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Students in Michigan’s foster care system are still routinely denied access to their school records, despite years of raising concerns about the problem.
On Tuesday, foster youth and advocates told the State Board of Education they want the Michigan Department of Education and lawmakers to address the systemic problem by requiring schools to provide immediate access to transcripts, creating a centralized statewide database of records, and forming a multi-department taskforce to lead reform efforts.
Foster youth have lost years of education because they could not find or access their records, as NBC News first reported in 2022.
“This isn’t just a broken system — it’s a betrayal of the very youth it was meant to present,” Donella Anderson, a foster youth, said during Tuesday’s board meeting. “And every day that passes without action is another day that we are left behind — another day I am left behind.”
There are an estimated 10,000 kids in foster care in Michigan, but the total number is unknown because many go uncounted, advocates say. For example, people ages 18 to 23 who are still eligible to receive state services are not included in that count.
Michigan foster youth have a high school graduation rate of around 40% — about 40 percentage points behind the state’s overall graduation rate. That figure doesn’t include youth who drop out or complete high school in residential facilities.
Three bills signed into law last year addressed some of the issues that foster youth brought to the attention of legislators. One required residential facilities to enroll students in school within five days of placement and to provide an education that meets the state’s graduation requirements.
Another bill required the MDE to oversee residential facilities’ schooling programs and enforce compliance with the new education requirements.
The other required the MDE, the MDHHS, and the state Center for Educational Performance and Information to track the number of children in foster care, where they are, and how they’re progressing in their education. That information must be reported to the legislature.
Many of the youth who helped inspire those bills said at the board meeting they feel unheard after years of advocating and sharing their own traumatic stories.
“I cannot stand here today without addressing the reality that is weighing on me and so many others,” said Alyssa Andrews, one of the former foster youth who helped advocate for the recent legislation. “It feels like not only have you stolen our voice, but you have also taken our accomplishments and celebrate them without us. The work, the advocacy, the relentless fight, it came from us.”
Bob Wheaton, director of the MDE’s Office of Public and Governmental Affairs, said in an email Tuesday the department appreciated the youth sharing their experiences during the meeting.
“We will continue to do what we can to support positive educational outcomes,” he said. “Youth experiencing foster care across the state deserve a partnership involving MDE, the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services (MDHHS), intermediate school districts, local school districts, and advocates to ensure implementation of new state statute that provides these students with educational opportunities.”
Wheaton added Michigan schools must follow a current state law that requires districts request in writing transfer students’ records from their previous schools within 14 days of their enrollment.
“MDE is working with MDHHS to implement the new laws and to ensure that existing laws are followed for the benefit of these children,” said Wheaton.
“The department supports additional changes to state law to better support children who are experiencing foster care, the juvenile justice system, or homelessness,” he added.
Tuesday’s outcry was prompted in part by a presentation given by the education department about its efforts to uplift the voices of foster youth.
Advocates and kids from Park West, a Michigan nonprofit that supports foster youth and advocated for the legislative changes, felt the MDE’s attempt at centering youth voices in a new initiative was shallow and would not bring any real change.
“Instead of doing real work, they spend more time co-opting, you know, and making it look like something is happening,” said Saba Gebrai, program director at Park West.
Advocates say Michigan schools don’t interact with the courts and the MDHHS to establish who holds parental educational rights for children in the foster system.
This means that schools aren’t sure who to share educational records with – birth parents, foster parents, or other family members. And that leaves kids in limbo.
Teenagers who opt to get jobs and support themselves can’t get their transcripts because they are not recognized as their own guardians. Many have to wait until they turn 18 to see their records.
Alexia Roberts, a foster youth who wanted to speak Tuesday but wasn’t called on during public comment, wasn’t able to access her transcripts after she was kicked out of her home by a relative when she was in 11th grade.
“The principal, office staff, and teachers were not aware who my educational rights holder was,” she wrote in a speech she prepared ahead of time. “My parents were unable to check about my progress or anything from my schooling period.”
Roberts said she had to wait until she turned 18 to get her transcripts to enroll in an alternative high school.
Requiring the immediate transfer of school records was a key piece left out of the bills, said Gebrai.
That piece could have been included in the legislation, but it wasn’t due to a lack of collaboration on the MDE’s part, Gebrai said.
While a change to the law is needed, Gebrai said the MDE could provide guidance to districts to make transcripts immediately available.
Gebrai said the youth she works with have researched solutions other states have found to the same problems. They don’t understand why Michigan can’t do the same.
“There’s no interest or there’s no real direction,” she said. “The need is there and the solution is there. Why not? What’s the holdup?”
Hannah Dellinger covers K-12 education and state education policy for Chalkbeat Detroit. You can reach her at hdellinger@chalkbeat.org.
