PHOENIX—More than 60 Arizona juvenile and family court judges meet Friday, June 24 to learn how decisions in their courtroom can support educational success for children in foster care. The training focuses on the Judicial Checklist on Education, a simple reference that gives a judge the tools to probe more deeply about issues that will make the biggest educational difference in a child’s life.
Children in foster care change schools more frequently than those not in the system and with each change they risk falling further behind their peers academically. They are more likely to drop out of high school and less likely to enroll in college.
Judges have a hand in such decisions as where foster children live, who they live with, and whether they change homes, families and schools. “Judges provide a common touch point for all dependents of the state,” said Dennis Ichikawa, director of Casey Family Program’s Phoenix office, the largest national foundation whose sole mission is to provide and improve—and ultimately prevent the need for—foster care. “A judge who knows the right questions to ask can make the difference between a child’s educational success and failure.”
Even with trained judges asking the right questions at the right time, children still need foster parents to support them. Currently Arizona has nearly 10,000 children in custody and only about 2,400 foster parents to care for them. Without enough foster parents, children end up changing homes and schools more often. In addition, studies show education to be a key ingredient to success later in life, and that advocates and mentors working for the educational needs of children are effective in helping those children succeed.
The judicial checklist was developed by Casey Family Programs and TeamChild, an advocacy group in the state of Washington. The checklist was recently piloted and revised by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Association (NCJFCJ). The checklist can be viewed at: http://www.ncjfcj.org/content/view/340/322/.