WASHINGTON – Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa will participate in a news conference with fellow foster youth advocates, focusing on the need for school stability for foster youth. Grassley is founder and co-chair of the Senate Caucus on Foster Youth and ranking member of the Finance Committee, with jurisdiction over foster care programs. Earlier this year, the Senate Caucus on Foster Youth successfully encouraged the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee to include testimony from a former foster youth on the challenges of switching schools at a hearing on reauthorizing federal education legislation. A primary goal of the Senate Caucus on Foster Youth is to substantively involve foster youth in shaping policy that affects them.
The details of the news conference follow here.
***MEDIA ADVISORY***
Back to School, Back to Instability: New Study Shows Foster Children Struggle in Math, English and other standardized tests
Bipartisan Hill Leaders and DC ‘Real Housewife’ Stacie Scott Turner Call for Change, Equal Opportunity
Washington, DC— As millions of hopeful children engage in familiar back-to-school rituals, early new data shows that the educational playing field is not level for children in foster care, whose academic careers are often impacted by multiple school relocations. Foster youth persistently score lower than their peers in all educational measures. The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute and Fostering Media Connections will release new data that supports their call to action at a press conference on Thursday, September 23rd from 12:00—1:00PM in Washington, D.C. at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center, room SVC 215.
WHO:
• Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.): Co-Chair of the Senate Caucus on Foster Youth and Co-Chair of the Congressional Coalition on Adoption
• Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa): Founder and Co-Chair of the Senate Caucus on Foster Youth; Ranking Member of the Finance Committee which oversees child welfare financing.
• Rep. Jim McDermott (D-Wash.): Sponsor of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act.
• Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.): Sponsor of the School Choice for Foster Kids Act and foster mom.
• Stacie Scott Turner: Star of Bravo’s Real Housewives of DC, former foster child and founder of Extra-Ordinary Life, which provides a new outlook on life for girls in foster care.
• Sokhom Mao: Former Foster Youth from California who benefited from state law that ensures educational stability.
• Christina Miranda: Former foster youth who experienced three moves in elementary school, three in middle school and an additional four in high school.
• Molly McGrath: Baltimore City Department of Social Services Director who outlines the need for collaboration between education and child welfare.
WHAT:
As children head back to school, this event will identify the factors that impact educational outcomes for youth in foster care, and ways the federal government might act to address them.
WHEN:
Thursday Sept. 23, 2010 from 12:00PM—1:00PM
WHERE:
U.S. Capitol Visitor Center SVC 215
CONTACT:
For more information about the event, please contact Daniel Heimpel with Fostering Media Connections at 510.334.8636, or dheimpel@fosteringmediaconnections.org.
The Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute (www.ccainstitute.org) is a non-governmental, non-profit organization that strives to be an objective, educational resource for information critical to advancing the efforts of federal policymakers on behalf of children in need of homes. Please follow us on Twitter (http://twitter.com/ccainstitute), Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/ccainstitute), YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/ccainstitute), and our blog (http://ccainstitute.wordpress.com/).