The Alliance for Children’s Rights protects the rights of impoverished, abused and neglected children and youth.

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Policy Will Keep Kids on Track to Graduate

On Wednesday, September 4, the Child Welfare Council of the California Health & Human Services Agency adopted a partial credit policy formula that was developed and presented by the Alliance to ensure foster youth who are shuffled from school to school can get credit for the work they’ve already done. This will help more youth stay on track to graduate.

Kids who grow up in foster care are often forced to change homes an average of six times while in care. Many foster youth will transfer high schools between two and five times. Mid-semester disruptions can derail learning, but it also sets youth up to fail when their high school credits don’t make the move with them.

Despite a legal mandate, only five of Los Angeles’ 89 school districts have such a formula in place, so this approved formula is a much needed prescription to a long time problem. Thanks to the approved partial credit policy formula, all California schools will have a tool to use to determine how many partial credits to offer foster youth for work completed.

Eleventh grader, Sarah, a member of the First Star UCLA Bruin Guardian Academy (read about our partnership here) attended the meeting in Sacramento with Alliance education attorneys to testify about the need for a partial credit policy. Sarah’s testimony was accompanied by a video created by the Alliance and First Star about partial credits with the stories of Sarah and two of her fellow academy students. We encourage you to watch the video to learn more about how this partial credit policy will put more youth on track to high school graduation and on to college.

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