Topeka ? The state has received a $250,000 federal grant that is aimed at improving the lives of children in foster care, officials said.

The grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services will fund a 17-month collaborative initiative among the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services, Kansas University and State Department of Education.

The grant funds will be used to improve sharing of information among the agencies involved in the lives of foster children, specifically SRS and the schools the children attend, officials said.

The goals are to reduce the number of times foster children have to change schools and improve the children’s graduation rates.

“We are going to do everything we can to make communication among agencies more efficient to ultimately benefit children who are in state care,” said SRS Secretary Rob Siedlecki Jr.

KU’s Institute for Educational Research and Public Service and School of Social Welfare will help the Children and Family Services Division of SRS and the state education agency develop the infrastructure necessary to increase interagency communication.