In the near future, I will be introducing legislation to ensure that children placed in foster care or kinship care are guaranteed access to a structured, accountable educational environment.
 
Specifically, my bill will require that all children in foster care or kinship care placements be enrolled in and attend either a public school or a licensed private school. These children may not be homeschooled except in the rare circumstance where a judge of the Court of Common Pleas finds that homeschooling is in the child’s best interest and expressly authorizes it.
 
Children in foster and kinship care are among our most vulnerable. Many have already faced trauma, instability, or educational disruption. While homeschooling is a lawful and valuable option for many families, foster children are wards of the state, and the Commonwealth has a special duty to safeguard their educational, social, and emotional development. A structured school setting provides accountability, access to mandated services, extracurricular opportunities, and the chance to develop peer relationships—all of which are critical to healthy growth and future success.
 
This legislation is not intended to diminish the role of loving relatives or dedicated foster parents who step up to care for children in need. Rather, it is meant to ensure that educational oversight is maintained and that every child in state-supervised care has access to the same baseline opportunities as their peers.
 
By requiring foster and kinship children to attend public or private school, unless a court determines otherwise, we strengthen safeguards against neglect, provide consistency across the Commonwealth, and reaffirm our responsibility to act in the best interest of these children.
 
I invite you to join me in sponsoring this important legislation to protect the educational rights and well-being of children in Pennsylvania’s foster and kinship care system.