“We’re failing our kids.”

West Virginia State Board of Education President Paul Hardesty, regarding new data that found that roughly 1 in 4 of the 4,276 foster care students enrolled in the state’s public schools were suspended last year due to disciplinary issues and were more likely than their peers to receive out-of-school suspensions rather than in-school suspensions. Further, Black foster care students lost an average of 14.7 days last school year due to suspension, approximately six more days than non-foster Black peers and white foster care peers. Around 1 in 5 of all Black students in West Virginia public schools were suspended during the 2021-2022 school year, regardless of foster care status. West Virginia is one of the states with the most children in foster care per capita. (Associated Press — May 11, 2023)