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CASA Volunteers as Educational Advocates, System Liaisons, Facilitators, and Role Models.
Child Welfare Information Gateway.
Site Visit
8 p.
Public Domain
Published: January 2013
Child Welfare Information Gateway
Administration on Children, Youth, and Families
Children's Bureau, 3rd Floor
330 C Street, SW
Washington, DC 20201
Tel: 800.394.3366
703.385.7565
Fax: 703.385.3206
info@childwelfare.gov
Download: https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/casavolunteers.pdf
This report discusses a project designed to utilize volunteers form the existing Utah State Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program to gather information about the education status of children in foster care and, if needed, serve as education advocates for them. During the project, CASAs used a one-page form developed by the project to collect education information about the children in their care and completed the form before each review hearing. CASAs are not required to provide education advocacy for the children they support, but they are encouraged to by the project when need arises. When the project began there were 197 CASAS, and as of January 2013 when the project ended, there were 526 CASAs. The report includes background information on the need for the project, how the CASAs gather information and advocate for the children, recruitment and marketing, CASA training, and next steps. Lessons learned from a site visit that occurred on January 23-24, 2013 in Salt Lake City, Utah, are then shared, as well as the design of a project evaluation.
Keywords:
Utah; child advocacy; school issues; CASA; Education; Staff development; Special education; Academic achievement