Senate Passes Booker Amendment Strengthening Educational Support for Foster Children and Homeless Youth

Press Release

The Senate has approved a bipartisan amendment sponsored by U.S. Sen. Cory A. Booker (D-N.J.) to provide essential information for teachers, policy makers and community groups to better support our nation's foster children and homeless youth. Booker's amendment (#2169) will now be included in the Every Child Achieves Act (ECAA), legislation that reauthorizes the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).

Sens. Inhofe (R-Okla.), Wyden (D-Ore.), Grassley (R-IA), Ayotte (R-NH) are cosponsors of Booker's amendment.

"Foster students are less likely to achieve academic proficiency, more likely to change schools during the academic year and more likely to drop out of high school and not graduate. We have a moral obligation not to leave any of our young people on the sidelines," Sen. Booker said. "This bipartisan amendment strengthens support to some of our most vulnerable students - our homeless youth and students in the foster care system. I'm proud that this amendment has passed and will continue working to strengthen our education policies to create pathways of support and opportunity for all of our children."

There are more than half a million foster children in the United States. Over 25% of former foster children experience homelessness. Approximately 25% spend time incarcerated and about 33% receive public assistance.

One in 45 children, or 1.6 million children, are homeless in the U.S. every year. Homeless students are twice as likely as non-homeless students to have to repeat a grade, be expelled, get suspended, or drop out of high school.

Early targeting and identification of these students enables schools to better help homeless and foster students achieve academically, graduate high school, and bolster their post-secondary school and life options.

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