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Finishing high school or earning a GED certificate before you age out of foster care is very important. In fact, this is probably one of the best things that you can do to help yourself prepare to be an adult and improve your employment options, income, and future educational and training opportunities.
There are certain rights you have regarding attending high school even after you turn 18:
- If you are in high school, you can continue enrolling in public high school in Texas up until age 21.
- If you are younger than 21 on September 1st, you can enroll and complete that school year.
- If you are enrolled in high school, you can stay in extended foster care up until the last day of the month you turn 22.
While the school district may limit what schools you can attend based on your criminal record or disciplinary history, you should contact the Texas Foster Youth Justice Project for help and guidance if you are being denied enrollment because of your age or some other reason. Some school districts may have alternative programs to help you complete your high school education. As a youth in foster care, you are also entitled to the following services:
- Credit recovery;
- Accelerated instruction;
- Intensive instruction;
- Free or low-cost summer school classes to make up classes before the next school year begins; and
- Access to the Texas Virtual School Network to help you complete high school more quickly.
You should talk to your school counselor about these services. If the counselor is unfamiliar with these programs, ask to speak to the school district’s foster youth liaison or homeless education liaison.
Some other important things to know about foster care and high school:
When a foster youth moves to a new school, they must be immediately enrolled even if the student does not have their birth certificate or school records.
You should be able to stay in the same school you were in when you entered foster care and when you change placements unless it is not in your best interest. Your school and CPS are supposed to figure out transportation. If you don’t want to change schools, you need to demand help with transportation. However, schools won’t be able to help with transportation if your new placement is far away from your school.
If you change schools due to a change in placement, you cannot be kept from participating in activities or sports because you have not lived there long enough. The UIL (University Interscholastic League) residency requirements do not apply to youth in foster care.
If you are in foster care and you miss school for any of the following reasons, your absence will be excused and cannot be used to deny your course credit if you miss more than 10% of class time due to those hours. It is still important to try to schedule these activities outside of school hours because, even if the absence is excused, you will need to make up the work and you will miss out on what happens while you are gone.
- Mental health or therapy appointments for you or your child;
- Court-ordered visitation or other court-ordered activities; or
- Activities required by your CPS service plan.
If you are in the 11th or 12th grade when you transfer schools and your new school has different graduation requirements than your old school, you can get your diploma from the new school as long as you meet the requirements of your old school.
Sometimes when you are in foster care you may miss school because you are forced to move schools or there may be issues related to your placement or your case. Your school cannot refer you to court for truancy (missing school) if you miss school because you are in foster care. The school needs to work with you, your placement, and CPS instead. The same is true if you missed school because you were homeless, were earning money for your family, you had to leave home due to abuse, or are pregnant. However, if you are just skipping school because you did not feel like going (not because of a foster care problem, homelessness, pregnancy, or because you were working), you can still be referred to truancy court. If staff at your school have told you that you are in trouble for missing school, be sure to talk to someone there, like a counselor or teacher, about your personal situation. Truancy is no longer a criminal offense and can only be addressed in a civil court.
When your placement changes, the DFPS regional education specialists can help with issues like transportation to your old school, delays in enrollment because the school wants documents like your birth certificate, and course credit issues. You or anyone working with you can contact the DFPS education specialist for the area where your school is located – you can find the contact information here.