AN ACT CONCERNING FOSTER PLACEMENT AND EDUCATION.

This bill creates a presumption that it is in the best interest of children placed in foster care to continue to attend, through the highest grade, the school they attended before the placement, provided the school is located within 25 miles of the current foster home. It supersedes any other state law to the contrary. A court must make a determination when the presumption is disputed.

Under the bill, the districts where such children attend school must count them as resident students for purposes of (1) school attendance requirements; (2) student health assessments and other health requirements; (3) school meal programs; (4) student records; (5) grading, curriculum, statistical reporting, and discipline; and (6) distribution formulas for state education grants including Education Cost Sharing (ECS) and school construction project grants. The local or regional board of education for the district where the child attends school must provide or continue to provide needed special education and related services. Districts may apply for existing state grants for special education costs for such students after July 1, 2009.

The bill makes the Department of Children and Families (DCF) responsible for transporting the child from the district where he or she is placed to the child's former school and for any associated transportation costs.

P. L. 110-351, the 2008 Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, requires a foster child's case plan to:

1. assure that a child's placement takes account of his or her current educational setting and proximity to the school;

2. assure that the state agency has coordinated with local educational agencies to ensure the child remains in school;

3. assure that the state and local agencies will provide immediate enrollment and transfer the child's records to a new school, if remaining in the school is not in the child's best interest; and

4. consider reasonable travel to allow the child to remain in his or her current school.

HB 6497, reported favorably by the Education Committee, establishes the same presumption as this bill. But HB 6497 (1) applies the requirements to all children placed in DCF custody under a temporary custody or commitment order, (2) requires the State Board of Education to pay 100% of any excess special education costs for the child, (3) makes its attendance presumption effective July 1, 2010, and (4) requires DCF to report statistics on the number of children affected.

Yea

Nay

(03/17/2009)