Introduction
Children in foster care are more likely to struggle in school, often because they frequently move from school to school while in care. To address this barrier to learning and comply with federal law, New Jersey passed an "educational stability" law in 2010 that requires children and youth in foster care to remain in their "school of origin"- the school they were attending before being placed into foster care-- unless continuing in this school is not in the child's best interest.
Three years have passed since this law was enacted. Advocates for Children of New Jersey(ACNJ) is trying to both determine how well this law is working for New Jersey's foster children and identify any implementation issues or other concerns that should be addressed.
If you handle school issues for children living in foster care, please take a few minutes to complete this survey so that we can work together to ensure that children in foster care have the best chance to succeed in school. If you do not handle education issues for children living in foster care, please forward this survey to the appropriate person.