This report presents a snapshot of the academic performance of children on guardianship/custody orders from 2003 to 2006, and changes in their performance over this period. This concludes a two-stage pilot study, the first of its kind in Australia. A considerable proportion of children on guardianship/custody orders are not meeting the national benchmarks for reading and numeracy (ranging from 4% to 68% across states and years), and Indigenous children within this group are particularly disadvantaged.