Lost Time: Foster Students’ Educational Experience in New York’s Big 4 School Districts and Surrounding Counties

Introduction

Students in the foster system are a significantly undersupported student group by both the child welfare and education systems. When looking at available data in New York specifically, these students consistently face an uphill battle in their education that has little to do with their ability to learn and everything to do with a lack of appropriate attention and support. As a result, students in the foster system in New York have the lowest graduation rate¹ of any student subgroup, and have some of the lowest scores² on third through eighth grade achievement test scores and Regents exams. 

Much of the available data about how students in the foster system are faring academically in public school is alarming. But it is important to note that the data should not be misconstrued as an indication of the abilities of the students themselves; for years, research has also identified the challenges faced by students in the foster system, pointing to systemic policy failure. The truth is, graduation rates and exam scores only tell part of the story; more data is needed, as well as conversations³ with students in the foster system, to understand where the gaps are and how schools and child welfare agencies can provide more support to these students.  

This report attempts to help fill that gap by presenting a data set for students in what are known as New York State’s Big 4 school districts and their surrounding counties, disaggregated by foster status and race, to identify some of the unique challenges that students in the foster system face as they navigate the public education system. The author hopes that the findings in this report will put much-needed focus on the urgent educational issues facing this student group and help state and local agencies tasked with supporting students in the foster system address these challenges.

Some of the findings uncovered as a result of building this data set include the following.

Attendance:

• The average annual attendance rate for students in the foster system (SFS) in Buffalo Public Schools was the lowest across all regions, with SFS missing forty-one school days (eight weeks) in a typical 180-day school year—as much as one day a week.⁴
• Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino students (whether in the foster system or not) had the lowest average attendance rates in all but one geographic region.

Suspensions:

• SFS had higher in-school and out-of-school suspension rates than SNFS across all geographic regions.
• Across all geographic regions, in-school suspension rates for SFS were typically higher in the surrounding counties, whereas out-of-school suspension rates were usually higher for these students in the Big 4 school districts.
• Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino SFS had the highest risk of in-school and out-of-school suspensions out of all student subgroups based on foster status and race, across all geographic regions.

This report presents background on the availability of education data on students in the foster system and then describes how the data set in this report was assembled for New York’s Big 4 school districts and the surrounding counties. It then presents a summary of findings and a suite of recommendations for state and local agencies, as well as separate data sheets for the Big 4 school districts and the surrounding counties.

Gaps in Educational Outcome Data on Students in the Foster System

In 2016, for the first time, federal law⁵ required states to report on the high school graduation rates and achievement test scores disaggregated by foster status. This law has been crucial in understanding education outcomes for the foster youth student population, but policymakers and advocates need more data to have a more comprehensive picture of the educational experiences of these students, including attendance data, discipline data, and promotion and retention data, to name a few. These additional data points would aid in contextualizing graduation rates and test scores, which only represent a few points in time, by conveying the experiences of these students across years of their school attendance. 

Since there is no federal requirement for collecting these additional data points, data about these student experiences is only available through individual state reporting or researcher and advocate reporting based on data requests to state agencies. Some states, such as Indiana, issue an annual report⁶ on foster youth educational outcomes that include, among many other data points, discipline outcomes for students in the foster system. Other states, such as California, track this data specifically and make it available on their state education data website.⁷ Maryland and Washington, D.C. are similar to California in that they both provide chronic absenteeism⁸ and discipline data⁹ for students in the foster system on their education data websites. New York State currently only publicly shares the federally required graduation rate, achievement test score, and enrollment data for students in the foster system.

Given the lack of federal data and gaps in state data, nonprofit advocates and researchers play an important role in analyzing and sharing information that can help identify issues and improve outcomes for students in the foster system. In New York City, a nonprofit legal services organization, Advocates for Children of New York (AFC), issued a first-of-its kind report¹⁰ on many data points related to the education experiences of students in the foster system in New York City Public Schools, including discipline, attendance, chronic absenteeism, and special education. The 2023 Advocates for Children report was based on data received from a New York City Public Schools data match with New York City’s Administration for Children’s Services. On a national level, the American Bar Association’s Legal Center for Foster Care and Education¹¹ issues occasional fact sheets on the educational experiences and outcomes of students in the foster system, including attendance and discipline rates. The 2022 national datasheet,¹² the most recently available, uses data from various research studies to estimate national rates of chronic absenteeism and discipline so that we can better understand this unique group of students and advocate on their behalf. 

