scholarly journals Taking Responsibility: Supporting Schools to Support Children in Foster Care and State Custody

2016 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 82-99
Author(s):  
Jeffrey Alvin Anderson ◽  
Rama Cousik ◽  
Mary Jo Dare
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Young People ◽  
Living Arrangements ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Systems Of Care ◽  
Interagency Collaboration ◽  
School Partnerships ◽  
State Custody ◽  
Children In Foster Care

For public schools that serve large percentages of young people who are at risk for school failure, the ability to fully engage families is widely considered a best practice. Recent research in the area of family-school partnerships indicates that increased family engagement has been associated with improvements in school outcomes such as academic performance. Although the term family is conceptually universal, its concise definition can be elusive because of the many meanings the word can connote. This paper examines conceptions of family for children who are in foster care. Additionally, suggestions are provided for community agencies and schools to work together to better support this population of young people. For a variety of reasons, children may be living away from their biological parents, in short or long-term living arrangements. During a given school year, children may live in one or more foster homes or residential facilities. The ability of schools to adequately support these students appears to be associated with educators’ willingness to work closely with both children who are in foster care and their service teams. We argue that comprehensive approaches for supporting these young people to succeed educationally requires effective interagency collaboration among schools and the community-based agencies that serve children and families. Partnerships such as those found in Full Service Community Schools and systems of care are described as possible methods for implementing interagency collaboration in schools.

Health Care of Children in Foster Care

PEDIATRICS ◽  
1994 ◽  
Vol 93 (2) ◽  
pp. 335-338 ◽  
Author(s):  
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Behavioral Problems ◽  
Extended Family ◽  
School Achievement ◽  
Emotional And Behavioral Problems ◽  
Socioeconomic Background ◽  
Permanency Planning ◽  
State Custody ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Children In Foster Care

The foster care system in America has evolved as a means of providing protection and shelter for children who require out-of-home placement.1 It is designed to be a temporary service, with a goal of either returning children home or arranging for suitable adoptive homes. In recent years, child welfare agencies have been directing greater efforts toward supporting families in crisis to prevent foster care placements whenever feasible and to reunify families as soon as possible when placements cannot be avoided. Increasingly, extended family members are being recruited and assisted in providing kinship care for children when their biologic parents cannot care for them. However, during the past decade the number of children in foster care has nearly doubled, despite landmark federal legislation designed to expedite permanency planning for children in state custody.2 It is estimated that by 1995 more than 500 000 children will be in foster care.3 In large part, this unrelenting trend is the result of increased abuse and neglect of children occurring in the context of parental substance abuse, mental illness, homelessness, and human immunodeficiency virus infection.4 As a result, a disproportionate number of children placed in foster care come from that segment of the population with the fewest social and financial resources and from families that have few personal and limited extended family sources of support.5 It is not surprising then that children entering foster care are often in poor health. Compared with children from the same socioeconomic background, they suffer much higher rates of serious emotional and behavioral problems, chronic physical disabilities, birth defects, developmental delays, and poor school achievement.6-13

Social Work and the Education of Children in Foster Care

1993 ◽  
Vol 17 (3) ◽  
pp. 25-34 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jane Aldgate ◽  
Anthony Heath ◽  
Matthew Colton ◽  
Michael Simm
Keyword(s):  
Social Work ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Young People ◽  
Social Workers ◽  
Educational Needs ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Children In Foster Care

To what extent should social workers advocate the educational needs of children and young people in foster care? Jane Aldgate, Anthony Heath, Matthew Colton and Michael Simm present the findings of a recent study.

‘To another’s house’: the experiences of Muslim young people in foster care

2018 ◽  
Vol 42 (3) ◽  
pp. 219-233 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Pitcher ◽  
Shabana Jaffar
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Young People ◽  
Good Practice ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Traditional Values ◽  
Way Of Life ◽  
Children In Foster Care ◽  
Social Belonging ◽  
Therapeutic Services ◽  
The Right

Cultural confusion is a common experience among children in foster care. But it can be especially severe for Muslims when their faith, traditional values and way of life are disrespected and when this is exacerbated by removal from familiar home environments. This article describes the experiences of young people affected by this and critically examines how their situation matches the definitions of good practice in agencies and professionals seeking to help them. Four issues emerged: the child’s confusion surrounding separation and moving to somewhere strange; identifying the right placement; intervening in a way that offers children future choices; and the ever-present risk of discrimination. In each of these situations, well-meaning and firmly established fostering practices can be insensitive to the needs and wishes of Muslim children. This confounds their understanding of their self, depresses their sense of social belonging and demands they adjust in order to survive. The article makes recommendations to support Muslim adolescents entering care and to improve the practice of the professionals and agencies responsible for them. The dearth of specialist therapeutic services is highlighted, along with suggestions for future research.

What makes good outcomes for children in foster care?

1999 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 4-9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roslyn Leahy ◽  
Claerwen Little ◽  
Linda Mondy ◽  
Dianne Nixon
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Current Literature ◽  
Best Practice ◽  
Care Program ◽  
Future Directions ◽  
Literature Research ◽  
Children In Foster Care ◽  
Outcomes For Children

This article describes one agency’s strategies in developing benchmarks for best practice outcomes in fostering. Workers have used current literature, research and reports to identify optimum outcomes, and have then compared the performance of their own foster care program to these points. Future directions and current needs in research in this area are identified.

