The measures are an early step toward addressing the problem, Young said, noting that she’s working on additional legislation she hopes to introduce soon.Young spoke in favor of bills that would force the state to ensure higher educational standards for foster youths in residential facilities.
The foster care advocacy organization that helped Miller — Empowering Foster Youth Through Technology — was the first to flag the concerns about education in residential facilities to state officials. It has been leading the efforts to address the problem. “I was pleasantly surprised,” he said, noting that the state had never before checked on the educational progress of his students. For years, many would arrive at his school with messy transcripts that showed they’d taken classes they didn’t need in other facilities or had taken classes that didn’t meet the state’s standards for graduation.
The bills were introduced after exposed the educational crisis facing teens who spent months or years living in residential facilities, taking classes and completing assignments, only to learn later that the work didn’t count toward graduation.