Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy’s Education Law Program: Caitlin Whalan Jones, Daniel Brown, Stephanie R. Klitsch

We believe that students experiencing foster care deserve access to the same quality education as their peers. This is an uncontroversial opinion; one you probably agree with and is even supported by federal law. Unfortunately, students experiencing foster care are far more likely to face school disruption, enrollment delays, and lost academic progress because the systems designed to support them are complex and fragmented. Moreover, many school districts across the state struggle to comply with basic federal requirements for students experiencing foster care.

Charlotte chose a different path. Many years ago, Charlotte‑Mecklenburg Schools (CMS) and Mecklenburg County Department of Social Services (DSS) created a unique and powerful model of collaboration, embodied through four CMS-DSS Educational Liaisons. So, it was a shock to learn of the proposal to eliminate these positions after June 2026, which would unravel years of progress.

The Liaisons are a small but vital team that works to ensure students experiencing foster care have access to the education they deserve and are entitled to under the law. The Liaisons actively bridge the vast gap between CMS and DSS, doing the daily work needed to keep students from falling in. Unless you know a student experiencing foster care, or were one yourself, you might have never heard of the Liaisons. But, for folks with that lived experience, the importance of the Liaisons cannot be overstated, and their loss would be deeply felt.

The educational journey for students experiencing foster care is often littered with obstacles. Frequent school changes, delays in arranging transportation, and incomplete records are just a few of the more common ones. Consequently, and through no fault of their own, these students are more likely to perform below grade-level, be retained, or drop out of school altogether. In 2025, across North Carolina, only 60% of students experiencing foster care graduated from high school within four years. Within CMS, however, the four-year graduation rate lagged at just 46%. The work of the Liaisons is to try and clear those obstacles and, hopefully, help students meaningfully access their education.

Federal law makes clear that ensuring educational stability for students experiencing foster care is not the responsibility of school districts alone, nor of child welfare agencies acting in isolation, but a shared obligation that requires close and continuous partnership. These obligations cannot be met through informal coordination. They require dedicated roles with the time, expertise, and authority to bridge systems. In Mecklenburg County, the Liaisons have fulfilled this role.

For many years, CMS and the County shared the cost of this joint work, with each entity contributing funding in recognition of their shared legal obligations and mutual interest in educational stability for students experiencing foster care. The Liaisons themselves, however, remained CMS employees throughout that time.

Understanding this history matters, because it underscores an essential point: CMS and DSS deliberately built this model as a joint solution to a joint responsibility. Their work is embedded within CMS operations, supporting more than 100 schools while coordinating with DSS, courts, health providers, and community partners.

The question before our community is not whether CMS and DSS will continue serving students in foster care. The law requires that they do. The question is whether Charlotte will continue doing so in a way that is coordinated, proven, and centered on student stability, or whether it will disperse specialized work without a clear plan and with hope the pieces reassemble themselves.

For almost three decades, CMS‑DSS Educational Liaisons have provided continuity, expertise, and accountability for students whose lives are already marked by change. Charlotte has been doing this right. We should take care not to lose ground on one of the most effective partnerships our community has built, especially when students experiencing foster care cannot afford the cost of disruption.

Charlotte Center for Legal Advocacy is a nonprofit law firm that provides civil legal services to low-income individuals and families across the Charlotte region and North Carolina. The Education Law Program (ELP) advocates on behalf of students, including students experiencing foster care, who are facing a range of obstacles to the realization of their fundamental education rights. ELP co-leads the Mecklenburg County Foster Care and Education Work Group which includes judicial, education, and child welfare stakeholders and aims to improve educational outcomes for students experiencing foster care.