SDCOE Helps With Transportation for Students in Foster Care

San Diego County Office of Education (SDCOE) teams have worked for months to develop a system that more safely and effectively manages transportation for students in foster care.

Students in foster care often change residences multiple times during their schooling, which can be disruptive to learning. To provide stability and continuity for the child, those caring for them prefer the child remains at the same school. For the schools and districts serving the child, consistent student attendance allows steady curriculum progress and better support for foster students.

SDCOE coordinates with the San Diego County Child and Family Well-being department, the student’s home district, and the transportation provider to ensure all students in their care safely get to and from school every day.

To manage this process, the team currently relies on a manual process using an Excel spreadsheet, where multiple members of the team insert and extract data and fillable PDF forms. Charisma De Los Reyes, coordinator for Foster Youth Services, said the team has observed inefficiencies and gaps in responsiveness with their manual process, so they approached SDCOE tech team to create a streamlined, data-driven program.

Uyen Quach was very excited to lead a project that directly impacts students.

“We have a number of systems we support in the districts but there are two projects close to my heart,” she said. “One is with the special education schools and this one for students in foster care. Whatever we can do to support them; we can give back to the community, truly.”

The process started in August with a meeting between the two teams to assess needs and discuss what system would achieve Foster Youth Services goals. The tech team has provided regular updates and hosted check-ins throughout the process to ensure the new system is addressing needs and adjusting as needed.

The final product will be a secure, web-based system that is accessible from anywhere, with assigned permissions for individuals with different roles and involvement in the process, and divided into modules to allow users to access information more easily. It will also incorporate details of the transportation companies to help generate billing and reports, offering greater efficiencies and reducing errors.

“The new program will make our jobs easier by automating many of the manual processes we previously relied on, such as coordinating schedules and managing last-minute changes,” De Los Reyes said. “We’ll also be able to respond more quickly to transportation issues and allocate resources more efficiently.”

The system is projected to be completed in November.

“We appreciate the ongoing collaboration between our team, the tech team, and other stakeholders,” De Los Reyes said. “This collective effort is crucial to the success of the program, and we look forward to seeing its long-term impact on improving transportation reliability and educational stability for students in foster care.”