Building a Data Set for the Big 4 and Surrounding Counties

This report strives to help fill in gaps of data that are not readily available from New York State or local communities on students in the foster system.  It builds on a 2022 Next100 report¹³ that analyzed the existing publicly available education data on students in New York State. This report focuses on New York State’s biggest four school districts and their surrounding counties outside of New York City, including: Buffalo Public Schools and Erie County, Rochester City School District and Monroe County, Syracuse City School District and Onondaga County, and Yonkers Public Schools and Westchester County. These large school districts, plus New York City Public Schools, are known as the Big 5. This report excludes New York City Public Schools as the AFC report is most accurate based on city-level data. The group of districts in this report will be referred to as the Big 4.¹⁴ Taken together with the AFC report, these reports tell the story of about 86 percent of New York’s foster youth, based on average foster youth enrollment data analyzed for this report, the number of students covered in the 2023 AFC report, and statewide foster youth enrollment¹⁵ in the 2024–25 school year. 

The findings, analysis, and policy recommendations that follow are based on a series of data requests to New York State’s Education Department (SED) in 2022, 2023, and 2025. The data analyzed in this report covers the 2017–18 through 2024–25 school years and is analyzed cumulatively to assess overall averages across time for students in the foster system relating to attendance and suspension. The data includes a comparison of students in the foster system (SFS) and students not in the foster system (SNFS) by their foster status and their race. Students in the foster system were identified as such if they had been in the foster system at some point in time during a given school year. (A full data set is available here, and additional data notes are available in the Appendix.)

Geographic Regions Defined

The data used in this report includes students in the foster system enrolled in each Big 4 school district and all of the school districts and charter schools within each county, broken down into two groups:

• Buffalo Public Schools, Rochester City School District, Syracuse City School District, and Yonkers Public Schools: These terms are used to refer to students in those school districts only; these terms do not include data on students in any charter schools.

• Rest of Erie County, Rest of Monroe County, Rest of Onondaga County, and Rest of Westchester County: These terms are used to refer to students in all of the other school districts in the counties that aren’t the Big 4 districts, as well as all students in charter schools, whether the charter schools are located in a Big 4 district or elsewhere in the county.

Notably, due to the relatively small number of children in the foster system within various schools and districts within each county, this report and its underlying data does not disaggregate for school districts other than the Big 4. According to the New York State Education Department (SED), such data would likely be suppressed in many instances. To avoid significant suppression, this report focuses on the areas noted above to better understand the unique challenges faced by students in each of these geographies.

In the absence of school district level data, looking at how students are doing in Buffalo Public Schools compared to Rest of Erie County, for example, helps to highlight areas where students in the foster system might need particular support around attendance and suspensions that may be masked by looking at Erie County as a whole.

Enrollment in the Big 4 and Surrounding Counties

Using the enrollment data analyzed for this report, the Big 4 school  districts and their surrounding counties account for approximately 434,000 students, on average, or about 30 percent of New York’s overall student population.,¹⁶ The data analyzed for this report accounts for nearly 800 students in the foster system in total. 

TABLE 1

Summary of Findings

The data show concerning levels of absenteeism and suspensions for students in the foster system (SFS) across all geographic regions. When it comes to attendance and absenteeism, in some geographic regions, students not in the foster system (SNFS) also had significant challenges, highlighting attendance as an issue for students overall. Data for both in-school and out-of-school suspensions highlighted challenges across the board for students in the foster system. These students consistently had higher average annual suspension rates than SNFS across all years of analyzed data. The disparities were particularly stark for students of color, with Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino students in the foster system consistently having the highest in-school and out-of-school suspension rates by race.

For a more in-depth look at each geographic region covered by this report, fact sheets for each Big 4 school district and their surrounding counties are available to download at the end of this report. These individual fact sheets provide specific data and analyses of the challenges facing the local student population in each region and provide specific recommendations on how to address the issues highlighted by the data.

While the overall number of students in the foster system captured by this data is relatively small, the results are nonetheless alarming and require prompt and collaborative intervention by the state Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS), its local department of social services, the New York State Education Department (SED), Big 4 school districts, and school districts in the surrounding counties. Further research is required to better understand the specific areas where students in the foster system require more support within districts in the various counties included in this report.

