Education for Georgia's Foster Children
Background Paper
Georgia Association of Homes and Services for Children
December 16, 1999

Background:  Georgia has one of the highest high school drop out rates in the nation.  Fully 1/3 of all children in Georgia drop out of school.  We know foster children have a much higher dropout rate when compared to the overall student population.  However, students given the proper supports and educational programs do remain in school to recieve their diplomas.  The benefits of education are also well documented.  Graduates are more likely to be employed, earn significantly higher salaries, are less dependent on the welfare system, and are more likely to participate in the electoral process (Georgia's KidCount 1999 factbook).

Foster children that reside in residential facilities are even more vulnerable and at-risk of dropping out of school.  They all are victims of abuse, neglect, and abandonment.  Because they cannot be cared for in a traditional foster home, they are more likely to be emotionally or behaviorally disturbed and are generally two or more years behind educationally.  Additionally, because most children reside in these facilities for less than a year, acclamation to a school system is especially difficult. Many school systems do not want these children in their system because of the difficulty and expense incurred in educating them.

Residential Child Care Agencies daily face the challenges of educating these children.  A residential child care agency may be a group home, emergency shelter, therapeutic group home or an intensive, therapeutic group home.  They address these challenges by providing education to the children through on-campus classes, tutorials, and private schooling.  Over 25% of all children in out of home residential care are educated in settings other than the public schools.

This fact presents other challenges to the agencies, as well.  The high cost of education must be captured through charitable dollars by the agencies that provide it.  The State also assumes some of the cost of education through the per diems that is paid to the agencies.  The federal FTE educational dollars are not captured for these children--either by the state, the agencies, or the counties' board of education.  These children are in a "no-man's land" where they are not counted for educational purposes nor for financial purposes.  These children often fall through educational gaps, and Georgia is losing thousands of dollars because of their failure to capture the FTE dollars.

The result of this failure to account for the education of these children and to maximize resources is hurting both the children and the agencies that care for them.  Agencies must reduce services for children because dollars are being spent to pay for educational services.  Children in out of home care receive  poor educational programs because the programs must be subsidized with scarce charitiable dollars.  There is little accountability for educating these children from the county boards of education because they are not apart of the school system and are not counted in the FTE.

Solution:  Georgia, either by policy or legislation, must provide for the educational needs of children in state custody that in residential programs.  Educational programs in residential facilities should be approved by the local county Board of Education.  The children in these programs should be counted as part of the FTE of the county and these funds reimbursed to the state custody holder.