Foster Youth Data Still Being Unreported in NYC, Several Districts Statewide Despite ESSA
October 22, 2019
Once again, “school achievement data for foster youth, considered one of the most vulnerable and least tracked student groups, will not be reported for the nation’s largest school district…despite its being mandated” by ESSA. The New York City Department of Education says, “it will identify which students are foster youth in the pupil data it sends to the New York State Education Department starting with the 2019-20 school year.” However, this information should have reported beginning with the 2017-18 school year under mandates included in ESSA. In fact, “more than half of New York state’s 721 districts did not identify a single foster youth student in 2017-18.” Without this data, the performance and challenges facing such a high-risk group often goes unnoticed, making it significantly harder for education officials to address inequities or to know where to invest time and resources to focus on student improvement.