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Our Project

The Legal Center for Foster Care and Education (Legal Center FCE) is a collaboration between Casey Family Programs and the ABA’s Center on Children and the Law, in conjunction with the Education Law Center-PA and the Juvenile Law Center.

The Legal Center FCE serves as a national technical assistance resource and information clearinghouse on legal and policy matters affecting the education of children in the foster care system. The Legal Center FCE provides expertise to states and constituents, facilitates networking to advance promising practices and reforms, and provides technical assistance and training to respond to the ever-growing demands for legal support and guidance.

The Legal Center FCE focuses on supporting direct education advocacy efforts for children in foster care, as well as promoting federal, state and local laws and policies that address the education needs of this population. The Legal Center builds on the ever-increasing momentum behind meeting the education needs of children in foster care; an issue that can help establish safety, permanency and well being for children involved with the child welfare system.

This project was made possible with the support of Casey Family Programs, whose mission is to provide, improve - and ultimately prevent the need for - foster care.

New Project Publications!

Questions and Answers: No Child Left Behind and Children in Out-of-Home Care

This factsheet discussed the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) as related to foster care and education.
Click here to download the factsheet




The Blueprint for Change: Education Success for Children in Foster Care

The Blueprint for Change is a tool for change. The 8 Goals for Youth and Benchmarks for each goal indicating progress toward achieving education success are a framework for both direct case advocacy and system reform efforts. Following each goal are National, State, and Local Examples of policies, practices, programs, and resources that exist to improve educational outcomes for children in foster care.

Click here to download the Blueprint
Click here to download the Blueprint Insert Card listing all the Goals and Benchmarks.
Click here to download a Fact Sheet about the Blueprint.


Please click here to access a list of all materials and publications developed by the Legal Center for Foster Care and Education, including the Blueprint for Change, fact sheets, and articles.

National Working Group on Foster Care and Education

To ensure successful educational outcomes for children and youth in foster care across the country, ten organizations have joined together as the National Working Group on Foster Care and Education. The working group heightens national awareness of the educational needs of children and youth in care, and promotes best and promising practices and reforms across educational, child welfare, and juvenile and family court systems.

»Resource Library

Featured Resources: Please click here to access a page of selected tools and resources to find out about the education needs of youth in out-of-home care and improve advocacy around these issues. This page highlights resources developed by the Legal Center as well as other organizations. This is a great resource for beginning to explore the issues related to education for youth in foster care.

Searchable Database: Please click here to access our interactive database of resources and documents related to the education needs of children in foster care. It is searchable by topic, state, and type of document. This database includes hundreds of state and national tools and resources about the education needs of youth in out-of-home care. This is a great resource for in depth research around specific issues and topics. We continue to update it with new resources and documents. Please send us anything that we should include.

ABA Policy Resolutions

Transitioning Youth Services (August 2007)

This policy includes recommendations addressing a wide range of issues related to youth in care, specifically, including definitions in federal law regarding financial aid for current and former youth in care, amending the McKinney-Vento Act to cover all children in out-of-home care, and amending FERPA as it pertains to sharing education information of foster youth with child welfare agencies, foster care providers, and the courts

McKinney-Vento Act (August 2007)

This policy includes recommendations to amend the McKinney-Vento Act to clarify that it applies to all children and youth in foster care, and to significantly increase funding to support the newly eligible population of all students in foster care, with particular focus on improved funding mechanisms to support transportation to keep students in their school of origin when in their best interest to do so.

Conference Calls

The Legal Center FCE sponsors conference calls that focus on important and timely topics of interest to advocates working in the field of foster care and education. All are welcome to participate in the calls. Each will be held at 3pm (EST).

Upcoming dates:
February 13, 2008 (Topic: Credit Transfers and Diplomas) Notes
May 14, 2008 (Topic: Surrogate Parent Programs) Notes
August 13, 2008 (Topic: Data Collection and Information-Sharing) Notes, Presentation
November 12, 2008 (Special Education)

Conference Dial-in Number:
(218) 339-4300

Participant Access Code:
427775*

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