Detroit Evening Report: Michigan school board wants to help foster children graduate on time
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Michigan’s Board of Education members approved a resolution aimed at helping foster care youth graduate on time.
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Chalkbeat Detroit reports teenagers and young adults who end up in foster care face unique barriers to completing their education. Foster youth move around and change schools often — and sometimes take courses within their group homes — which do not meet state guidelines or transfer to accredited institutions.
Over 10,000 children are in Michigan’s foster care system, with only about 40% graduating on time in four years, compared to 80% of the general population. Without the changes, some students are scrambling to go back to school and get their GED even after completing several years of schooling.
Board members did not specify what policies have been approved.
“We want systemic change,” said board member Tiffany Tilley, who introduced a resolution requesting the state Legislature “to amend laws that will guarantee that vulnerable youth receive credit-bearing educational programming that will keep them on target to receive high school diplomas and allow them to access post-secondary opportunities.”
Other headlines for Dec. 21, 2022:
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- Detroit Mayor Duggan names Marshall Bullock II as new government affairs director
- DTE, Detroit’s Public Lighting Authority to update Belle Isle’s solar powered streetlights
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