The Every Students Succeeds Act (ESSA) authorizations for foster care students went into effect in 2017. We ensure DPS is in compliance with these federal guidelines but we have also worked to increase services to include resources and direct support. We can identify foster or kinship students in formalized out of home placement, which involves child welfare.

Who Are We?

The DPS Foster Care Program through Denver Public Schools Federal Programs provides mentoring, case management and resources for K-12 students. We build relationships of trust with our students through weekly visits to their school sites and homes. Our goal is to empower our students and their families so that they thrive emotionally and succeed academically. To this end, we also provide supplemental resources and emergency needs such as clothing, hygiene, outerwear, school meal/fee assistance, and school supplies, and also connect them with organizations within the community. We work with parents, guardians, kinship providers as well as county case workers and school district staff.

How do We Help?

• We have a request form for district staff and a referral process for Denver Human Services to refer foster/kinship students. Families can self-identify on the federal programs form in the enrollment packet. Schools can email those forms to federalprogramscompliance@dpsk12.org.

• We provide supplemental school readiness items as well as emergency basic needs alongside community navigation and resources, home visits, school trainings, and more. We also coordinate school of origin transportation in partnership with child welfare agencies (which is a new component of ESSA). 

• Students in foster care are categorically eligible for free lunch and fee waivers.

Self-identification
Please complete this form at registration and enrollment. There is a box to mark foster, kinship and group home placement. Foster care students are categorically eligible for free meal assistance. Complete the form for our team to eliminate the application step. Support from our program is limited to students with formalized foster/kinship cases.