Dive Brief:
- The U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services on Thursday released joint guidance about how schools should support children in foster care under the provisions of the Every Student Succeeds Act.
- The guidance affirms the importance of educational stability requirements and reinforces district responsibility to allow foster children to stay in their original schools, if that is in their best interests following a move to a new foster home.
- The guidance also reminds state and local education agencies that they need to designate a point of contact for child welfare agencies separate from the McKinney-Vento homeless student liaison.
Dive Insight:
The Department of Education plans to release a series of guidance documents in the coming months to help states, districts and schools implement ESSA, which is set to take full effect during the 2017-18 school year. Besides the notes on expectations for schools supporting children in foster care, districts can expect non-regulatory guidance about homeless children, early learners, English language learners, teacher and principal quality, and student support and academic enrichment. The guidance is not meant to impose any new requirements, but help district administrators and other officials recognize their responsibilities under existing law.
In addition to this guidance, the Department of Education, through a “Dear Colleague” letter, urged state and local education agencies to collaborate with local stakeholders as they develop their ESSA implementation plans. Community engagement is expected to be critical to the success of local initiatives.