Senate HELP Committee Begins Serious Debate on Education Law

One early indication of the level of bipartisanship may come this week as the Senate HELP Committee uses its first full committee hearing to focus on the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The ESEA was last reauthorized in 2002 as the No Child Left Behind Act but it expired in 2007. Child welfare advocates are likely to once again push efforts to align the foster care-education mandate within the education law to match up the current requirements under Title IV-E foster care. Those Title IV-E foster care mandates require that if a child moves due to being placed in foster care they be able to stay in the same school district or get immediate enrollment within a new school district, depending on what is in the best interest of that child in care. Click here to read more.