate school placement

Foster Care Guidance

The federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, Public Law 110-351, requires state child welfare agencies to work with their state and local education systems to support initiatives to improve educational outcomes for children in foster care. On August 25, 2011, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services issued a joint letter to all Chief State School Officers and State Child Welfare Directors informing them of provisions in the federal law that require local education agencies and child welfare agencies to coordinate to ensure that children in foster care maintain "education stability."

The law specifically requires that at the time of a child's initial placement in foster care, the child welfare agency (DFPS) must coordinate with local education agencies to ensure that children remain in their current school (unless doing so poses a safety risk for the child or is otherwise not in the child's best interests), thereby keeping them connected with teachers, other family members including siblings, and friends, and helping them continue to progress in their school work.

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