California is home to more than 55,000 foster kids - the largest population in the country. And, the one place in the state where most of those kids come together is in public school. Jetaine Hart, a former foster youth and current educational mentor in Alameda County, argues that’s where we should be putting resources to help foster kids – kids who often shuffle from school to school and have unstable home lives. JETAINE HART: When you look at the outcomes for youth in foster care in terms of education, incarceration rates, and mental health issues, and dependency on public assistance all of those things, when it really comes down to it, we’re gonna pay more for that in the long run than if we invest in them now. Hart helps foster kids navigate school successfully. And Daniel Heimpel, director of Fostering Media Connections, works to bring political attention to what really helps those children. DANIEL HEIMPEL: We do not focus enough attention on tapping the latent potential in foster care. And I think a critical feature of that is our inability to really seriously focus all our attention on ensuring they get through school. Heimpel and Hart spoke with KALW’s Holly Kernan about foster and educational reform in California. DANIEL HEIMPEL: I think that you need to find answers to the overarching problem that children in foster care are moving from home to home quite often, and moving from school to school quite often. On top of that, they’re aggregating in schools that are worse off.

California is home to more than 55,000 foster kids - the largest population in the country. And, the one place in the state where most of those kids come together is in public school. Jetaine Hart, a former foster youth and current educational mentor in Alameda County, argues that’s where we should be putting resources to help foster kids – kids who often shuffle from school to school and have unstable home lives. JETAINE HART: When you look at the outcomes for youth in foster care in terms of education, incarceration rates, and mental health issues, and dependency on public assistance all of those things, when it really comes down to it, we’re gonna pay more for that in the long run than if we invest in them now. Hart helps foster kids navigate school successfully. And Daniel Heimpel, director of Fostering Media Connections, works to bring political attention to what really helps those children. DANIEL HEIMPEL: We do not focus enough attention on tapping the latent potential in foster care. And I think a critical feature of that is our inability to really seriously focus all our attention on ensuring they get through school. Heimpel and Hart spoke with KALW’s Holly Kernan about foster and educational reform in California. DANIEL HEIMPEL: I think that you need to find answers to the overarching problem that children in foster care are moving from home to home quite often, and moving from school to school quite often. On top of that, they’re aggregating in schools that are worse off.