[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 107 (Friday, June 29, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1464-E1466]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




        RECOGNIZING ``NATIONAL HOMELESS YOUTH AWARENESS MONTH''

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. JERRY WELLER

                              of illinois

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, June 28, 2007

  Mr. WELLER of Illinois. Madam Speaker, today Representative McDermott 
and I introduced a resolution to designate November as national 
homeless youth awareness month.
  Earlier this month the Ways and Means Income Security and Family 
Support Subcommittee on which I serve as Ranking Member held a hearing 
on ``disconnected youth.'' That's a group that includes young people 
who often drop out of school, don't work, and wind up on the streets. 
These young people may have family conflict issues, may experience 
abuse and neglect, or may be or have been in the past involved in the 
foster care

[[Page E1465]]

system. Research completed by the University of Chicago suggests there 
were nearly 25,000 homeless youth in Illinois in 2004, including 6,353 
in the northern Illinois region where the Congressional district I 
represent is located.
  Despite an infusion of millions of dollars in Federal assistance and 
the dedicated efforts of many interested adults, too many children are 
troubled, homeless, and disconnected from their families and others who 
would like to help. Federal initiatives such as the Runaway and 
Homeless Youth program, the Education for Homeless Children and Youth 
program, the Family Violence Prevention and Services Discretionary 
Grants program, and the Chafee Foster Care Independence program have 
been directed at these problems in recent years.
  Yet better serving these children and preventing more youth from 
winding up on the streets will require better use and coordination of 
current program funds. We also need to recognize, as one witness at out 
recent hearing put it, that ``strengthening families is the best way to 
prevent the suffering and social disconnection among our young 
people.'' Even as we applaud those young people, including foster 
youth, who overcome tremendous challenges to succeed in school and 
beyond, it is hard to overstate the importance of strong families to 
the raising of young people who grow up to be productive adults. Last 
year in the Deficit Reduction Act we included specific funds to support 
private groups that work to strengthen families and promote healthy 
marriage, which is the foundation for raising healthy children. I am 
eager to see how those efforts pay off, including to reduce the turmoil 
in homes that results in too many children ending up on the streets.
  We also must acknowledge that kids are connected, and especially as 
they get older, through their schools. That really means through the 
circle of friends, teachers, coaches, and other mentors they rely on as 
they become more independent and develop the habits and skills needed 
for life on their own.
  Kids in foster care already have suffered the trauma of being removed 
from their own parents. In addition to being bounced from home to home, 
many foster children suffer the additional turmoil of being bounced 
from school to school. Studies show high school students who change 
schools even once are less than half as likely to graduate as those who 
don't change schools. So it is no wonder there is ``a 20 percentage 
point difference between the high school graduation rates of foster 
youth and their peers,'' according to the Kids Count organization.
  At this hearing, we heard from Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota. 
She and her husband have helped raise 23 foster children, and she 
discussed the importance of achieving stability in their lives, and 
especially stability in home and school. I have attached her testimony 
as further evidence of the importance of such stability, and the need 
for programs to promote it.
  In addressing the issue of youth homelessness, we should start by 
doing whatever we can to ensure that young people in the foster care 
system complete at least high school, vastly improving their chances of 
getting a decent job and supporting themselves. One way to do that 
would be to provide more foster youth especially the opportunity to 
stay better connected to their schools, including by remaining in a 
single school whenever possible. That might mean offering scholarships 
so those in private schools can stay there, or so those who might 
benefit from private school could do so. Or it could involve something 
as mundane as bus vouchers so kids can continue going to their current 
public or private school even if they are sent to live in a foster home 
across town.
  Such efforts will increase the chances foster youth graduate and can 
create the foundation for a productive and happy life that is the 
American dream. That will also mean far fewer wind up on the streets, 
as is the goal of the resolution introduced today. We should all 
support that.

   [Statement of the Honorable Michele Bachmann, a Representative in 
          Congress from the State of Minnesota, June 19, 2007]

Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Income Security and Family Support 
                of the House Committee on Ways and Means

