In the brief video below, Vanessa, age 21 and a college student in Connecticut, tells her courageous story. Vanessa was a foster child since she was four months old, and experienced over 20 placements and 10 school changes during that time. Her story illustrates why providing school stability for foster children is so crucial.

Watch the Windows Media video  if you have any trouble with the "flash" video below.

Please support Raised S.B. 159 - An Act Concerning Foster Placement and Education, a bill currently before the legislature!

If passed, this bill will allow children in the care of the Department of Children and Families to continue to attend the same school when their placement changes. As Vanessa's story demonstrates, foster children in Connecticut are frequently uprooted from their schools when they are removed from their families or shuffled between foster homes or institutions. These frequent changes are traumatic for foster children. When a foster child changes schools, not only does this child lose his or her parents and possibly siblings, but also the connections to classmates, teachers, coaches and school activities -- the aspects of life that create a sense of security, self-worth and belonging.

School disruptions have devastating short and long-term effects on the education, mental health and eventually, the life outcomes of foster children. Studies have shown that it takes a child approximately three to six months to recover academically from each school transfer, and some foster youth have more than 10 changes. When youth leave care without a diploma they are at great risk for joblessness, homelessness and perpetuating the cycle of poverty which puts so many children in foster care in the first place.

For more information on the issue please read:

• Our issue brief on school stability
• Our testimony before the Committee on Children on the issue (PDF)