Transforming Education Outcomes for Children and Youth in Texas Foster Care
In 2010, the Supreme Court of Texas issued an Order Establishing the Education Committee of the Children's Commission. The Education Committee — a high-level group of court, education, and child welfare decision-makers — created a collaborative initiative and produced a roadmap for the Education Committee to follow, the Texas Blueprint: Transforming Education Outcomes for Children and Youth in Foster Care.
The Education Committee recognized that when the state has the legal status of a parent for a child in its Temporary Managing Conservatorship, the child’s community is also responsible to provide support to that child as they experience the child welfare system. Through improved communication and collaboration, the court, child welfare, and education systems are better equipped to meet the educational needs of students in care.
Working together, the various systems affecting the children and youth in care can aim to improve the educational outcomes of our children and youth in care.
In December 2012, the Supreme Court of Texas signed an order officially discharging the Education Committee from its duties and creating a new Texas Blueprint Implementation Task Force and Advisory Council to continue the collaboration begun by the Education Committee and to monitor the progress of implementation of the recommendations issued in the Texas Blueprint. The Implementation Task Force met from January 2013 until December 2014, at which time it provided recommendations in the Texas Blueprint Implementation Task Force Final Report for future work to the Children's Commission.