       Mr. Chairman, Congressman Weller, and members of the 
     Subcommittee, thank you for inviting me to discuss the 
     educational challenges faced by disconnected and 
     disadvantaged youth, specifically foster children.
       I am Michele Bachmann, a first-term Member of Congress 
     serving Minnesota's Sixth District. I have a special interest 
     in the quality of education received by foster children 
     because over the course of six years, my family cared for 23 
     high-need teenagers through the Lutheran Social Services' 
     Treatment Foster Care program.
       I believe every child deserves the chance to gain a high-
     quality education. Growing up, I attended public schools 
     where I was taught using a rigorous curriculum despite the 
     fact that my community was not particularly affluent. While I 
     was in school, my parents divorced and almost overnight my 
     stable, middle-class family was changed forever. Although 
     times were extremely tough, whenever my three brothers and I 
     would become frustrated my mother would tell us to 
     concentrate on our schoolwork, because no matter what 
     happened, no one could ever take our educations away from us. 
     She was right--I left my public high school with a quality 
     education and went on to graduate from college, then law 
     school, and finally to earn an L.L.M. in tax law.
       Years later, when my family began to take in foster 
     children, I felt that although our circumstances were very 
     different, I could identify with their pain and frustration. 
     All of them had challenges considered serious enough that 
     they were unable to be placed through the traditional county 
     foster care systems, and our family's role was to provide 
     them with a safe home and see them through to their high 
     school graduations.
       We quickly learned that our foster children had very 
     different needs than most children. Almost all of them had 
     been given Individualized Education Plans--individual plans 
     designed for students with special educational needs. Many of 
     the kids had been under the care of counselors, many suffered 
     from eating disorders, and others had difficult behavioral or 
     learning issues. All of them had switched schools at least 
     once, and as a result of their tumultuous home lives, none of 
     them had very strong educational backgrounds.
       While through the years some of our foster children 
     performed better in school than others, my husband and I 
     noticed some common problems. Many times, we got the 
     impression that the kids were seen by both their peers and 
     their teachers as if they were only going to be there short 
     term. Although their teachers were welcoming, little special 
     attention was provided to ensure that they caught up to their 
     classmates, and their other needs were often not considered 
     because there were so many other students to attend to. They 
     became small fish swimming in a very large pond.
       We also began to notice that not all of our foster children 
     were presented with the quality of coursework we had thought 
     they would receive. Many of them were placed in lower-level 
     classes, as if they were not expected to succeed. One of the 
     kids remarked to me once that she was in ``stupid people 
     math.'' Another brought home an 11th grade math assignment 
     that involved coloring a poster. Yet another told me she had 
     spent an entire week of classes watching movies, and others 
     were being selected for the ``School to Work'' program, in 
     which high school students attended classes for half of the 
     day and were then sent to work minimum-wage jobs at local 
     businesses. Although it had been evident to us from the 
     beginning that because of their backgrounds, our foster 
     children were going to struggle in school, it was frustrating 
     to see that rather than being given the leg up they needed, 
     so many of them felt that they were being left behind. 
     Unfortunately, national studies indicate that this is an 
     extremely common experience for foster children.
       What made this experience so heartbreaking is we could 
     clearly see that despite our wishes, our foster children did 
     not get the same opportunities or attention that our 
     biological children received in their school. Our biological 
     children's classes were smaller and more rigorous, the 
     teachers knew all of the students, the students knew each 
     other, and parents were able to be much more involved in 
     their children's educations--all goals which are not always 
     attainable in a large school, but which could have done 
     wonders for our foster children.
       As a result of these experiences, I believe it is 
     imperative that Congress examine creating a federal school 
     choice program for foster children, through which foster 
     parents are given the option to place children in their care 
     in either a public or private school long-term, depending on 
     their specific needs. Such a plan would allow foster children 
     requiring more individual attention to attend a school better 
     equipped to help them. Just as important, for the first time 
     in their lives, these children who have become so used to 
     being uprooted would have the chance to be placed in an 
     environment where they could have their special 
     educational needs met and feel as if they belong, where 
     they could remain enrolled even if their homes changed.
       Currently, the federal government operates a program for 
     older foster children--the Chafee Foster Care Independence 
     Program--which assists them in transitioning from foster care 
     to life on their own. Among other things, the Chafee Program 
     provides vouchers of up to $5,000 to foster children ages 16 
     through 18 for education and training. Congress should 
     consider extending this voucher program to foster children of 
     all ages, so foster parents are able to best meet the 
     educational needs of the children in their care by either 
     allowing them to choose a private school or providing them 
     with the funds necessary to transport their children to their 
     original school even if it is outside of their immediate 
     area.
       Additionally, Congress should consider extending the 
     extremely successful D.C. school choice program aimed at low-
     income students, which has drawn more than three times the 
     number of applications as there are available spots. Creating 
     a similar program to serve D.C. foster children as well as 
     those who come from low-income families would be an important 
     step in the direction of giving the option of school choice 
     to all foster children.

[[Page E1466]]

       In closing, even if placed in the best families, foster 
     children often face the possibility that they will have to 
     change homes, and as a result they must find a safe place of 
     their own where they can become accepted and gain a sense of 
     stability. Although for many foster children school can be 
     such a place, the cases of many others show that under the 
     current system, this is not always possible. I hope my 
     family's experiences highlight the special challenges facing 
     foster children as well as the need for an examination of 
     whether limiting their educational options is truly in their 
     best interests. I thank the Subcommittee for holding this 
     hearing, and I thank you, Mr. Chairman, Congressman Weller, 
     and Subcommittee members for the opportunity to share our 
     story today.

                          ____________________