The Every Student Achieves Act (ESSA) provides all children and youth in foster care with core protections for school stability and school access through a statutory vehicle that is separate from the McKinney-Vento Act, and that outlines clear, distinct and appropriate responsibilities for both the education and child welfare agencies.  These amendments will remedy the significant challenges in implementing the McKinney-Vento Act for children and youth in foster care and build on the legislative foundation provided by the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act.

 

Every LEA must have in place a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) and a transportation plan between it and the County Children and Youth Agencies (CCYAs) by January 31, 2017, with provisions in place by December 10, 2016.

The MOUs should, at a minimum

(a) Identify the point of contact (POC) for foster placement decision-making in both the school entity and the CCYA

(b) Define a process and criteria for making a “best interest determination,” a process that would presumably involve the POCs from CCYA and both the school entity of origin and the school entity in which the foster parent resides and would require sharing records in the possession of the CCYA and the school entity of origin

(c) Establish timelines for the completion of this “best interest determination” and for the enrollment of the child in whichever school is identified as meeting the “best interest” of the child—presumably, in most cases, the school of origin.