The Legal Aid Society is commending the New York City Department of Education (DOE) for creating a new team dedicated to serving the unique needs of students in foster care, as reported by the New York Daily News.

The move comes after Legal Aid and Advocates for Children released a report earlier this year highlighting the urgent need for the DOE to launch an office focused solely on students in foster care.

The need for these services in New York City is great: approximately 7,000 students spend time in foster care during any given school year. They are disproportionately Black and Latinx and come from the city’s poorest communities. Only 42.2% of New York City students in foster care graduated on time in 2020, the lowest graduation rate of any student group and 36.6 percentage points lower than the rate for students not in foster care.

“I’m thrilled that they’re finally creating this office,” said Melissa Andra, a staff attorney at the Legal Aid Society. “It’s certainly been needed for a long time. We’re really looking forward to working with the [Education Department] and helping them ensure the kids in foster care are getting what they need.”