Theory of Change
Ensuring every foster child receives appropriate educational supports and services requires a coordinated effort between agencies and individuals:
1 Educational Champions: Adults committed to helping a foster child succeed in school, both during and after their time in care. The champion is responsible for monitoring the child’s academic progress, instilling high educational expectations, communicating with the school, enrolling the child in appropriate educational programs and advocating to ensure the child’s educational needs are met – all the things an actively engaged parent does for their child. Frequently, educational champions have the right to make educational decisions for the child.
2 Foster Youth Education Liaisons: Education experts responsible for helping to assess educational strengths and needs, providing technical assistance to child welfare workers, coaching educational champions and assisting individual foster children with acute unmet educational needs.
3 Child Welfare Workers: Professionals responsible for managing the child’s case, helping to identify educational strengths and needs, monitoring and supporting educational champions, and integrating educational information and interventions into case plans and court reports.
FosterEd ensures foster children exit care into families and with educational champions better equipped to support their success in school. It provides older foster youth the skills to champion their own education.
