Session: Toward Balancing the Educational Scale: A Multi-Faceted Viewpoint Towards Understanding and Supporting the Educational Stability of Students in Foster Care (Society for Social Work and Research 30th Annual Conference Anniversary)

Policy, research, and practice efforts have focused on fostering positive schooling experiences, including promoting educational stability. National legislation and Virginia's legislative code formally task the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) and the Virginia Department of Social Services (VDSS) with a shared responsibility to ensure educational stability for students in foster care. To effectively uphold this responsibility, stakeholders from both agencies must first understand factors that promote and hinder educational stability for youth in foster care.

While the research literature has discussed the impact of educational stability on youth and their outcomes, few studies have asked youth how they describe and make meaning of educational stability for themselves. A recent structured review of the published literature found that the majority of the published qualitative research tends to discuss educational stability as an outcome that emerged when exploring students' experiences with school, instead of a focal inquiry (Cage et al., under review). This provides an opportunity for qualitative research to specifically explore educational stability and its impact on students from student perspectives. It also provides room to understand additional stakeholder perspectives, particularly foster parents and educational and foster care liaisons who are critical elements of the educational ecologies of students in foster care.

This symposium will highlight results of a three-phase qualitative study that gathered insights and experiences from various stakeholders about the educational stability of students in Virginia's foster care system. This study aimed to add to the existing knowledge base by exploring how students in foster care, liaisons, and foster parents define educational stability, the impact of instability on students, and factors contributing to or hindering educational stability and positive educational experiences for students in foster care. The project also sought stakeholder recommendations for enhancing educational stability for these students. This symposium will highlight the findings of the project through five presentations.

The symposium will begin with a brief introduction from Dr. Jamie Cage, the project's lead investigator and symposium discussant. Dr. Cage will provide background information on the study's methodology and orient the audience on the presentations. Additionally, she will distribute a handout containing key questions for participants to consider during each presentation.

In the first presentation, Dr. Jenee Lee will explore the lived experiences of a youth participant through poetic-narrative analyses. Dr. Victoria Cashio will then present findings on the study's first research question, and discuss how participants described and made meaning of educational stability. Graduate student Claudia Lee will then share results related to the consequences of instability, as identified by study participants. The fourth presentation, by graduate student Margaret Poandl, will examine the systemic barriers to achieving stability and positive educational experiences. Graduate student Antonio Giles will conclude the presentations by outlining the advice and recommendations provided by participants to promote educational stability and positive educational experiences for students in foster care through a public health framework. After the final presentation, the entire team will engage the audience in discussing the implications for research, policy, and practice.