Data shows that children and youth often enter foster care with gaps in their education: Some children may not be prepared to enter their age-appropriate grade for a variety of reasons. Additionally, school moves, delays in transferring educational records from school to school, and loss of course credits contribute to gaps in students’ education.

American foster children’s struggles in K-12 education are not new. Foster children often must overcome many challenges to succeed in school, including the circumstances that led to their placement in care, instability and school transfers, and a lack of specialized services for their needs. These struggles lead to many foster children succumbing to poor life outcomes in adulthood.

We have partnered with the University of Texas Charter Schools for our education on campus.In full partnership with our facility, the University of Texas–University Charter School’s vision is to provide the best educational system for students with specialized learning needs in unique settings where each student will achieve academic, social and emotional success.

Some of the benefits enjoyed through this partnership include the following:

• Smaller class sizes. Charter schools typically have smaller class sizes than traditional public schools. This allows teachers to give more individual attention to each student.
• More innovative curriculum. Charter schools are free to set their own curriculum, which gives them the flexibility to be more innovative. This can lead to a more engaging and effective learning experience for students.
• More accountability. Charter schools are held accountable for their performance through state testing and other measures. This ensures that they are providing a high-quality education to their students.

The students enrolled at UTCS have diverse educational backgrounds and needs. These varied backgrounds include a history of success in schools to not attending school regularly. Backgrounds of students vary from academic success to pervasive failure in school. Many students have not attended school on a regular basis. The abilities of the students range from gifted and talented to severe intellectual impairment. We have had a lot of gifted students. They are usually the most challenging to teach and rewarding.

Our classrooms offer a mix of in-classroom teaching along with online learning. All of our teachers are certified in Special Education.UTCS determines any IEP that addresses placement concerns. Each child has individual pacing as well as frequent one on one attention with a teacher to help him meet his goals and needs. Pathfinders staff help support behavioral concerns and, the charter school also has a Behavioral Management Counselor trained in TBRI who visits with individuals weekly. The Burke Center Case Managers meets with school representatives on a monthly or as needed basis to discuss each individual’s educational needs.

The Science and Math building is the larger of the two schoolhouses and houses 3 separate classrooms.

There is the Science room that you enter as you walk into the building. Being able to house around 15 students, this is where labs are done as well as general learning.

There is also the Math room which is able to house around 14 students. There is also a third room, the Independent Study room, where either the Eagles or Cougars dorm students will be (to keep them separate from the other dorm) when needed. This room is also used for zoom counseling sessions, occupational therapy, dyslexia intervention, and speech services as needed.

The Language/History/Ag Building houses 2 classrooms and a library in the middle.

There is the Agriculture classroom that houses up to 11 students. There is also the Language (English and Writing classes)/History classroom that can house up to 11 students as well.

The library welcomes you as you enter the building with a wide variety of educational books that the boys are able to read when they are done with their schoolwork. The boys can also use this space for their IEP-designated breaks or when they are feeling a bit overwhelmed. The boys also store their classroom chromebooks here so they remained charged.