The attendance and suspension findings are explained in more detail below.

Attendance

An analysis of the average attendance rates across all school years from 2017–18 through 2024–25 revealed significant challenges with absenteeism in all student groups (see Table 1). While students in the foster system (SFS) and those not in the foster system (SNFS) both were impacted by low attendance rates, the lowest attendance rate observed was for students in the foster system in Buffalo Public Schools, with just 77 percent average attendance. These students missed an average of about forty-one days of school (eight weeks) in a typical 180-day school year.

TABLE 2

Breaking out attendance rates by race revealed a similar but more severe pattern for Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino students (see Table 2). Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino students missed between about twenty-seven and forty-seven days of school in a typical 180-day school year. Black or African American students in the foster system in Buffalo Public Schools, in particular, had an alarmingly low average annual attendance rate at 74 percent—these students missed about forty-seven days of school (more than nine weeks) in a typical 180-day school year—more than one out of four days.

TABLE 3

The only time white students in the foster system surfaced similar challenges in the attendance analysis was in Rest of Westchester County, where they had an 85 percent attendance rate—the same as Hispanic or Latino students in the foster system in Rest of Westchester County. These students missed twenty-seven days of school (more than five weeks) in a typical 180-day school year. Black or African American students in the foster system in Rest of Westchester County (and Yonkers Public Schools) had an average attendance rate of 86 percent—a rate similar to that of White and Hispanic or Latino students in the foster system in Rest of Westchester County. Overall, these attendance rates indicate that in Rest of Westchester County, foster status alone—regardless of race—is an indicator of increased challenges with regular school attendance.

The average annual attendance rates are an indication that students need more support with attendance—no matter their foster status. While these average annual rates help explain what attendance looks like for students by their foster status and race in a typical year, further student-level investigation is needed to address specific student concerns.

Suspensions

An analysis of the average suspension rates across all school years from 2017–18 through 2024–25 revealed significant challenges with suspension that impacted all student groups, but with different patterns for in-school versus out-of-school suspension across regions and significantly higher rates for SFS, particularly for Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino students.

In-School Suspensions

Looking at average annual in-school suspension rates revealed that students in the foster system had higher average annual in-school suspension in each geographic region, with suspension rates ranging from a high of suspensions for 10 percent of SFS (Rochester City School District and Rest of Onondaga County) to 4 percent of SFS (Rest of Westchester County) in a typical school year (see Table 3). Rates for students not in the foster system in these geographic regions ranged from a high of suspensions for 3 percent of SNFS (Rest of Erie County) to 1 percent of SNFS (Rest of Westchester County), illustrating a marked difference in the range of in-school suspensions for students in the foster system and their non-foster-system impacted peers.

TABLE 4

In-school suspensions were higher in counties as opposed to Big 4 school districts (with the exception of Rochester City School District). Among counties surrounding the Big 4 school districts, students in the foster system in Rest of Erie County were nearly twice as likely to receive an in-school suspension than students in Rest of Westchester County, where in-school suspensions were the lowest among all geographic regions.

As was the case with attendance rates, Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino students in the foster system were impacted most negatively by in-school suspensions (see Table 4). In each region, these students had the highest in-school suspension rates ranging from a high of suspensions for 15 percent of students (Rest of Monroe and Onondaga Counties) to 4 percent of students (Rest of Westchester County).

TABLE 5

Black or African American students in the foster system had the highest rates of in-school suspension overall at 15 percent of students—higher than the highest rate for students in the foster system overall at 10 percent of students. In addition to Black or African American students in the foster system having higher in-school suspension rates than all students in the foster system, their rates were also significantly higher than their counterparts who weren’t in the foster system. For example, Black or African American students in the foster system in Rest of Monroe (15 percent of students) were twice as likely to have an in-school suspension as Black or African American students not in the foster system (7 percent of students). Similarly, Black or African American students in the foster system in Rest of Onondaga County (15 percent of students) were two and a half times more likely to receive an in-school suspension than Black or African American students not in the foster system in Rest of Onondaga County (6 percent of students).

