Helping Foster Children In School

A Guide for Foster Parents, Social Workers and Teachers

John DeGarmo

• Éditeur: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
• Année: 2015
• ISBN:
  9781784501624
• Sujet: Education
• Sous-sujet: Education Counseling

Helping Foster Children In School explores the challenges that foster children face in schools and offers positive and practical guidance tailored to help the parents, teachers and social workers supporting them.

Children in care often perform poorly at school both in terms of their behavior and their academic performance, with many failing to complete their education. They will have often experienced trauma or neglect which can result in a number of developmental delays. By looking at why children in foster care do not perform as well as their counterparts, John DeGarmo, who has fostered more than 40 children, provides easy-to-use strategies to target the problems commonly faced. He emphasizes the importance of an open dialogue between teacher, parent and social worker, to ensure that everyone is working jointly to achieve the best outcome for the child.

An invaluable resource for foster parents, social workers and educators alike, this book encourages a unified response to ensure foster children are given the best chance to succeed at school.

CHAPTER 1

Foster Care

An Introduction

The numbers are dire. The desire is there, but as long as there has been foster care there has been severe deficiency in the education of those who find themselves in the care of someone other than the biological parents. Not to say that those from the traditional nuclear family walk to the graduation stage without any hurdles to jump over, but you’d be hard pressed to find anyone in or out of the world of child welfare who would argue against foster youth being the first to suffer when it comes to education.

My story of education isn’t that far away from what every other foster kid goes through. When I went to care, it meant I was leaving my school as well. At that point I was finishing my freshman year of high school, so far along that moving to the next grade was done with ease. I hopped through a couple of homes and with them a couple of schools. I landed in a pretty nice foster home and a pretty nice school district but the family decided to move towns, taking me with them. A new house and a new school.

Unlike most foster youth my school records followed me everywhere I went. I was fortunate not to lose any credits or suffer any penalties, though I did lose the eligibility to participate in sports due to all the moves. I made due. I played intramural basketball and found a home in the yearbook department. Unlike a lot of foster youth, I’m pretty outgoing, I acclimate well. It wasn’t too difficult for me to settle in, make some friends, and enjoy the stability of being in school for more than a year.

But the stability ended and, like most foster youth, reality started. Two weeks before graduation I aged out of foster care. I moved in with my girlfriend, prepared to finish school and figure out the next step. I was shocked when I was called into the Vice Principal’s office. The whole thing seemed to move in slow motion. I was asked what my living situation was. I explained that I had aged out and moved into a new home in the school district. I was asked if I paid rent. I responded with a no. I was asked if I paid any utilities or had any house bills in my name. I had lived there all of two days so, again, the answer was no. I was then informed that since I could not prove that I lived in the school district, it was the position of the school that I be expelled.

I was two weeks away. I was two weeks away from a cap and gown. I was two weeks away from awkwardly laughing with the rest of my class over embarrassing memories created in the halls. I was two weeks away from a tassel that would hang from my rearview mirror for the first year of college. I was two weeks away from being able to remember the year I graduated high school. But I didn’t get those things. I confuse the last year of high school all the time. I almost never get it right.

Instead I got to fill up my best friend’s car with everything I had at the school. A few days later I would fill that car again with everything I owned. The girl moved out of state. I was diploma-less and for the moment homeless. I had direction a few days earlier, I had a plan. Now I was standing outside a house I couldn’t live in, a school that had shut me out, and a future that looked very bleak.

I lucked out though. My best friend’s mom saw my things in her son’s car and started asking questions. Before I knew it she had me taking a General Educational Development course and enrolled in the local state university affiliate college with an apartment I shared with her son.

Not every kid in care has that person looking out for them. In fact, very few have the support necessary to make it in the real world, let alone college. Numbers don’t lie. Only seven percent of foster youth achieve an Associate’s Degree. I didn’t, college was too much fun for someone like me, grades suffered. And a measly three percent of foster youth ever see the sheepskin of a Bachelor’s Degree.

Take a moment to grasp that fact. In any given year there are nearly 400,000 kids in foster care. Of that number 20,000 will age out. Of that number, half will be homeless. And somewhere in all that muck, the three percenters and seven percenters find their way. What an amazing achievement that is…for them.

