The city Department of Education will finally make good on a long-delayed promise to increase support for its thousands of students in foster care, The Post has learned.
The department is set to introduce by next school year a first-of-its-kind, central office supporting such students, after outcry from families, advocates and some local politicians.
“We are proud to build a team that is wholly devoted to serving our students in foster care,” said Suzan Sumer, a spokesperson for the DOE.
Advocates said the specialized division could help improve abysmal outcomes for these kids, who disproportionately drop out of school.
Just 43% of New York City students in foster care graduated on time in 2021, compared to 81% of their peers out of the system.
The commitment to fully staffing the office comes after more than 30 advocacy groups sent a letter to Mayor Eric Adams and Schools Chancellor David Banks on Friday urging them to make good on a proposal from the prior administration.
Mayor Eric Adams promised to improve child care and early childhood education in a press event at the Union Carver Child Care Center on June 28, 2022. Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/Shutterstock
Advocacy groups demanded Mayor Eric Adams and Schools Chancellor David Banks to hire full-time staffers focused on foster care students. Anthony Behar/Sipa USA“Last fall, the City announced a first-ever DOE team devoted to meeting the unique needs of students in foster care. However, the DOE delayed posting these positions,” read the letter, co-signed by Advocates for Children and other child welfare and education groups.
“While we understand that several positions are now moving forward, the DOE has still not committed publicly to hiring the full team that it promised to serve students in foster care,” it said.
The student group has also been a top priority for the City Council education committee, which held an oversight hearing on supporting the population in the spring.
“We have already begun the hiring process for four of these important positions and are excited to share that three offers have already been extended,” said Sumer of the DOE.
The team plans to fill all nine, newly created positions this coming school year, she said.
At least six of those positions will solely serve students in foster care, according to the DOE, while another two posts will support those students as well as kids in temporary housing.
Still, the plan falls short of the initial proposal during former Mayor Bill de Blasio’s tenure, which called for a full team of 11 staffers — seven hires focused on students in foster care, and four on students in foster care or temporary housing.
Less than half of foster care students graduated on time in the Big Apple in 2021. Getty Images/iStockphotoAdvocates, in their letter Friday, also called on the DOE to guarantee foster care students receive bus transportation — as required by federal law — so they don’t have to change schools each time they are placed in a new home.
Close to one in five students switched schools when entering foster care — and again with each change in foster care placement, the advocates wrote, citing data from the 2019-2020 school year.
“For students separated from their families and placed in foster care, school has the potential to be an important stabilizing factor in their lives,” read the memo. “However, without guaranteed transportation, this potential often goes unrealized, causing many students to transfer schools and experience further instability.”
