About half of all teenagers in foster care never graduate from high school. The state created an online learning program for these students to help fix the problem.
Nearly a hundred students across Connecticut are taking advantage of a new program called the Virtual Academy, which was rolled out by the Department of Children and Families in February.
"Youth in foster care often experience trauma, disruption, loss of family, loss of community connections, and other hardships that make it very difficult to achieve academically," said DCF Commissioner Joette Katz at Goodwin College last Thursday.
"When we can in fact work with our youth and give them the foundation of a good academic education, we eliminate those risks, we certainly mitigate the trauma that's occurred in their lives and we give them a firm footing," Katz said.
The graduation rate for students in foster care is much lower than the state's overall average, which was 87 percent last year. Of the foster care teenagers that do graduate, less than a quarter of them go on to college.
So DCF came up with Virtual Academy to stem the tide. Students can log on whenever they have the time, and can request help from one of seven teachers. They can also request some face time, and each student's instruction is tailored to meet their individual needs. Sarah Moore has been a teacher in the DCF system for eight years.
"One of the big challenges many of our youth have is that they're in many different placements. They could be in Hartford one month, then the next month they might have to be in New Haven for various different reasons," Moore said. "And so this program can stick with them no matter where they are."
Commissioner Katz says the Virtual Academy doesn't cost the state any additional money. About a third of the state's 4,200 foster children are high school aged. DCF said it hopes to expand the program so more students can have access.
