Giving Compass' Take:

• This article on The Hechinger Report profiles a South Bronx school started by a child welfare agency, which has gradually found answers for educating youth in foster care through trauma-informed practices.

• What can we learn from the Mott Haven Academy Charter School's example? Are there ways to better train teachers and administrators to serve the needs of foster care students?

• Here's why students in foster care often subject to inadequate education.

Sasha Redlener slipped into a child-sized chair at a table beside first-grader Alyssa. It was midway through a class discussion on safety, with the students at Mott Haven Academy Charter School scratching out answers to questions like, “What does it mean to feel safe?” and “What can you do to help make your school feel safe?”

But Alyssa was sticking out her tongue and shimmying in her chair. Redlener asked the girl if she was comfortable at her table.

“I’m comfortable,” said Alyssa. “I just have a lot of energy.”

“I can see that,” said Redlener, suggesting they visit the water fountain for a quick break. As she escorted Alyssa into the hallway, Redlener’s co-teacher, Carolina Garcia, and Alexa Wernick, one of the school’s family and student specialists, scooted beside other students to coach them on their writing.

The goal with Alyssa, as with all her classmates, is to keep her “in the green.” At Haven, a decade-old South Bronx charter school serving roughly 450 kids in pre-K through seventh grade, moods are characterized by colors. Red and blue represent unpleasant moods: anger, frustration; sadness, boredom. Yellow stands for positive, high-energy emotions, such as excitement and joy. Green is tranquility, serenity, satisfaction — ideal conditions for what Haven teachers refer to as “learning mode.”

Read the full article about educating youth in foster care by Caroline Preston at The Hechinger Report.