H.R. 5868 (112th): Fostering Success in Education Act

Introduced:
May 30, 2012 (112th Congress, 2011–2013)
Sponsor:
Rep. John Lewis [D-GA5]
Status:
Died (Referred to Committee)

The bill’s title was written by the bill’s sponsor. H.R. stands for House of Representatives bill.

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Status

This bill was introduced on May 30, 2012, in a previous session of Congress, but was not enacted.

Progress
Introduced May 30, 2012
Referred to Committee May 30, 2012
Cosponsors
none
Committees

House Education and the Workforce

House Ways and Means

The committee chair determines whether a bill will move past the committee stage.

Full Title

To provide children in foster care with school stability and equal access to educational opportunities.

Summary

No summaries available.

Text

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Last updated May 30, 2012.
75 pages

Primary Source

View on THOMAS (The Library of Congress)

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GovTrack’s Bill Summary

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Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

5/30/2012--Introduced.
Fostering Success in Education Act - Requires each state receiving school improvement funds under part A of title I of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 to ensure that its foster care children have the right to:
(1) continue attending the school they were in when placed in foster care or before a change in such placement (school of origin), unless it is determined to be in the child's best interest to be immediately enrolled in a different school;
(2) immediate enrollment in a new school in their school attendance area;
(3) well-maintained school records that are available in a timely manner;
(4) equal access to the same education and opportunities as other students attending the school or school district; and
(5) free transportation to and from their school.
Includes preschool children as beneficiaries of such rights, with respect to preschool programs.
Requires states to:
(1) ensure that their state and local educational agencies (LEAs) and child welfare agencies collaborate in specified activities aimed at satisfying such rights; and
(2) maintain a complaint management system, as well as an effective system for transferring and recovering a foster child's school credits.
Requires an LEA serving a foster child's school of origin to make an expedited decision on whether it is in the foster child's best interest to attend such school or be immediately enrolled in a new school in the child's school attendance area, unless the state decides that the decision is to be made solely by the dependency court or state or local child welfare agency.
Requires states to have fair and impartial procedures to resolve school selection disputes promptly.
Allows parties who claim that their rights under this Act have been violated to bring a civil action in the appropriate U.S. district court.
Directs the Secretary of Education to allot grants to states and, through them, competitive subgrants to public agencies, including LEAs and local child welfare agencies, to carry out this Act's requirements.
Requires each state grantee to:
(1) implement a Secretary-approved state foster care and education plan for satisfying this Act's requirements; and
(2) establish a Stakeholder Council that monitors, and makes recommendations regarding, plan implementation.
Amends part E (Foster Care and Adoption Assistance) of title IV of the Social Security Act to require state child welfare agencies to arrange for, provide, or pay the cost of the transportation necessary for foster children to remain in the school they attended at the time of their placement.
Requires state and local child welfare and educational agencies to collaborate in eliminating barriers to the educational stability, enrollment, and success of foster children.

House Republican Conference Summary

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No summary available.

House Democratic Caucus Summary

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The bill contains the following citations to other parts of U.S. law:

Slip Laws

Slip laws refer to enacted bills and joint resolutions in their original form as enacted by Congress, that is, before other laws amend them. Slip laws are cited as “Public Law XXX-YYY”, where XXX is the number of the Congress in which the bill or resolution was introduced.

  • Public Law 110-351

United States Code

The United States Code is the compilation of permanent laws enacted by Congress. Temporary and other non-permanent laws do not appear in the United States Code. (About half of the United States Code is the law itself, called positive law. The other half is merely a compilation of the laws but has no legal significance.)