Testimony: Oversight hearing for the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education and the State Board of Education 2014

Children’s Law Center Executive Director Judith Sandalow highlighted three important issues regarding education in the District today in testimony at the oversight hearing for the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education and the State Board of Education.

The three issues—school engagement, school stability for foster children and standardized high school graduation requirements—cut across multiple agencies and likely impact many children in the District on a daily basis. 

• School Engagement. Children’s Law Center urges the Office of the Deputy Mayor for Education to engage all education stakeholders in reforming and coordinating truancy, suspension and expulsion policies, and to conduct a cost assessment of scaling up and implementing successful programs in all DC schools. 
• School Stability for Foster Children. Children’s Law Center believes DC law should be amended to allow children who have exited foster care to remain at their DC school for up to three years after they have been adopted or finalized guardianship with a family in Maryland without having to pay out of state tuition.
• Standardizing High School Graduation Requirements. Children’s Law Center urges all DC education agencies to work together to standardize high school graduation requirements to prevent students in foster care from involuntarily falling behind. This increased coordination would include accepting transfer credits from charter schools and other states, most specifically Maryland public schools.  

Read the full testimony as submitted to the Council.