On May 16 the Omnibus Education Policy Bill, HF 2397, was signed into law by Governor Dayton. Within the bill text there is an overarching theme related to childhood academic achievement, including a provision allowing for greater educational stability for youth in foster care and others related to English learners and their families. As these provisions are connected with improving educational outcomes for at-risk youth, they could have significant impacts on both the education and child welfare systems.
Two Mandates Impacting Disparities and English Learners
Head Start
One of the first provisions of the new law adds supplemental criteria for students involved in the Head Start Program. Under current mandates Head Start programs are required to work towards closing the achievement gap for at-risk students, use integrated approaches to teaching literacy, support home languages while also helping students master English, and use ongoing data assessments to help measure student progress. The new mandates will now require Head Start programs to focus additional efforts on English learners through:
- Using culturally relevant, integrated approaches to literacy teaching, and
- Providing parents of English learners with oral and written information to monitor program’s impact on children’s English and native language development/proficiency.
Head Start is a federal program that works with children from low-income families up until the age of 5 to ensure that they are prepared for school. Along with a heavy focus on literacy, Head Start also emphasizes working towards positive emotional and social development and integrating multiple methods of learning. With regards to child welfare, Head Start programs are encouraged to prioritize children involved in the child welfare system when selecting children for services. Because children involved in the public child welfare system often face developmental challenges as a result of trauma, poverty, homelessness, parental mental health issues, or mental health concerns of their own, the comprehensive services offered by Head Start programs can be positive options for helping these children become successful in school and in life.
World’s Best Workforce
The second provision related to child welfare also integrates additional mandates to an already existing program. Last year a law was passed in the Minnesota legislature that required school districts to adopt programs for reviewing curriculum, instruction, and student achievement. This mandated program, known as “World’s Best Workforce,” is defined through a school’s ability to:
- Meet school readiness goals
- Ensure all students are reading at grade level by the end of 3rd grade
- Close academic achievement gaps between all racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups
- Ensure all students attain college and career readiness after graduating high school
- Ensure all students graduate high school
Similar to the Head Start criteria, newly integrated into the “World’s Best Workforce” program are criteria requiring districts to work towards improving the student achievement of English learners by developing both their English and native language proficiency. Furthermore, school districts will now also be required to pursue community support to accelerate the English and native language literacy, as well as the academic achievement of English learners.
These new provisions are highly applicable to child welfare practice given the racial/ethnic and economic disparities that exist within both education and child welfare systems. Many English-learning youth are impacted by disparities in education, and while there is little data regarding the number of non-native English speaking families who are involved in the child welfare system, a study conducted by the Applied Research Center did find that in 2011 at least 5,100 children across the United States were in foster care as a result of a caregiver’s detention or deportation.
Foster Care & Educational Stability
This new law also promotes educational stability for students in foster care by allowing students who are placed in foster care to be eligible for continued enrollment in the school district they attended prior to their placement. There are several important implications of this mandate on child welfare practice that are covered in a previous post that discussed this specific mandate.
What ties all of these mandates together are their emphasis on ensuring that all children and youth at risk of poor outcomes, including children and youth in foster care, receive the services they need and therefore are able to reach their full potential. How do you think these provisions will impact disparities? Do you think they will help provide enhanced support for English learners? Leave a comment!