The rest will suffer through. The lack of resources, or knowledge of those resources, will baffle and frustrate them. They will give up. For some the call of immediate income will be too much to pass up, leading them straight into the workforce. Some will turn to the military, some will turn to crime, and some will be lost forever.

There are programs out there for foster youth to further their education. Scholarships, grants, federal programs that can help them make their way. You have a great guide through all the details.

When I started the nation’s only monthly foster care magazine (I told you I landed on my feet) I sought qualified, informed members of the child welfare world. I found Dr. John DeGarmo. I prefer writers who practice what they preach. I find the articles are more informative, more passionate, and more genuine. Doc DeGarmo is the real deal. The man’s house is always full of children. Children from care, children who have been adopted, and members of the DeGarmo tribe all live in harmony under one roof. That would be more than enough to fill one man’s plate but the good Doctor still finds time to advocate, to educate, and to learn. The thing I like most about him is his relentless pursuit of education and educating those who are responsible for the educating of America’s youth. A foster parent with an academic background who cares about the kids he cares for? I can get behind that.

There’s no quick fix to the problems that face America’s foster youth. Yet, there is hope. Moreover, efforts are being made every year to ensure the futures of the nation’s foster youth. What is needed is more information. More sharing of ideas that work, programs that work, people who are making a difference. Dr. John DeGarmo is a great voice to add to the conversation. Both his personal experience as an educated member of the child welfare community and as a strong advocate who is passionate about educating and informing people about foster care. I think you are really going to enjoy this book.

So get started.

CHRIS CHMIELEWSKI OWNER/EDITOR/FORMER FOSTER KID FOSTER FOCUS MAGAZINE

The number of children in the United States being placed within a foster home continues at a high rate as the nation travels further into the twenty-first century. As of 2009, there were approximately 463,000 children in the United States who were placed within homes under the foster care system (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services 2010). Seventy-five percent of these foster children are of school age, with the average age of a foster child being 10 years of age (Child Welfare League of America [CWLA] 2005).

When children are placed into foster care, lives are often changed very quickly. No longer do they live with parents and family or are surrounded by people they know. Instead, they are, most often quite quickly, placed in a home with strangers and are no longer in touch with those they know or with whom they are familiar. Indeed, those who are in foster care have significant difficulties in school performance and adjustment to developmental tasks of adolescence. These difficulties often lead to additional problems later on in their lives.

For many children placed in foster care, a new school environment is thrust upon them. Foster children are often taken from their homes suddenly and without any notice, and placed in a foster home in a nearby county. As a result, a number of issues arise for the foster child, as they are faced with a new home and an unfamiliar environment. To begin with, foster children typically have low attendance rates, as they are moved from one home to another. This includes not only to their original foster home, but to other foster homes as well. During these transitions, children placed in child welfare agencies often miss a great deal of school, as their foster parents and social workers attend to duties such as enrolling the child into school, meeting with counselors and psychologists, and giving the child time to adequately adjust to the new living situation. Often, the child has difficulty registering in a new school, as well as ensuring that all transcript information remains current. In fact, teachers are often not aware that a foster child is placed in their classroom. Indeed, school counselors or administrators might not have this information, either.

As foster children come with a myriad of emotional issues, many teachers are simply not equipped to handle these issues. Foster children may lash out in the middle of class due to the unfamiliarity and instability of their life at that present time, and many teachers do not have the training or the resources to recognize and deal with these challenges. Along with this, foster children often have difficulty with trust issues when it comes to adults, as well as building a healthy relationship with an adult figure. Thus, the relationships between teachers and foster children are quite often unhealthy ones.

Teachers, as well as school counselors, do not often have the background information they might need when having a foster child under their supervision. In most cases, the background information is not permitted to be released due to issues of confidentiality through legal acts of protection. Yet, this information is necessary in order for a teacher to fully understand the student’s needs and abilities. The more information a teacher has on the child, the better equipped the teacher becomes when trying to aid the child in his or her behavior and academic performance.

