Rooted in a School Community: A Multi-Stakeholder Perspective of Educational Stability for Students in Foster Care

Background

For students in foster care, educational stability, or being rooted in one’s education, is a promising protective factor against transplant shock and the other potential traumas of foster care involvement, supporting growth despite adversity. While the existing literature conceptualizes educational stability through school moves and continuity of services, there is a void in understanding how youth in foster care and adults in their lives define and describe the construct. Accordingly, this study explored how students in foster care and adults within their educational ecologies defined and made meaning of educational stability.

Methods

Participants in the study included four students in foster care, fourteen liaisons, and eleven foster parents. Data were collected through semi-structured individual interviews conducted over Zoom. The interviews were transcribed verbatim, and the data were analyzed using a modified Rapid Analysis technique. This technique involved consensus coding, where two researchers independently coded each interview, and then the lead investigator reviewed the coding to resolve any discrepancies between the two coders. After the coding process, the research team consolidated the codes and categories into domains and created comprehensive summary sheets for each interview based on these identified domains. The information from the summary sheets was then transferred to a spreadsheet for detailed matrix analyses of each domain.

Results

Data analysis revealed that participants had some common but also some unique perspectives on the meaning of educational stability. Common themes across all participants (students, liaisons, and foster parents) centered around staying in the same school and ensuring continuity of services. Foster parents noted the importance of maintaining a similar culture and community, as well as helping students with the building blocks of education and successive mastery of skills. Students also highlighted the importance of environmental conditions and a sense of safety, care, and being seen as an aspect of educational stability.

Conclusion/Implications

Results highlight the importance of stability in students’ lives, and the range of definitions and experiences that constitute stability. In addition to remaining in the same school and continuity of services, educational stability meant being in an environment where students felt safe, secure, and supported. Notably, the metaphorical language of uprooting students mentioned in several of the interviews was reminiscent of the principles of successful plant care and inspired further analysis and the implications of the study. Like all living organisms, students require a rich and supportive environment where their growth and curiosity can be nurtured and cultivated. Children should be empowered to develop strong, deep roots in their communities and naturally outgrow their educational environments to progress to the next level. Implications highlight the critical need to invest in foster care prevention by supporting families and communities, and early intervention in students' communities of origin. When a school move is unavoidable, the results suggest the importance of considering environmental factors, notably safety and familiarity, to maintain a sense of stability for students so they can become rooted in a school community.