Saturday, 15 January 2005 - 4:00 PM

This presentation is part of: Outcomes in Foster Care

Comparing School Engagement and Educational Performance of Children with a History of Foster Care Placement and Children in Contact with Social Services

Purpose: Research on school engagement and educational performance of children who are involved with social service departments focuses primarily on children in foster care. Educational achievement and school performance of children who have contacted social service systems, but never placed in out-of-home care receive little attention. The purpose of this project was to compare school engagement (e.g., student relationship with peers and teachers, behavior/discipline problems at school) and educational performance (e.g., grade progression, academic performance by subject) between the following two groups of children: (a) those who have been placed in out-of-home care and (b) those who have had contact with the child protective service, but never placed in foster care. This study included a sample which was drawn from cases investigated/assessed by local child protective services (CPS) agencies, and included both opened and unopened cases.

Method: This study used the National Survey of Child and Adolescent Well-Being (NSCAW) data. The NSCAW is a longitudinal survey using two different samples: the Child Protective Service (CPS) sample and One Year in Foster Care (OYFC). The CPS sample includes 5,404 children, ages 0-14, who had an investigation closed and not been placed in foster care. The OYFC sample consists of 727 children, who were in out-of-home care for about 12 months at the time of sampling. Waves 2 and 3 took place 12 months and 18 months after the initial interviews, respectively. This study examined and compared the following variables in both CPS and OYFC samples: school achievement (measured by Mini Battery of Achievement), grade progression and academic performance by subject (reported by teacher), school engagement (measured by Drug Free Schools Outcome Study Questions), relationship with peer (measured by Loneliness and Social Dissatisfaction Questionnaire for Young Children), future expectation about education (measured by Adolescent Health Survey), youth activities (measured by Social Competence Scale), community environment (reported by current caregiver), youth behavior checklist (reported by both caregiver and teacher), relationship with teacher (reported by teacher) and special educational needs (reported by teacher). A series of bivariate analyses and logistic regressions were run to model the relationship between a child's involvement with the child welfare systems and grade progression.

Results: Findings indicate that children in both CPS and OYFC samples are at great risk of school failure. The results show very high rates of grade repetition and behavior/discipline problems in both CPS and OYFC groups. Furthermore, children in both groups are less likely to perform at or above grade level than their peers in the general population. Sample differences are examined, but found to explain little of school engagement and educational performance.

Implication: This study suggested that the child welfare systems have great potentials to provide educational support to children in contact with social services. The results suggest providing more concrete academic assistance and building academic achievement monitoring systems for children in contact with social services. Findings also suggest the need to explore more fully the role of child welfare services on educational achievement of foster children.

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