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Question of the Week
Q: I'm participating in extended foster care and attending college full-time. I heard that youth in extended foster care are now exempt from the food stamp eligibility restrictions on college students. However when I went to apply for CalFresh, the eligibility worker said I did not qualify. What can I do? For the answer, follow this LINK.
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Need Textbooks for Next Year? Provide Input & Get Priority for Burton Book Fund
John Burton Advocates for Youth (JBAY) is seeking input from current and former foster youth who are currently college students or were recently enrolled in college about their experience in order to inform JBAY’s future post-secondary education legislative agenda.
The first 200 current and former foster youth college students to complete a survey will be guaranteed textbook support from the Burton Book Fund for the 2017-18 school year. Additionally, JBAY will be raffling off a $100 gift card for every 25 people who complete the survey.
The results from the survey will help JBAY to understand what may need to be changed or improved and what obstacles need to be addressed to help foster youth achieve post-secondary educational success. The survey can be accessed by following this LINK. For questions, contact Simone Tureck at simone@jbaforyouth.org.
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Despite Repeal of ESSA Regulations, Many Provisions Still Intact to Protect Foster Youth
On March 27, President Trump signed legislation to repeal the Accountability Regulations of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) finalized during the Obama Administration.
The American Bar Association's Center on Children and the Law has circulated a timely and succinct summary of the provisions that remain intact and urge advocates for children in foster care to make clear that overturning the ESSA regulations does not change the requirements and timelines of the law.
According to the summary, the provisions that remain unaffected by the repeal of the regulation include the requirement that youth remain in their school of origin when in the child’s best interest, immediate enrollment in school and transfer of school records, school transportation when necessary, and designated point-of-contacts with state educational agencies and local educational agencies for child welfare agencies.
Additional provisions that remain in tact include a requirement on data collection and reporting on foster student achievement and graduation rates, and the removal of “awaiting foster care placement” from the definition of “homeless” for the purposes of the McKinney-Vento Act. To view the State Implementation Toolkit and other resources, follow this LINK.
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Which States Enacted Child Welfare Legislation Last Year?
In 2016, 47 states enacted more than 360 bills addressing a variety of child welfare topics. California alone, enacted 22 pieces of child welfare legislation in 2016.
The National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) has provided a summary of 2016 enacted child welfare legislation across multiple categories, including adoption, child protection, child sex trafficking and exploitation, education of children in foster care, health and mental/behavioral health, services for older youth, and many more.
Using StateNet, NCSL provides a searchable database of enacted child welfare legislation from 2012-2016 across the United States. Users can search by state, topic, keyword, bill status, bill number, year and author. To visit the database, follow this LINK. To view the summary of 2016 enacted child welfare legislation, follow this LINK.
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“Go Blue” on Tuesday, May 2nd for National Foster Care Awareness Day
On May 2, 2017, millions of people will “go blue”, to stand in solidarity with those who have been impacted by foster care and show their support for the 402,000 youth in foster care in the United States.
Project Blue, founded in 2015 by current and former foster youth, is asking supporters to wear blue, as well as change their Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media profile pictures to the color blue on Tuesday, May 2 for #goblueday / National Foster Care Awareness Day.
Supporters can join the #goblueday Facebook event; post photos of wearing blue on the Facebook page, tagging them #goblueday; and comment why they are participating in #goblueday. Supporters can also share the Facebook event on their social media pages. To learn more, visit Project Blue’s Facebook page.
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