Foster Care Liaison

Non-Regulatory Guidance on Ensuring Educational Stability for Children in Foster Care

http://www2.ed.gov/policy/elsec/leg/essa/edhhsfostercarenonregulatorguide.pdf The U.S. Departments of Education and Health and Human Services has released Non-Regulatory Guidance on Ensuring Educational Stability for Children in Foster Care. In December 2015, Congress passed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA), and built on the many recent legislative successes and… Read more »

Federal Guidance and Resources to Support Completion and Success in Higher Education

http://www.ed.gov/category/keyword/resources-support-completion http://www2.ed.gov/documents/press-releases/federal-supports-college-access-completion.pdf The U.S. Department of Education – in collaboration with partners from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture, Health and Human Services, Housing and Urban Development, and Labor – released a fact sheet on New Federal Guidance and Resources to Support Completion and Success in Higher Education and an accompanying federal interagency letter entitled Aligning… Read more »

Youth Engagement Toolkit

Youth engagement is a strategy to value and include the insights of youth in service planning and delivery. Often youth and their families know best what they need and how to make services work for them. This toolkit, developed by the Texas Network of Youth Services (TNOYS) addresses the following topics: What is Youth Engagement?… Read more »

UNDERSTANDING YOUTH RIGHTS: Helping Providers Navigate the Laws and Policies Affecting Unaccompanied Homeless Youth

The laws about runaway, homeless, or unaccompanied youth can seem to be confusing and vague. While physically apart from their parent or guardian, homeless youth lack certain rights that can lead to confusion about legal issues of consent, eligibility for emancipation, parents’ rights, accessing shelter, public education, health care, and public benefits. Recognizing these challenges,… Read more »

The Services To At Risk Youth “STAR” Program

This document describes the State of Texas STAR Program. STAR originated in 1983 when the Texas Legislature approved a demonstration project for serving runaway and truant youth called the Services to Truants and Runaways project. By 1984 the first 15 programs were funded under grants from the Texas Department of Human Resources’ Protective Services Branch…. Read more »

Considerations for Local Educational Agencies (LEAs) in Developing Transportation Procedures for Students in Foster Care Under the Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015

ESSA amended Title I, Part A of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act to require that LEAs receiving Title IA funds collaborate with state or local child welfare agencies on local procedures for transportation for students in foster care. ESSA also amended the McKinney-Vento Act to remove the phrase “awaiting foster care placement” from the… Read more »