Education and Child Welfare System Efforts to Improve Educational Outcomes for Youth in Foster Care: Identifying Opportunities to Enhance Cross-System Collaboration

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bush-Mecenas, Susan

Contributor:

Barnes-Proby, Dionne

Gates, Susan M.

Gomez-Bendaña, Heather

Language:

English

Other Title:

Education and Child Welfare System Efforts to Improve Educational Outcomes for Youth in Foster Care

Place of Publication:

RAND Corporation 2023

Summary:

The educational outcomes of youth in foster care are far worse than those of other students, in part because transitions into or out of the foster care system and placement changes can lead to frequent school transfers, which are associated with a host of problems. Since the early 2000s, policymakers at the state and federal levels have passed legislation to promote collaboration between the education and child welfare systems, with the goal of improving educational stability for youth in foster care and, in turn, their educational outcomes. But two features of public-sector systems in the United States might pose barriers to cross-system collaboration: (1) fragmentation within systems and (2) jurisdictional misalignment across systems. In this report, the authors explore the implications of fragmentation and misalignment for cross-system collaboration between public education and child welfare systems. They draw on interviews with education and welfare system representatives and adults who have experience in foster care, as well as case studies of four states' efforts to implement cross-system collaboration. The authors find common challenges to collaboration, including high staff turnover, limited preservice training on educational stability, and geographical dispersion. The authors offer suggestions for how policymakers at the local, state, and federal levels could encourage better cross-system collaboration.