Using Cross-system Communication to Promote Educational Well-being of Foster Children: Recommendations for a National Research, Practice, and Policy Agenda Angelique Gabrielle Day, Cheryl Somers, Joanne Smith Darden, and Jina Yoon This study captures the voices of school-based behavioral specialists employed across the state of Michigan to share how well schools and child welfare agencies communicate and collab- orate to address the educational well-being of foster care children on their caseloads. This includes knowledge of federal policies and how they support and hinder communication across systems. Participants included a total of 249 K–12 employed school psychologists, counselors, and social workers. Survey methodology was used, and both inferential and nar- rative analyses revealed that these school practitioners were highly unaware of how to identify the foster care children in their schools and what supports they need. The three groups of school-based professionals were similarly unaware, they have minimal communication with outside agencies, and they largely do not take initiative in reaching out to communicate and collaborate with community-based agencies outside the school. Despite that, collec- tively, the work of child welfare and education professionals could have a substantial impact on retention and the overall student performance of children who are living in out-of-home care. Implications of this lack of communication and awareness are discussed, and recommen- dations to guide a national research agenda for advocacy and policy efforts are identified. KEY WORDS: cross-system communication and collaboration; educational well-being; foster care; school social work; trauma history F oster children face major educational chal- lenges. On average, children in out-of-home care move to new foster care placements three times per year, with each move resulting in a change of school ( Julianelle, 2008). Changes in school neg- atively affect academic progress and disrupt connec- tions to peers and school professionals who might otherwise provide social support (Ersing, Sutphen, & Loeffler, 2009). Many children in foster care fail to recover and lose ground in many measures of educational outcomes (Yu, Day, & Williams, 2002). They fall behind because of poor coordination be- tween child welfare and interschool personnel and dif ficulties transferring school records (including special education accommodations), and course credits often result in enrollment delays and course and grade-level repetition (Implementation of the Fostering Connections, 2009). This partially explains the negative relationship between placement insta- bility and the ability of foster children to complete high school (Pecora et al., 2005). Children who experienced one fewer placement change per year were almost twice as likely to graduate from high school (Pecora et al., 2003). In addition, Macomber (2009) found that nearly half (45 percent) of foster children between sixth and eighth grade were also classified as eligible for special education compared with 16 percent of students never in foster care. Other studies have reported that over one-third of foster children are enrolled in special education classes (Courtney, Terao, & Bost, 2004; Pecora et al., 2005; Shin & Poertner, 2002; Smithgall, Gladden, Howard, Goerge, & Courtney, 2004), a rate twice that of non–foster children (Burley & Halpern, 2001). Overrepresentation in special education programs may be due to many foster youths being diagnosed with specific learning disabilities, without the con- sideration of the effects of interpersonal or complex trauma on language, attention, memory, emotional regulation, and executive function (Zetlin, Wein- berg, & Shea, 2010). Foster youths who are misdi- agnosed often do not get the supports they need to overcome their challenges, which significantly doi: 10.1093/cs/cdu027 © 2014 National Association of Social Workers 1 Children & Schools Advance Access published October 29, 2014