What progress has been made on this July initiative?

NGA Partners With States On Foster-Care Effort
McNeil, Michele, Education Week; 7/12/2006, Vol. 25 Issue 42, p26-26, 1/9p

Six states will work with the National Governors Association to improve services for youths who leave foster care.

California, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, and South Carolina will participate in the NGA'S Policy Academy on Youth Transitioning Out of Foster Care, the Washington-based association announced last month.

About half the 20,000 youths who undergo a transition out of foster care each year drop out of high school, the NGA reports.

Top policymakers from the six participating states will spend a year developing strategies and programs to keep those young people in school, and help them combat drug abuse, mental illness, and delinquency.

The NGA'S Center for Best Practices will host meetings and provide staffing to devise those strategies, which will then be shared with foster-care advocates and officials in other states.