Session: The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Youth in and Transitioning from Foster Care (Society for Social Work and Research 26th Annual Conference - Social Work Science for Racial, Social, and Political Justice)

The United States has had more than 30 million cases and nearly 600 thousand deaths due to COVID-19. These numbers continue to grow. Understanding community members' experiences, beliefs, and attitudes towards mitigating the virus's spread is critical to public health and to supporting individual, family, community, and societal well-being. Aligned with the conference theme of leveraging social work science for racial, social, and political justice, this symposium will present the latest research on experiences of the COVID-19 pandemic among a particularly vulnerable group of adolescents: youth in foster care and emerging adults who have recently aged out of the system. The first presentation will review findings from a quantitative survey with foster youth regarding their experiences early in the pandemic. This will be followed by a series of qualitative studies regarding different facets of youths' experiences. The second presentation will share a qualitative exploration regarding how COVID-19 has impacted foster youths' school connectedness and peer relationships. The third symposium presentation will include findings from a qualitative study of foster care system alumni and other independent students during the pandemic. The fourth presenter will share results from a multi-method qualitative study of the experiences of the pandemic among parenting foster youth and foster system alumni. Symposium attendees will leave this series of presentations knowing the latest research on COVID-19 impacts among a key-affected group of adolescents.