When kids move from one foster home to another, they face obstacles. But Gail Cook, CMO Services Education Specialist at Family Support Services (FSS), made one of those obstacles disappear: the need to return a school-supplied laptop computer each time a student moves to a new home. Eager to minimize disruptions to education, she saw an opportunity to make life a little easier for students in foster care.

Until Cook intervened, the school board required all students, including those in foster care, to return their laptops if they moved. Then they had to request a new one after they relocated—causing a days-long delay. This isn’t much of a hardship for kids who have forever families, but it places an unnecessary burden on kids in foster care. For them, the process interrupted their education just as they were adjusting to a new foster family.

Cook contacted officials at the school board. The last thing these kids needed, she argued, was yet another disruption in their already upended lives. The school board agreed and changed its policy.

Thanks to Cook’s initiative, kids in care who use a Duval County Public School laptop can keep using their devices whether they move to a new home or not. The result: a little less trauma, a little more continuity.