Study finds foster kids lag behind in academics

PHOENIX (AP) - An Arizona study has found that foster children have the state's highest dropout rate and one of the lowest graduation rates.
    
The Arizona Department of Education and the state Department of Child Safety provided data on foster kids' academic performance at the request of the Arizona Community Foundation and the foster youth education program FosterEd.
    
The groups hoped to quantify the achievement gap between foster children and other students.
    
Forty percent of foster youth changed schools during the 2012-13 school year, and one in 7 attended three or more schools that year. And their academic performance trails that of every other type of student, even those with risk factors like poverty, limited English proficiency and disabilities.
    
FosterEd's Pete Hershberger says Arizona should do more to help children in state care succeed in school.