BOARD FOCUSES ON SCHOOLING SUPERVISORS VOTE TO FORM COUNCIL TO IMPROVE EDUCATION OF FOSTER KIDS.

Byline: Troy Anderson Staff Writer

Los Angeles County supervisors voted Tuesday to create a council to improve the education of foster children in taxpayer-paid nonpublic schools that serve youngsters with disabilities or special needs.

It costs $20,000 to $40,000 a year to educate a foster child in nonpublic schools, some of which are located in former motels and old storefronts in strip malls, said Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich, adding that some of the children could receive a better education in public schools.

``There has been a great scandal of some foster agencies taking money and using the children as pawns to make a buck and allow the children to remain in their care without the ability to learn,'' Antonovich said.

The creation of an Education Coordination Council, composed of various public agencies and local school districts, will allow the agencies to work together to improve the education of foster children and those on probation, he said.

Some nonpublic schools are operated by nonprofit foster family agencies and group homes that contract with the county. Others are operated by people who obtain licenses from the state.

``We certainly support strong actions being taken when abuses are identified, and the provider community is anxious to work with the new Education Coordination Council,'' said Bruce Saltzer, executive director of the Association of Community Human Service Agencies, which represents 70 nonprofit foster care and community mental health agencies in the county.

``However, we must not paint all nonpublic schools with the same broad brush. It does a disservice to nonpublic schools operated by ACHSA agencies, which provide the highest quality care and which want to work with the county to help weed out bad practices and poor-quality care.''

Studies have found that only two out of 100 foster children get a community college degree or go on to a four-year college.

Miriam Aroni Krinsky, executive director of the Children's Law Center of Los Angeles, said foster children often fall behind in school when they are moved through multiple foster care placements.

``The tremendous consequences for these youth ... are undisputed,'' Krinsky said. ``In the first two years after aging out of foster care, too many will end up unemployed, living on the streets or in prison.''

If a child is identified as needing special education, the state pays 100 percent of the costs for nonpublic schools, said Tom Parrish, deputy director of education programs at the American Institutes for Research, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank commissioned by the California Legislature to study the costs of educating foster children.

``So we see a huge fiscal incentive to place foster kids outside of public schools in nonpublic schools,'' Parrish said.

Troy Anderson, [phone]

troy.anderson(at)dailynews.com