40% of students from group homes don't graduate from
high school
Foster kids low achievers
The U.S. Government spends an average of $65,000 to
$85,000 a year to house and educate each foster child in a group home,
but many receive a poor education and 40 percent don't graduate from
high school, officials said Friday.
Local government and education officials have known
about the problem for a decade or longer, but their reforms have
produced few improvements for the hundreds of thousands of children who
have cycled through Los Angeles County's foster care system, said
officials at a summit held at Loyola Law School.
"Many people say the morality of society is defined by
how we treat our children," said Miriam Aroni Krinsky, executive
director of the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles. "With that
yardstick, while we are one of the most affluent countries in the world,
many would reasonably question our morality given how we treat our
children."
According to studies released at the summit, one of
the biggest problems contributing to the poor education of foster
children is the high number of schools they attend — on average, nine
schools by age 18.
The national average cost figure of $65,000 or more
includes housing, as well as $20,000 to $30,000 a year to educate foster
youths. In some cases involving special needs children, the annual price
tag exceeds $150,000.
The new studies show nearly 40 percent of foster
children don't graduate from high school, 75 percent perform below their
grade level and more than half are held back at least a year in school -
statistics that show foster children perform significantly worse than
other children, Krinsky said.
A May study by Mental Health Advocacy Services Inc., a
Los Angeles nonprofit organization, found foster youth are more likely
than other children to have academic and behavioral trouble in school
and perform significantly lower on standardized achievement tests in
reading and mathematics and earn lower grades. Those problems lead many
foster children to be placed in special education.
"The most challenging job in education is teaching
foster kids," Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky said, adding that the children
face an uphill battle because of the abusive families they came from and
the difficult lives they have.
"Each of these kids has a difficult story and when you
put it all together, it's volcanic."
By Troy Anderson
19 May 2003
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~20954~1397038,00.html
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