MIAMI (AP) — Federal lawmakers have passed a bill that will give social workers better access to school records in an effort to improve dismal education outcomes for foster children.
Social workers had been required to get a court order to access a foster child's school records. But advocates say red tape has made it extremely difficult because foster youths change schools frequently as they move between different homes. Some students end up taking the same classes over because credits are lost or don't transfer.
Rep. Karen Bass, a Democrat from California, sponsored the bill. The measure passed the House on Tuesday.
Bass is part of the Congressional Caucus on Foster Youth.
The group has focused on education, noting 50 percent of the nation's more than 400,000 foster kids won't graduate from high school.
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