Out-of-School Suspensions

Average annual out-of-school suspension rates were highest for students in the foster system in each geographic region ranging from a high of 26 percent of students to 11 percent of students (see Table 5). These rates were significantly higher than their non-foster system impacted counterparts in each region, for whom average annual out-of-school suspensions ranged from a high of 11 percent of students (Buffalo Public Schools) to 3 percent of students (Yonkers Public Schools). The highest average annual out-of-school suspension for students not in the foster system was 11 percent of students, while that was the lower end of the range for students in the foster system.

TABLE 6

In all but one case (Rest of Onondaga County), Big 4 districts had the highest rates of out-of-school suspensions, mostly a reversal of the in-school suspension data pointing to a heavier reliance on out-of-school suspensions in the Big 4 districts.

In each geographic region, Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino students in the foster system had the highest rates of out-of-school suspensions in each of the Big 4 districts in a typical year, with rates as high as 35 percent for students in Buffalo Public Schools. These rates were significantly higher than rates for their Black or African American non-foster-system impacted counterparts, whose suspension rates ranged from a high of about 14 percent of students (Buffalo Public Schools) to 6 percent of students (Yonkers Public Schools).

TABLE 7

Comparing the highest out-of-school suspensions by race, Black or African American students in the foster system had out-of-school suspensions that were about two and a half times higher than Black or African American students in the foster system in Yonkers Public Schools, where suspensions were the lowest.

The average annual in-school and out-of-school suspension rates are an indication that students in the foster system are receiving punitive discipline at very high rates even though they are a small part of the student population. Since this analysis is of aggregated student data, it does not provide insight into specific student experiences so there may be outliers present in the data. However, this analysis sounds an alarm that there are significant disparities for students in the foster system overall, and even more so for Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino students.

Recommendations

Taking a deeper look at the experience of students in the foster system in the areas of attendance and suspensions reveals a heartbreaking reality for some of New York’s most vulnerable students. Whether due to suspensions or attendance challenges, students in the foster system (and Black or African American and Hispanic or Latino students in particular) have lost valuable instructional time, time to connect with peers, and time to connect adults who can support their educational journeys. It is imperative that schools and child welfare agencies address attendance and suspension disparities and craft solutions to effectively support these students and their consistent access to education and opportunity to pursue academic success.

Further investigation is needed to better understand the district-level and student-level impacts of low attendance rates and higher suspension rates and the key factors that contribute to these outcomes.

To begin to address the issues surfaced in this report, state and local agencies should take the following steps.

Child Welfare. New York State Office of Children and Families (OCFS) and local departments of social services (LDSS) should:

• conduct an in-depth analysis of the attendance and discipline outcomes of students served by schools in all counties within the state to determine where students need additional support;
• co-create and provide a comprehensive education training program for all caseworkers at LDSS offices and foster care agencies to teach them how best to support students around attendance and school discipline challenges; and
• train casework staff on school discipline advocacy and/or partner with local groups who can provide support with training and legal representation, specifically to support students in disciplinary proceedings, when needed.

Education. New York State Education Department (SED), local school districts, and charter schools should:

• partner with relevant county LDSS offices to ensure they are aware of the students in the foster system within their districts and schools; and
• partner with school districts and charter schools to develop and provide trauma-informed practices training and restorative discipline training that addresses unique needs of foster youth/ this training should focus on decreasing reliance on suspensions by providing more holistic social-emotional and behavioral supports for all students.

Joint Action. OCFS and SED should:

• work together to issue a public biennial data report about the educational outcomes and experiences of students in the foster system as recommended in the 2022 Next100 report; the biennial report should engage key stakeholders including students in the foster system, parents, foster parents, and school staff to develop a plan for improving educational outcomes and experiences for students in the foster system;
• ensure that timely and regular data-collection and data-sharing is happening at the county LDSS, foster care agency, and local school districts and school levels so that everyone can increase awareness of any harmful or negative trends around issues of attendance and discipline; and
• develop a strategic plan and intervention and support protocol to proactively address challenges that students face in attendance and discipline so as to ensure students are fully supported and avoid educational disruptions due to attendance challenges or punitive disciplinary actions.

Conclusion

This report provides new data to be considered by state and local child welfare and education agencies, those impacted by the foster system, and advocacy communities in New York State. This data raises a larger, overarching issue of insufficient regular data reporting at the local, state, and federal levels. Without access to broader data exploring the challenges faced by students in the foster system, we will never correctly identify the problems nor develop appropriate remedies for the ways in which education and child welfare systems continue to fall short of their mission to protect, support, and educate young people.