As the sudden move from a familiar home to an unfamiliar one can be a traumatic experience, children in foster care often struggle with a wide range of overwhelming emotions as they face being separated from family and loved ones, along with the difficulty of adjusting to a new home, foster family, and an environment that is foreign to them and not of their choosing. Along with this lies the concern of the foster child’s mental health, as the new environment and the situation the child has been placed in creates the risk of disturbing and disrupting it.

Foster children often have a difficult time with exhibiting proper school behavior during the school day. For many of the children, school is a constant reminder that they are, indeed, foster children without a true home. The continuous reminder that their peers are living with biological family members while they are not is a difficult reality for them, and can be manifested in several ways. Some foster children simply withdraw and become antisocial, in an attempt to escape their current environment and world they have been thrust into. For many foster children, violent behavior becomes the norm, as they not only act out in a negative and disruptive fashion in the school, but in their foster home, too, prompting yet another move to another foster home and another school.

The foster care system is one that is not only complex, but also one that is not well known by the general public, or to school teachers. It is necessary to understand the system in order to grasp the difficulties that all foster children undergo in foster care. It is also important to appreciate the difficulties faced by foster parents, teachers, and social workers who work alongside the foster youth on a daily basis, both inside and outside schools.

A brief history of foster care in the United States

In order to fully understand the foster care system in the United States, it is necessary to look as far back as the eighteenth century. At that time, local government officials were given the task of distributing relief to the poor and impoverished. Often, these officials were also granted authority to indenture children from families in poverty in lieu of monetary relief. Local officials were to ensure that children were fed, housed, clothed, and provided the necessary training of skills. As society became more aware of the challenges of underprivileged children, along with the growing number of orphans, orphanages were established.

The early nineteenth century saw the establishment of what grew to become the middle class. At the same time, the conception grew that early childhood was an important and separate part of human development. The character of children was to be shaped by internalizing beliefs of morality and behavior rather than breaking their wills, the prevailing approach in colonial times. The outcome was a change in child-rearing methods, as children began to live longer and stay home for longer periods of time, instead of being forced to enter the workforce at early ages. The early nineteenth century was also a time that children only from low-income homes were indentured. Some states were required to furnish children a minimum of three months of education per year. As states began to wane in indenturing children by the middle of the nineteenth century, religious institutes, along with charitable organizations, began to open their own orphanages.

The year 1853 witnessed a drastic change in regard to orphans and impoverished children. Charles Loring Brace, an austere critic of orphanages and asylums, introduced the idea of placing these children in homes, rather than the traditional orphanage. Brace founded the Children’s Aid Society (CAS) later in that year, with the vision that children should be placed in homes rather than in institutions. It was Brace’s personal belief that children should live in rural areas, as he was against city life. As a result, Brace endeavored to place children from urban slums into homes in the country. Then 1873 saw Mary Ellen Wilson enter the scene. This young girl was found by a church worker when she was reported by her neighbors. Young Mary Ellen was bruised, thin, and her skin was caked in dirt. When a New York judge became aware of the situation, Mary Ellen was removed from her home, and placed into another, thus making her the first official foster child.

The later part of the nineteenth century saw an awareness of the importance of social issues, such as child abuse and parental neglect. The Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children (SPCC) was created and became active in large eastern cities. Soon, members of the SPCC were granted permission from the courts to remove children from abusive and neglectful homes and place them within other homes and orphan asylums. Families, such as those in Boston, Massachusetts, that took children into their homes were being paid. With this change in policy in payment to families, child placement agencies began to look more closely at the conditions in the placement homes where children were boarded. The term “foster care” came into fashion, sometimes replacing the phrase “boarding out.”

In 1909, the White House Council of Children established a resolution that altered the earlier philosophy and policies in regard to child welfare. This resolution was a new philosophy that held the belief that children needed to be reared in happy and stable environments. Shortly after in 1915, California licensed, as well as regulated, agencies that found placement homes for children. Five years later, the state began to pay these homes for this service.

The Aid to Dependent Children (ADC) Act, which was Title IV of the Social Security Act, gave impoverished families access to federal funds, enabl...