Program Builds School Supports for Foster Pupils

Sarah Mitchell, a community college student in Pomona, Calif., credits an innovative program that provides academic supports for Los Angeles-area high school students in foster care with putting her on the path to higher education.

—Jamie Rector for Education Week

By Sarah D. Sparks

Los Angeles

Five districts in the Los Angeles area are weaving a web of interagency supports to catch a group of high school students who face an especially great risk for slipping through the cracks in school: youths in foster care.

The Education Pilot Program, a collaboration of school administrators and social workers, academic tutors, and student advocates, supports high school foster students by developing holistic learning plans, much like those created for special education students, and coordinating interagency supports. Modeled on a framework developed by the Baltimore-based Annie E. Casey Foundation, the program has shown the potential to become a national model for keeping foster students on track to graduate and go on to college.

Its research track record earned it the highest available rating in the federal Investing in Innovation, or i3, competition earlier this year, enabling the program to secure more than $3.6 million in grant money over the next four years to conduct a larger pilot and...