Practical pathways for six roles
Role-Specific Toolkits
Choose the role you hold today. Each toolkit turns school-stability questions into a practical sequence: notice what matters, prepare better questions, gather only what you are authorized to use, and connect with the people or sources responsible for the next step.
The toolkits share one system, but they do not repeat the same page. Each one starts from the decisions, limits, and responsibilities of a particular role.
New to foster-care education?
School Stability 101 gives every role a common foundation
Begin with a plain-language overview of school stability, shared responsibility, and the role and topic pathways in the Learning Library. Then return here to choose the toolkit closest to your work or question.
One recognizable toolkit system
The same four moves, tailored to each role
A familiar structure lowers the burden on users and makes the pages easier to maintain. The substance changes by role; the path through the toolkit stays recognizable.
Notice
Recognize the school-stability issue that may otherwise be hidden inside a placement, attendance, records, transportation, credit, disability, or court question.
Ask
Use plain, role-appropriate questions that help the responsible adults and systems explain what is happening and what comes next.
Gather
Organize only the facts, documents, and contact information that the user is authorized to access and share.
Connect
Reach the right school, district, child-welfare, legal, disability, or public-resource pathway without promising an outcome or service.
Choose the closest role
Six practical toolkit pathways
A role may overlap with another role. Begin with the card that best matches the question in front of you, and move between toolkits as needed.
Youth-facing pathway
Foster youth and alumni
Common situation: A school move, transportation problem, missing records or credits, or confusing meeting leaves the next step unclear.
A limited plain-language guide helps name school questions, identify trusted adults, and find safer routes to support without asking a young person to fix the system or disclose private case information.
Inside this toolkit
- Ask a trusted adult to explain what is happening.
- Write down questions about classes, credits, transportation, records, activities, and support.
- Use a trusted person or reviewed resource—not a public form—for a private issue.
Role module in development; working transcript available. Lisa/ACTION and youth-use review remain required before public release.
Caregiver pathway
Foster parents and caregivers
Common situation: A young person may be changing homes or schools, while questions about enrollment, transportation, records, credits, or communication are already urgent.
This toolkit organizes immediate questions, responsible contacts, authorized information, and source-controlled next steps without turning the caregiver into the legal decision-maker or sole system coordinator.
Inside this toolkit
- Write down the immediate school question and date.
- Ask who is coordinating across the school and child-welfare systems.
- Use current official resources to prepare—not an old slide, summary, or pending bill.
Role module in development; working transcript available.
School-based pathway
School staff
Common situation: A teacher, counselor, principal, registrar, coach, or other school professional notices a transition, absence, record, credit, transportation, or support concern.
This toolkit helps school staff stabilize the student’s day, document observable school facts, and route coordination questions to the right school or district role without asking for unnecessary private disclosure.
Inside this toolkit
- Stabilize access to class, assignments, meals, transportation information, and a dependable adult.
- Route the coordination question to the district liaison or designated contact.
- Document facts—not assumptions about placement or family history.
Role module in development; working transcript available.
District and systems pathway
District leaders and liaisons
Common situation: A district needs a coherent local process for liaison coverage, notice, best-interest conversations, transportation, enrollment, records, credits, staff training, and escalation.
This pathway helps leaders turn current official sources into accountable roles, a local workflow, and a source-review calendar without claiming that a proof-of-concept checklist establishes legal compliance.
Inside this toolkit
- Confirm accountable district, building, records, transportation, and child-welfare contacts.
- Audit the written process from notice through follow-up.
- Set a source, procedure, and staff-training review calendar.
District leaders share the R03 school-professional module with district-focused framing; a distinct district module is deferred.
Child-welfare pathway
Child welfare professionals
Common situation: A placement change or case transition may also change school continuity, transportation, records, credits, relationships, or disability supports.
This toolkit keeps the current school picture and the young person’s goals visible, brings responsible people together, and creates a written follow-up plan rather than treating education as an afterthought.
Inside this toolkit
- Confirm the current school, schedule, relationships, attendance, credits, transportation, and supports.
- Bring the young person, caregiver, school contact, and authorized agency roles together.
- Write down who owns each education step and when it will be checked.
Role module in development; working transcript available.
Issue-spotting pathway
Attorneys, CASA/GALs, and court-connected advocates
Common situation: School moves, enrollment, transportation, records, credits, discipline, or disability supports appear in reports, meetings, hearings, or case updates.
This toolkit supports high-level education issue spotting, factual timelines, source verification, and reviewed referral routes. It does not create representation, define a professional role, or provide case strategy.
Inside this toolkit
- Build an authorized education timeline.
- Ask education-specific questions about the responsible system and next step.
- Verify the current official source and qualified referral path.
Role module in development; working transcript available. No professional credit is approved.
Role and topic pathways work together
Start with what you can do—then go deeper on the issue
A role toolkit organizes the questions and next steps available from your position. A topic module explains an issue that crosses roles, such as school of origin, records and credits, disability and discipline, or trusted adults and life after high school. The Resource Hub then connects the question to official sources and tools.
Open the role toolkit for a practical, role-specific sequence.
Use the Learning Library when a topic needs more context or a cross-system explanation.
Use the Resource Hub for source-controlled guidance, tools in development, public resources, and help pathways.
Clear boundaries
What these toolkits do—and do not do
Public education, not case-specific advice
The toolkits help users notice issues, prepare questions, identify public resources, and understand where responsibility may sit. They do not decide school placement, transportation, eligibility, disability rights, legal strategy, or a case outcome.
Private information stays off public forms
Do not submit student records, case details, placement information, medical or disability information, legal documents, or other confidential material through a public website form. Use an authorized secure channel and the responsible professional.