Foster hope for the kids
Call for school bus guarantee
Nearly 20 groups representing New York City foster kids pleaded with officials to finally guarantee school buses to students in foster care so they no longer have to switch schools because they can’t get to class.
After pressure from advocates and lawmakers, the city Education Department added a foster care transportation liaison this year. Foster care agencies say that’s been a helpful step, but doesn’t solve the underlying problem.
“Last school year, more than one in four students in New York City had to change schools after entering foster care,” advocates said in a letter Friday to various city agencies, including the Administration for Children’s Services and the Education Department, noting that the disruption of changing schools compounds the trauma of entering the foster system.
“No student in foster care should be forced to change schools due to lack of transportation,” the groups added.
Currently, kids in foster care can get school bus service only if the new pickup can be added to an existing bus route — something the new foster care transportation liaison has helped with, advocates said.
But for kids whose foster homes aren’t on already available bus routes, the city offers only a MetroCard or reimbursement for cabs. That’s little help to foster parents of young children who have to accompany their charges, which can mean hours of commuting time.
That often results in foster homes declining new placements or kids switching schools, both of which can add to the trauma of being removed from a home, advocates say.
City Councilman Mark Treyger (inset), a Brooklyn Democrat, said the city has an “obligation to do what we can” to fund buses for foster students in upcoming budget negotiations.
An Education Department spokeswoman said the agency has made strides with the new transportation coordinator and will continue to follow federal law, which dictates that school districts provide transportation for foster kids.
A spokeswoman for the Administration for Children’s Services, which oversees foster care, said, “Our goal is always to minimize trauma when children must enter foster care, and that’s why we do everything we can to maintain as much continuity as possible, which includes school stability.”