Chronic Absenteeism & School Stability Among Foster Youth in La County Schools

Background and Purpose:

In 2020/21, Los Angeles County (LAC) had close to one-third of the state’s foster youth. This group suffered from disproportional rates of chronic absenteeism (CA) in the last school year. One key driver of CA is school instability, i.e., frequent school changes. Despite legislation giving foster youth the right to remain in their schools of origin (Every Student Succeeds Act [ESSA], 2015), over a quarter of youth in foster care made an unscheduled (nonpromotional) move to a different school in 2020/21 compared to only 7% of non-foster youth students.

Following the enactment of ESSA, the Office of Child Protection (OCP), Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) and Los Angeles County Office of Education (LACOE) launched a school stability initiative that provided shared ride services and other means of transportation to transport foster youth to their schools of origin. This qualitative study seeks to better understand the drivers of CA as well as how the County’s transportation initiative may have helped improve school stability and reduce CA among students in foster care.

Research Questions:

1. What factors are associated with CA and school (in)stability among foster youth in LAC?
2. How have child welfare agencies and school districts implemented the school stability initiative? What are some challenges and successes of the initiative?
3. What are the policy and practice implications for supporting foster youth students in California?

Methods:

Following IRB approval, researchers directly contacted school staff at six school districts within LAC, public child welfare workers, and experts at LACOE, OCP and foster youth-serving organizations. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with a total of 14 stakeholders, where half of all interviewees were school district staff.

Analysis:

Interview transcriptions were analyzed using Dedoose Coding Software. To ensure the validity and reliability of these codes, at least two researchers reviewed each transcript and met regularly to discuss the coding progress.

Results:

Preliminary findings indicate four major themes:

1. Shared responsibility and accountability for documentation.
2. Chronic absenteeism is a symptom of being in foster care.
3. Increase awareness around foster youths’ educational rights.
4. Advocate for state­ funding toward the school stability initiative.

Conclusion & Implications

Since the implementation of the initiative in LAC, increased resources and funding have been allocated to foster youth students. Nonetheless, stakeholders share that there is a need for strengthened communication between DCFS and school districts. Moreover, CA for foster youth is not well documented or prevented in school districts, yet there are various factors contributing to the phenomenon. Increased awareness and training around foster youths’ educational rights among school personnel and public child welfare workers may help reinforce the documentation of school changes and CA for foster youth, and thus, allow for prevention work. Finally, the success of the stability initiative has been largely made possible by the partnering and sharing of costs between DCFS, LACOE, and school districts. These collaborations highlight the need for multi-agency collaboration, but also expose the need for additional funding from the state to make these initiatives sustainable.