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Crucial Safety Net for Foster Kids? School

New report busts myths about low grad rates for teens in gov't care.

Katie Hyslop 26 May 2016TheTyee.ca

Katie Hyslop is The Tyee’s education and youth reporter. Her work is supported by Tyee Builders and a matching contribution from the Vancouver Foundation. Supporters neither influence nor endorse the particular content of the reporting. Other publications wishing to publish Katie’s work can contact editor Chris Wood here.

For most teenagers, school is the place you're forced to go 10 months out of the year. The support network of teachers, administrators, family, and friends that keep you from falling through the cracks or out the front door without a diploma are often taken for granted.

But for youth in government care, the frequent turnover of foster homes, social workers, and even family and friends, can mean school is the only constant in your life.

Throw in a greater likelihood of trauma, mental health or addictions issues, and learning or cognitive disabilities, and it's not hard to understand why youth in care graduate at barely half the rate of the rest of us: 47 per cent compared to 84 per cent of all B.C. youth in 2013/14.

Now a new report highlights both those additional risk factors -- and the stronger role schools could play in closing that yawning education gap.

Through interviews with former youth in care, as well as educators, academics, youth support workers, and government officials, University of Victoria School of Social Work researchers Deborah Rutman and Carol Hubberstey have found no difference in how youth in government care value education compared to their parented peers.

"School was the only place where there was normalcy. There was safety in coming to school. I felt empowered" said one former youth in care interviewed by Rutman and Hubberstey for "Fostering Success: Improving Educational Outcomes for Youth in/from Care," a new Vancouver Foundation report released May 26.

What is different, however, are the roadblocks youth in care face along the path to their Dogwood Diploma: those frequent moves, a Ministry of Child and Family Development focus on child protection over education, a lack of coordination between it and the Ministry of Education, no supportive adult consistently in their lives, and publicly provided shelter and care that ends abruptly at the age of 19.

"It's not necessarily rocket science," said Mark Gifford, director of grants and community initiatives for the Vancouver Foundation. But given how important schools are for both academic achievement and a "sense of connection [and] belonging", Gifford added, the report highlights "how much more we could be doing through public education systems to support better outcomes for young people by the time they're 19."

'19-and-out' must end

Rutman and Hubberstey make a number of recommendations for improving youth education outcomes, including extending supports beyond age 19, and providing incentives for attending school, like free meals, transportation, and daycare.

They also called for greater collaboration between the education and children and family development ministries on closing the graduation gap, ending the turnover of supportive adult allies like social workers and foster parents, and encouraging "wrap-around supports" that ensure youth are not only earning their diplomas, but also learning important life skills and getting the mental health treatment they need.

The report does not detail the costs associated with these more intensive supports. However Gifford, who is also a New Westminster school trustee, notes that with 30 B.C. school districts facing a combined $84 million shortfall in their 2016/17 budgets, education funds would have to increase to adequately support youth in care to graduation.

"As public school budgets are squeezed, academic enrichment programs, community support programs, alt-ed, all of those things, face additional pressure," he said. "And a lot of that pressure ends up being felt most acutely by kids who need some added support from those systems."

In a combined email statement from the Ministries of Education and Children and Family Development, a spokesperson wrote that the two already collaborate on education outcomes for youth in care, and have even developed shared guidelines for child welfare and support workers to help meet youths' education needs.

"For youth who are brought into government care, one of the primary domains for assessment and planning in the youth's care plan is their education," reads the statement. "Successful planning to support their engagement in education occurs through a partnership with the school -- namely with school counsellors, administrators and teachers."

Nevertheless, they recognize there is more work to do. One intention: implementing two recommendations that Representative for Children and Youth Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond made in 2015 to ensure that schools know as soon as possible which students are in permanent care, and that social workers know who to talk to about a young person's education plan.

While acknowledging the work of both ministries so far, Gifford notes the responsibility for ensuring youth in care graduate from high school rests on everybody's shoulders, not just government's.

"I can't emphasize enough that there are so many opportunities for school districts to work in stronger ways with MCFD and with community partners to support better outcomes for kids," he said, adding he hopes the report will help districts, as well as community partners, realize the important role they play in the lives -- and futures -- of youth in care.  [Tyee]

Read more: Education, BC Politics

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