DATA AND EVALUATION

Our ability to have an impact requires we have a clear and in-depth, real time understanding of both the progress we are making and challenges we collectively face at a state, program and individual youth level. Our data strategy is three-pronged:

  • Developing and supporting systems for notifying districts which of their students are in foster care;
  • Collecting and tracking youth-level data to support effective direct services work;
  • Conducting program, which helps us to understand the degree to which our efforts are having an impact on youth.

As of June 2023,

  • 1,963 foster youth ¹have been supported by an education team and an education plan
  • 4,703 adults have served on at least one foster youth’s team
  •  1,501 Educational Champions have been identified, with the largest share being biological parents (28%) and relatives (26%)

¹ Students are counted each time they enter our program, even if they are returning for a 2nd, 3rd, etc. time after previously closing out of our program. The unduplicated student count as of June 2023 is 1812.

Our data efforts in Arizona have been multi-faceted. We have:

  • Worked with state agencies to develop a process to help school districts identify which of their students are in foster care.
 
  • Partnered with WestEd in 2015 to publish Arizona’s Invisible Achievement Gap, a first of its kind report in Arizona, and more recently partnered with RTI to publish Arizona’s Students in Foster Care: School Years 2018-2019 and 2020-2021. This second report presents an updated snapshot of Arizona’s students in foster care, presenting data for 2018-19, the school year prior to the emergence of the global COVID-19 pandemic, and 2020-2021, the most recent school year for which data were available at the time the report was written, and the second school year impacted by the pandemic.
 
  • Published two evaluations of the Pima County pilot demonstrating successful implementation, and impact at a youth and systems level.

 

  • Published four evaluations of the program since statewide expansion in 2017

 

  • Developed a technology tool to support serving youth in Pima County, Maricopa County, and Yavapai County.

Table of Contents

Contact us

info@foster-ed.org

1212 Broadway, Suite 600

Oakland, CA 94612

A project of the National Center for Youth Law

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