The advocates, parents and legislators who work toward better results for kids in foster care have good news to report.

The U.S. Senate has given unanimous approval to a bipartisan amendment I co-authored that would help to get children in the foster care system enrolled in available child care programs as quickly as possible by making them eligible for a paperwork grace period. The goal is to get these children into safe and secure child care and make sure it can happen with the kind of flexibility needed due to the realities facing children in foster care.

The foster care amendment is now part of legislation (S.1086) to reauthorize the Child Care Development Block Grant program. The program is the primary source of federal funding for child-care assistance through block grants awarded to states. The bill as proposed created a grace period for homeless families to compile required medical documentation for their children to access child-care services. My amendment extends the grace period to children in foster care. Next, the House of Representatives will consider its own version of the legislation. I’ll work toward final enactment of my amendment.

In another good development, the Department of Education responded positively to a call from a bipartisan group of senators, including me, to reach out to foster youth about available college aid and other resources that could help them succeed.

Foster youth often don’t know about the resources available to them. As a result, the kids don’t take advantage of an educational program or other opportunity that might make a difference in their lives. The Department of Education is taking steps to reach out to foster kids and inform them about existing resources that might help them get to college. I’m glad to see this effort. Only three percent of foster youth graduate from college. We can do a lot better.

The last development is six new senators have joined the Senate Caucus on Foster Youth in the last month. As founder and co-chair of the caucus, I welcome the new momentum toward foster youth policy. Nearly 400,000 children are in the foster system due to abuse or neglect; every year more than 23,000 of those children age out of the system with no place to call home. All of us working together will continue to make progress for these kids.