NCYL's FosterEd Team Helps Improve Outcomes for Foster Youth in Antelope Valley
The National Center for Youth Law's FosterEd program has helped lead significant progress in improving educational outcomes for youth in foster care in California's Antelope Valley.
This encouraging headway is highlighted in a Progress Report that examines the first two years of FosterEd’s work in the Antelope Valley, which began in 2018. The report demonstrates that students experienced notable improvements in school stability, gains in GPA, increases in the number of academic credits obtained, improved attendance and a very high degree of satisfaction and support working with the FosterEd team.
Helping spur change
FosterEd was launched to provide direct support to young people and inform systems-level change for students involved in the child welfare system. Its goals are to ensure each student has:
- The capacity to self-advocate and set goals;
- A positive sense of self-efficacy;
- Adult supporters that are able and willing to work in unison; and
- A positive educational experience that results in the student building their own definition of academic success.
Since its launch, FosterEd has worked with on-the-ground partners to:
- Provide direct support and services to 260 students in foster care;
- Convene and support more than 812 family members, teachers, social workers and other professionals who served as students’ education support team; and
- Partner with students and their education champions and teams to set and work to achieve more than 232 education goals.
FosterEd has also worked at a systems level to support and promote cross-community partnerships, participating in several local workgroups and collaboratives working together.
The FosterEd team is extremely proud of the strides made to improve educational experiences for youth in foster care in the Antelope Valley, and looks forward to continuing its work.
