Report  Local Financial Impact Review: Educational Services for Students in Foster Care and State Care

The education of children in foster care and state care presents an extraordinary challenge to the school systems of Massachusetts. Students transitioned into foster care have been traumatized, taken from the homes they have known, and frequently moved during their time in the programs. To have any measure of academic success, these vulnerable children require high levels of educational and emotional support. Federal law and regulation, along with state law and regulation in the areas of both child welfare and K-12 education, provide a complicated context for the required academic and human services.

Educational success for this vulnerable population is guided by birth families, foster families, child welfare officials, state education administrators, and local school personnel. Competing priorities among these stakeholder groups make this a difficult policy area to describe and one that can lead to less than optimal outcomes. Research from the Division of Local Mandates has a unique perspective on this policy area through its charge to measure the impact of state law and policy on municipalities. This report results from discussions with a wide range of participants in this system. We reflect on issues of school finance, as well as operations related to education and child welfare.

The Commonwealth is in the midst of a major policy discussion regarding how best to update the funding formula for public education. Since the passage of the Education Reform Law in 1993, which helped address the concerns expressed by the Supreme Judicial Court in the McDuffy decision, the Commonwealth has been an active participant in funding local public education. Over time, the funding has increased, but not at the rate of inflation in the provision of educational services. This has led to the Foundation Budget Review Commission recommendations and several proposals to change funding levels and components of the aid formula.

Beyond the Foundation Budget, there are several provisions of law that are not currently funded by the Commonwealth that involve significant expenditures by municipalities, including the provision of educational services for children in foster care. In law, the Commonwealth promises to reimburse school districts for the significant cost of educating students who are originally from outside the community. This component has not been funded for many years. There are also education-related challenges facing children in foster care that are shared by those in the broader school population, including the provision of counseling and mental health services, out-of-district transportation, and the availability of educational records. This report contains a series of findings and recommendations that shine a light on ideas to improve the system, and spark a conversation, leading to better outcomes for these vulnerable children and the communities that care for them.

Below is a summary of our findings and recommendations, with links to each page listed.