For a more in-depth look at each geographic region covered by this report, fact sheets for each Big 4 school district and their surrounding counties are available here:

Buffalo Public Schools and Erie County

Rochester City School District and Monroe County

Syracuse City School District and Onondaga County

Yonkers Public Schools and Westchester County

For more information about the data and methodology, see the Appendix:

Appendix on Data and Methodology

1. “NY State Graduation Rate Data: 4 Year Outcome as of August 2025,” New York State Data, https://data.nysed.gov/gradrate.php?year=2025&state=yes.
2. “NY State: New York State Report Card [2024–25],” New York State Data, https://data.nysed.gov/essa.php?instid=800000081568&year=2025&createreport=1&38ELA=1&38MATH=1&regents=1.
3. See, for example, Chantal Hinds, “In Their Own Words: What Students in New York’s Foster System Need to Succeed,” Next100, May 9, 2024, https://thenext100.org/in-their-own-words-what-students-in-new-yorks-foster-system-need-to-succeed/.
4. In New York State, schools are required to have a 180-day school year to qualify for state funding; see for example, N.Y. Educ. LawNew York Consolidated Laws, Education Law—EDN § 3604, “Conditions under which districts are entitled to apportionment,” https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/laws/EDN/3604https://codes.findlaw.com/ny/education-law/edn-sect-3604.html. Actual days of student attendance may vary slightly due to professional development days which count towards the overall length of the school year although no students are in attendance on those days; see, for example, Amy Zimmer, “NYC schools have 176 days of class, not the required 180. Here’s why.” Chalkbeat—New York, September 9, 2025, https://www.chalkbeat.org/newyork/2025/09/09/why-nyc-school-year-is-shorter-than-180-days/
5. Every Student Succeeds Act, Pub. L. No. 114–95, 129 STAT. 1802 (2015).
6. “Indiana Department of Education 2023–2024 Foster Youth Educational Outcomes Report,” Indiana Department of Education, 2024, https://iga.in.gov/publications/agency_report/2024%20Annual%20Report%20-%20Foster%20Youth%20Educational%20Outcomes.pdf.
7. “2024–25 Suspension Rate,” California Department of Education, accessed February 10, 2026, https://dq.cde.ca.gov/dataquest/dqCensus/DisSuspRate.aspx?cds=00&agglevel=State&year=2024-25&initrow=&ro=y.
8. “Chronic Absenteeism Data (2025),” Maryland State Department of Education, accessed February 10, 2026, https://reportcard.msde.maryland.gov/Graphs/#/Demographics/ChronicAbsenteeism/3/17/9/6/99/XXXX/2025.
9. “Student Discipline for DC Overall,” Office of the State Superintendent of Education, accessed February 10, 2026, https://schoolreportcard.dc.gov/state/report/explore/104.
10. “Next Steps to Improve Educational Outcomes for Students in Foster Care,” Advocates for Children of New York, January 2023, https://advocatesforchildren.org/policy-resource/building-on-potential/.
11. “Our Project,” Legal Center for Foster Care and Education, accessed February 10, 2026, https://www.fostercareandeducation.org/about-us.
12. “National Datasheet 2022,” American Bar Association Legal Center for Foster Care and Education, January 2022, https://www.fostercareandeducation.org/national-datasheet.
13. Chantal Hinds, “Why Data Matters for New York Students in the Foster System,” Next100, August 11, 2022, https://thenext100.org/why-data-matters-for-new-york-students-in-the-foster-system/.
14. “Conference of Big 5 School Districts,” accessed February 10, 2026, https://big5schools.org/.
15. “NY State Public School Enrollment (2024–25),” New York State Education Department, accessed February 10, 2026, https://data.nysed.gov/enrollment.php?year=2025&state=yes.
16. Ibid.
17. It is important to note that the average enrollment number for students in the foster system in Buffalo Public Schools is likely higher as there was no enrollment data reported for students in the foster system from the 2017–18 through 2019–20 school years. Additionally, the annual enrollment ranged from twenty-four to forty-two students from the 2020–21 through the 2023–24 school years with a significant uptick of 157 students in the 2024–25 school year. The significant increase in the number of students is likely due to more accurate reporting.

Tags: new york schools, foster care system, educational equity