An "electronic backpack" could help with foster care children's transitions between schools
Children in foster care often bounce around to different homes, which typically means different school systems, as well. Transferring educational records between so many school districts can become difficult, often leading to lost documents and tough transitions for the students. At the beginning of 2020, students in foster care were graduating high school at a rate of less than 56%, as reported by The Boston Globe. This number is certainly not helped by the difficult and frequent changes that so many of these kids have to endure.
A lot of these kids have difficult childhoods, with no long-term guardian present in their life. They also are jumping into different curricula with different teachers much more frequently than normal students, which can make it harder to keep up and truly learn the subject matter. When teachers don't understand the backgrounds of their new pupils, it can be much more difficult to make sure that these kids are on the same track as the rest of the students.
"Electronic backpack" proposal
Recently, lawmakers have proposed an "electronic backpack" for these kids, which would digitize their educational files and keep them safely organized. Co-chair of the Committee on Children, Families, and Persons with Disabilities, Kay Khan, filed this bill that would put the Department of Children and Families in charge of developing the "electronic backpack", Newburyport News reports. This would ensure that all important educational records would travel with foster care kids to each of their new schools. However, this data would still be private, and would only be made available to people who are specifically authorized to provide educational care for the student.
The Boston Globe pointed out that San Diego County has been using something similar to an "electronic backpack" since 2006, which has allowed them to revolutionize the tactic, incorporating medical records into the backpack as well. This information is still very private, and is only made available to those who would truly need to see it. For children who go through many hardships in their youth, lawmakers are hopeful that the "electronic backpack" is a step in the right direction to helping these kids improve their educational experience.
