Cannot foster parents apply for vouchers just the same as natural parents already do? Foster parents are compensated through tax dollars to parent foster children. Why should every foster child be entitled to vouchers above children being raised by their natural parents?

katherinewatterson,

Foster parents do not the same rights and responsibilities as birth parents and when a child enters foster care, the state child welfare agency and the courts make major decisions such as when/if the child returns to their birth parent. Education is one of the decisions made by the state, not the foster parents and when children move foster homes (which happens often, unfortunately) the child must be enrolled in the local school district. This means they are often changing schools. Additionally, foster children often do not perform as well in school as their peers due to the stresses associated with being in foster care and the effects of being abused or neglected. Because of this they often require special education assistance, which may not be offered or sufficient in the local school they attend. The Children’s Law Center provides a good overview here: http://www.childrenslawcenter.org/issues/foster-care

Hope that explains the issue a little bit. :)

We have guardianship for our foster son whom we have been blessed to have since he was 2 years old he is now 15. He along with our two other biological sons age 13 and age 8 attend a private school. We get $529.00 per month for our foster son from the state and both my husband and I work 4 jobs to keep our family operating. We in no way have the luxury of sending our three sons to private school but we value good education. We currently make 75,000. a year and their tuition cost per year are 39,750. this is the 4th year at Maui Preparatory Academy and yes I did say Maui so you can image the cost of living here as well. This bill would certainly help our entire family with tuition cost for my foster son. We support this bill.