FROM “CARE” TO COLLEGE

Have you supported a youth in foster care in their goal to attend college?

Was the youth’s school setting stable while you worked with them?

What was your role in supporting this youth?

What other partners did you and the youth collaborate with during their high school years to help them reach their academic goals?

Promoting school connections for youth in child welfare

Ensuring Educational Stability, Continuity, & Success of Children in Foster Care

A COLLABORATIVE APPROACH

Goals for Today• To understand the importance of educational stability in the academic wellbeing and success of a youth involved with DCF

• To understand the impact of trauma.

• To learn strategies to enhance collaboration.

• To share materials and resources to help you support youth in care.

Vanessa’s Story

Connecticut Voices for Children - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLB_jFPNIksConnecticut Voices for Children - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YLB_jFPNIks

Academic Challenges

70% of former foster youth

express a desire to attend college

Students in foster care

General student

population

•www.cwla.org^ Casey Northwest Alumni

Study

Foster Care Alumni Studies: Education Outcomes

Workshop P_Education Advocacy.ppt

School Challenges for Youth in Foster Care• Frequent changes in home and school placements.

• Lack of collaboration and coordination among partners.• Gaps in learning.• Incomplete records.

• Trauma – the impact on relationship skills and learning.

EDUCATIONAL STABILITY

Youth need a stable living and educational experience in order for other supports to be effective.

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Reduce the Bouncing:Educational Success Starts with

Stability• Vermont youth in foster care are likely to experience 3-7 school changes.

• Every time a student changes schools they lose approximately 4-6 months of educational progress.

• High school students who changed schools even once were less than half as likely to graduate, even when controlling for other variables that affect high school completion.

Boring, but Important•The Fostering Connections Act requires DCF to coordinate with local education agencies to ensure that children remain in the same school at the time of placement, unless it has been determined NOT be in the student’s best interest to do so.

•The Uninterrupted Scholars Act amends FERPA to permit schools to release education records to “an agency caseworker or other representative of a State or local child welfare agency” who has the right to access a student’s case plan, and when the agency or organization is “legally responsible” for the child’s “care and protection.”

•Vermont DCF/AOE Memorandum of Understanding provides the legal structure for children to stay in their familiar school When they are state placed in another community.

Foster Youth and Special Education

• 50-75% of Vermont youth in foster care are some form of special education.

• Many youth are being educated in alternative settings.

• More data is being collected statewide as part of VT-FUTRES.

TRAUMA: Being in foster care means a youth has experienced trauma.

•Over 70% of youth in care report at least 2 types of trauma.

• The rate of PTSD in youth in foster care is higher than for that of veterans.

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What is Traumatic Stress?•Overwhelming experience

•Results in vulnerability and loss of control

• Interferes with relationships

•Trauma impacts ability to regulate their emotions.

•Children exposed to trauma spend energy on survival instead of developmental mastery.

Herman, J. (1992). Trauma and Recovery. New York: Basic Books.

Self Regulation•A stable childhood helps youth learn to balance self-control with self expression.

•Disregulated students may struggle with: • Sleep issues

• Attention span

• Focusing on a goal

• Managing emotions appropriately and in context

• Expressing feelings constructively

Trauma Triggers• Triggers include seeing, feeling, or hearing something that remind us of past trauma.

• Triggers activate the internal alarm system.

• There may be no actual, current danger, but the response is as if there is.

• When these triggers happen in school a students ability to learn and relate is diminished.

• Have you experienced a student challenged by a triggering event?

Trauma and Resiliency

•To heal, youth must feel safe in their bodies.

•Stable connections, familiar environment, and predictability are key.

• If coping skills are more developed, a child is much more resilient.

COLLABORATION AND ADVOCACY:

• Form a network of advocates who can support the successful education experience of youth in out-of-home care.

• Who can be an advocate?

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What can advocates do?• Listen to the youth.

• Collaborate with each other.

• Help build a support network for the youth.

• Plan and set goals with the youth.

• Recognize when a youth is struggling.

• Know your role and refer youth to other supports when appropriate.

• Be a consistent presence in the youth’s life.

Self Advocacy

• Teach the youth to be his or her best support for what is important for a successful education experience.

• Help youth identify their strengths and challenges.

• Recommended that self-advocacy training begins in 7th or 8th grade.

Strategies for You to Help Youth Succeed in School• Promote their educational stability by:• Assist in recruiting local foster families.• Spread a positive word about foster care.

• Using the law to advocate for student to remain in a consistent school setting.• Empower and communicate with caregivers

• Collaborate and Communicate:• Records and plans need to be accurate• Team with other advocates and service providers• Listen to what youth wants and believes they need.• VT-FUTRES is facilitating a youth voice survey.

Foster parents and school mental health providers maintain regular contact with the student’s teachers.

• Encourage foster parents to advocate for student educational and social/emotional/behavioral needs.

• Ensure that relevant educational laws and resources are shared.

• Provide each student in foster care with an educational advocate who can continually work with the student, despite changes in placement, and effectively

advocate for the student’s educational needs.

Strategies for You to Help Youth Succeed in School, cont.• Develop an understanding of trauma:• Understand the impact of trauma on youth in foster care and their education.• Be aware of possible triggers. • Recognize that trauma reactions may impact student’s responses and attitude.

• Help youth recognize their strengths• Build on their positive attributes• Encourage them (gently) beyond their comfort-zone.• Model and coach self-advocacy techniques.• Assist youth to identify adults they can count on for the long term.

Foster parents and school mental health providers maintain regular contact with the student’s teachers.

• Encourage foster parents to advocate for student educational and social/emotional/behavioral needs.

• Ensure that relevant educational laws and resources are shared.

• Provide each student in foster care with an educational advocate who can continually work with the student, despite changes in placement, and effectively

advocate for the student’s educational needs.

Presenters

Kristen Hayden-WestVT-FUTRES Implementation Coordinator, UVM

Joan RockVT-FUTRES Implementation Coordinator, UVM and

DCF Resource Coordinator, Morrisville District