A. Education Data

National studies show that youth in foster care have poor educational outcomes when compared to their peers in the general population. Youth in foster care are more likely to be suspended or expelled, score lower on statewide standardized tests, repeat a grade, and to drop out, and less likely to graduate. For more information on these studies, please see: National Working Group on Foster Care and Education (2014, January), “Fostering Success in Education: National Factsheet on the Educational Outcomes of Children in Foster Care”.[8]

According to data collected by the Texas Education Agency (TEA) Public Education Information Management System (PEIMS) during the 2012-2013 school year, which captured the “leaver” status, the reason why a student left school, only 38.8 percent of Texas youth in foster care left because they graduated, compared to 72.4 percent of the general student population. During the same school year, the leaver status of students in foster care who left school because they dropped out was 28.6 percent, compared to 8.3 percent of the general student population. Youth in foster care in Texas also had lower high school achievement, were more likely to be in special education, and were less likely to be in the gifted and talented program. For further detail, please see Data on Foster Children Attending Texas Public Schools.[9]