Rep. Julie A. Casimiro, a Democrat, represents District 31 in North Kingstown and Exeter. Rep. Thomas E. Noret, a Democrat, represents District 25 in Coventry and West Warwick.

There is a simple and frustrating truth surrounding our state’s education system and it impacts around 1,300 of Rhode Island’s most vulnerable students.

The amount of stress, abuse, uncertainty and anxiety that foster kids go through is unimaginable to many of us and simply put, our educational leaders are forgetting about these children, disregarding their needs and adding to the already difficult lives experienced by these kids.

How are our foster kids being ignored? Lack of necessary and vital attention and investment.

When our state’s schools were flooded with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars, it was for the purpose of fortifying and advancing all of our kids and their educations. Yet somehow, apparently our foster kids aren’t worth any of these transformational funds.

That’s right, out of every single ARPA spending plan submitted to the Department of Education (RIDE) by every single school district in the state, not one includes providing foster kids the support they need to move past their childhood trauma to become fully functioning and successful adults. Not one dollar of the millions awarded to our schools is going to our foster kids. It’s shameful to be honest.

The most frustrating aspect is that the data exists that shows what needs to be done but our school districts are not connecting the dots. The General Assembly passed legislation requiring a report on the academic progress of foster children and it was signed into law in July 2021. The report was due in September 2022 for the purpose of fixing what needs to be fixed for the upcoming school year. We all know every day is important for our kids to make up for the education loss due to the pandemic and this is even more true for our foster kids who were already significantly behind before we even knew the word COVID-19. There is literally no time to waste, especially for our foster kids.

What kind of message are we sending to these children? How is this neglectful behavior any different than that of the guardians who lost custody of these precious kids in the first place?

This is wrong and this situation should have been rectified yesterday.

Our foster kids deserve so much better from the institutions that are supposed to support, educate and protect them. With the end of January rapidly approaching, we hope that our educational leaders quickly amend their ARPA spending plans to include the foster kids struggling to get by in their districts.

If not, further legislative action is needed and will be taken by us.

This article originally appeared on The Providence Journal: What message are we sending not supporting RI's foster kids? | Opinion Column