Kids’ Voice of Indiana is addressing a critical service gap – young children in foster care who are often left out of education conversations because they haven’t started kindergarten.
With funding from the Early Years Initiative, Kids’ Voice launched Little Voices, Big Futures, a new phase of its Educational Liaison (EL) program with a focus on early learners, in October 2024. The program expansion made it possible to add a full-time, multilingual liaison dedicated specifically to the younger age group.
“We weren’t getting referrals for that age group,” said Lacy Wooten, who leads the EL program. “I think a lot of that was a lack of awareness that children that young even had educational needs. But they do – they have huge needs. These are the years when children learn how to be around others, how to hold a pencil, how to communicate. If we wait until they’re five to start paying attention, we’ve missed a huge opportunity.”
The day-to-day work of the educational liaison is extensive and hands-on. They coordinate with family case managers, guardians ad litem [a court appointed person who represents the best interests of a child], therapists, doctors and families to assess a child’s needs and build a plan. This might mean arranging evaluations for speech or developmental delays, helping families enroll their children in preschool or accompanying caregivers on visits to early learning centers to ensure they’re a good fit.
“It could be something as simple as a child not speaking clearly or not speaking at all. We work to get them evaluated and connected to the right services, whether that’s through a school district’s developmental preschool or an outside provider,” Wooten said.
Children in foster care face steep challenges, from trauma and instability to inconsistent access to services, and those challenges often impact their ability to thrive in school.
“They’re already going through a traumatic time, which delays development. If they’re not in school, that adds another layer. We don’t want them starting kindergarten already behind,” Wooten said. “We’re talking about children who’ve already had so much taken from them. But if we can give them access to education – if we can show them they matter from the very beginning – we’re giving them something no one can ever take away.”
Amy Pangburn, a grant writer for Kids’ Voice, emphasized the long-term impact.
“We really look at this project as a way to ensure these children – who are in foster care through no fault of their own – have a fair chance to access early learning opportunities just like any other child. That can set them on a completely different path in life,” she said.
The Early Years Initiative exists to elevate organizations, like Kids’ Voice, working to ensure infants and toddlers develop foundational knowledge and skills that support their future learning and development. Before the expansion, Kids’ Voice served fewer than 20 of the hundreds of preschool-aged children in Indiana’s foster care system. By 2024, they were serving more than 80 children with plans for continued growth.
Kids’ Voice is uniquely positioned for this work. As the court-appointed advocates for every child in Marion County’s child welfare system, the organization has a clear view of the systemic gaps.
“We’re the constant. While everything else in their lives might be changing – the foster placement, the school, the case manager – we’re still there,” Pangburn said.
Kids’ Voice’s expertise in both education and child welfare makes the organization a trusted partner for families navigating overwhelming situations.
“A lot of the families we work with never graduated from high school themselves. So, we’re not just helping a child get into preschool. We’re trying to break a cycle,” Pangburn said. “When we invest in a child’s early years, we’re investing in their future, in their family’s future and in the future of our state.”
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