Normalcy for children in foster care in the time of coronavirus

2020 ◽  
Vol 15 (4) ◽  
pp. 215-219
Author(s):  
Mary Elizabeth Collins ◽  
Sarah Baldiga
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Young People ◽  
Design Methodology ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Policy And Practice ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Child Welfare Policy ◽  
Children In Foster Care ◽  
Youth In Care ◽  
The Usa

Purpose This paper aims to describe how a sense of normalcy for young people in foster care can be critical to their well-being. Design/methodology/approach This paper reports on policy and practice efforts in the USA to promote normalcy for youth in care. The authors review policy that promotes normalcy and report on one organization's efforts to support these goals. Findings COVID-19 has offered profound challenges to the goal of normalcy. Rise Above has adapted to meet the challenges. Originality/value The authors argue that COVID may also offer opportunities to build toward a more robust paradigm of normalcy within child welfare policy and practice.

scholarly journals Looked After Children: The Reluctant State and Moral Salvation

Genealogy ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (2) ◽  
pp. 16
Author(s):  
Mark Cronin
Keyword(s):  
Foster Care ◽  
Social Policy ◽  
Young People ◽  
Mode Of Delivery ◽  
The State ◽  
Public Care ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Children In Foster Care ◽  
Looked After Children ◽  
Historical Factors

Over the past fifty years, public care for children in England has undergone a significant transformation moving almost exclusively towards foster care as the preferred mode of delivery. The most recent data from the Department for Education for the year ending 31 March 2018, reported that 73% of all Looked After Children (LAC) were placed in foster care with just 8% in residential placements. Compared to an almost even split of 45% of children in Foster Care (or ‘boarded out’) and 42% of children in residential care in 1966, the scale of this shift becomes apparent. This transformation has taken place in the context of a social policy discourse promoted by successive governments, which has privileged foster care as the most suitable place for children needing out-of-home public care. The main argument in this article is that the rationale for the state’s growing interest in children (in particular those children who are considered a social problem) and the emerging social policy solutions, i.e., foster care, are driven by particular political and economic agendas which have historically paid little attention to the needs of these children and young people. This article explores the relationship between the state, the child and their family and the drivers for this transformation in children’s public care making use of a genealogical approach to identify the key social, political and historical factors, which have provided the context for this change. It examines the increasing interest of the state in the lives of children and families and the associated motivation for the emerging objectification of children. The role of the state in locating the family as the ideal place for children’s socialisation and moral guidance will be explored, with a focus on the political and economic motivations for privileging foster care. Consideration will also be paid to the potential implications of this transformation for children and young people who require public care.

scholarly journals Keeping secrets: how children in foster care manage stigma

2019 ◽  
Vol 43 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-45 ◽  
Author(s):  
Diane Dansey ◽  
Danielle Shbero ◽  
Mary John
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Young People ◽  
Birth Parents ◽  
Children And Young People ◽  
Children In Foster Care ◽  
Previous Edition ◽  
Current Article ◽  
Children In Care ◽  
The Impact

This article follows on from ‘How children in foster care engage with loyalty conflict: presenting a model of processes informing loyalty’ ( Dansey, John and Shbero, 2018 ), published in the previous edition of this journal. This model highlighted the themes of stigma and secrecy for children in care, which it was felt warranted further consideration in their own right. The current article shares further quotations from the children in relation to these themes, which add to the evidence of what children are saying in relation to stigma and bullying. Most importantly, it presents this topic in a manner that stimulates thought around the implications of what children are saying for their broader mental health and resilience and what might therefore be most supportive.  Children in foster care are subject to stigma in relation to being in care and not living with their birth parents. The impact of this is important to explore, especially for those who already experience higher levels of disadvantage than other children. Themes of stigma and secrecy emerged from a recent grounded theory study that was conducted with 15 children and young people in foster care ( Dansey, John and Shbero, 2018 ). These quotations highlighted how stigma was being internalised by children, how they had experienced, or believed that their care status would lead to, bullying and how some of them described keeping their foster care status a secret as a result. This article seeks to share the voices of these children, look at the existing literature in this area and consider the possible impact that stigma and secrecy may have on them. Implications for practice are discussed and the need for more targeted research is highlighted.

scholarly journals The Statistical Analysis of the Academic Achievement of Young People Living in the Child Protection System

2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 29-38
Author(s):  
Ildikó Erdei ◽  
Karolina Eszter Kovács
Keyword(s):  
Academic Achievement ◽  
Comparative Analysis ◽  
Statistical Analysis ◽  
Foster Care ◽  
Young People ◽  
Residential Care ◽  
Child Protection ◽  
Foster Parents ◽  
Care Homes ◽  
Children In Foster Care

In recent years, there has been an increasing emphasis on placing children in foster care. Our main research aims to explore the connections between the future orientation of disadvantaged young people living in residential care homes and foster families. In our pilot-study, we made it measurable by a comparative analysis of their study results. The sample consists of children raised in the child protection specialist and aftercare system of the Greek Catholic Child Protection Centre of Debrecen and Nyírség. The comparative analysis included 57 children and young people living in residential care homes and 57 children and young adults living in foster care. The members of both groups were born between 1993 and 2003, so are 15-25-year-olds. The comparative analysis was made on the basis of the available documents and study statistics between June 2019 and November 2019, to measure and compare the academic achievement of young people living in residential care homes and with foster parents. According to the statistical analysis, it was found that the academic achievement, based on year repetitions, show a more favourable picture of students living with foster parents. Depending on our results, a number of additional research questions arise.

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