Foster Care and Juvenile Justice
Foster Care & Juvenile Justice: Other Resources
ELC Publications
- Click here for ELC's fact sheets on the education of children in the foster care and juvenile justice systems.
Other Publications and Reports
This is a selection of reports and studies concerning children in the foster care and juvenile justice systems. Many of the agencies and organizations listed below offer additional reports, studies and data.
- "Arrested Development:
Students with Disabilities and School Referrals to Law Enforcement in
- Assessing the Effects of Foster Care: Early Results from the Casey National Alumni Study) (Casey Family Programs): Data collected from case records and interviews of 1,087 Casey foster-care alumni served between 1966 and 1998 on their life experiences, educational achievements, and current functioning
- Educating Children in Foster Care (National Conference of State Legislatures): Provides an overview of the issues surrounding educating foster children and examples of successful state initiatives.
- Forgotten Children: A Case for Action for Children and Youth with Disabilities in Foster Care, a report released by United Cerebral Palsy and Children’s Rights in May 2006, reveals that at least 1/3 of the more than 500,000 children in the child welfare system have disabilities and that their unique needs are often not met by the systems that serve them, which leads to many problems including poor educational outcomes.
- Getting Out of the “Red Zone”: Youth From the Juvenile Justice and Child Welfare Systems Speak Out About the Obstacles to Completing Their Education, and What Could Help (Youth Law Center): Reports on focus groups for children in juvenile justice and foster care, detailing problems faced and strategies for remedying the problems.
- Guide to Special Education Advocacy for Resource Families (Casey Programs): Guide for foster parents on special education issues.
- Incarceration of Youth Who Are Waiting for Community
Mental Health Services in the United States (
- Make a Difference in a Child’s Life: A Manual for Helping Children and Youth Get What They Need in School (Team Child): Though targeted for Washington state, the manual provides general info on how to be a good advocate to get basic and special educational services for foster children.
- Meeting the Educational Needs of Students with
Disabilities in Short-Term Detention Facilities (
- Special Education and the Juvenile Justice System (U.S. Dept. of Justice): Information about the impact of special education issues on juvenile justice matters.
- Students with Disabilities in Correctional Facilities (Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice): Major findings of national survey on the prevalence of students with disabilities in correctional facilities and the educational and related services offered to them.
- What Keeps Children in Foster Care from Succeeding in School? Views of Early Adolescents and the Adults in Their Lives (Vera Institute): Describes the educational experiences of foster children, detailing obstacles to education and suggesting means to improve educational opportunities.
Government Agencies
- U.S. Department of Education
- U.S. Department of HHS, Administration for Children & Families
- U.S. Department of HHS, Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS): National data resource for children in the child welfare system.
- U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, National Criminal Justice Reference Service: Research and reports on juvenile justice matters.
- PA Department of Education
- PA Department of Public Welfare: Child Welfare Homepage
- PA Higher Education Assistance Agency: Information on grants of up to $5000 for students aging out of foster care who plan to attend post-secondary schools.
Other Organizations
- AnnieE. Casey Foundation: Foundation that supports work on behalf of children in the child welfare system. Website contains links to KidsCount data resources as well as a wealth of publications on education issues.
- Casey Family Programs: National foundation that has served children, youth, and families in the child welfare system since 1966 both through direct services and by promoting advances in child-welfare practice and policy. Highlights from the website include a recent manual on older youth in transition (entitled “It's My Life”) and a manual on education advocacy (“Roadmap for Learning”). Casey Family Programs also has data on educational achievement of youth in foster care from its national foster care alumni study.
- Center for Law and Education: National support center offering expertise and publications concerning legal rights and responsibilities of students.
- Chapin Hall Center for Children: Research on issues affecting children in foster care, including studies on educational outcomes and barriers.
- Child Welfare League of America: National organization that advocates for children in the child welfare system. The website contains the “National Data Analysis System,” a comprehensive data resource that integrates child welfare data from many sources.
- Juvenile Law Center: PA-based nonprofit that works for the rights of children involved with the dependency and juvenile justice systems
- National Center for Juvenile Justice: Conducts research and provides technical assistance about juvenile justice.
- National Center on Education, Disability and Juvenile Justice (EDJJ): A collaborative program designed to develop more effective responses to the needs of youth with disabilities at risk for or in the juvenile justice system.
- National Child Welfare Resource Center on Legal and Judicial Issues: Excellent compilation of reports, state legislation, and interagency agreements that address the education needs of vulnerable children, including children in foster care and children who are homeless
- National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges: National organization of judges, referees, masters and other juvenile and family law related professionals that provides training, technical assistance and resource to assist the nation’s courts. For the NCJFCJ’s field-tested judicial checklist designed to ensure that educational needs of children in foster care are being met, click here.
- National Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) Association
- National Foster Parent Association
- National Juvenile Defender Center: The Center is committed to building the capacity of the juvenile defense bar and to improving access to counsel and quality of representation for children in the juvenile justice system.
- Pennsylvania Protection & Advocacy
- Pennsylvania State Foster Parent Association
- Youth Law Center: Investigates conditions of
confinement and protects children through litigation.