Taking Responsibility: Supporting Schools to Support Children in Foster Care and State Custody

For public schools that serve large percentages of young people who are at risk for school failure, the ability to fully engage families is widely considered a best practice. Recent research in the area of family-school partnerships indicates that increased family engagement has been associated with improvements in school outcomes such as academic performance. Although the term family is conceptually universal, its concise definition can be elusive because of the many meanings the word can connote. This paper examines conceptions of family for children who are in foster care. Additionally, suggestions are provided for community agencies and schools to work together to better support this population of young people. For a variety of reasons, children may be living away from their biological parents, in short or long-term living arrangements. During a given school year, children may live in one or more foster homes or residential facilities. The ability of schools to adequately support these students appears to be associated with educators’ willingness to work closely with both children who are in foster care and their service teams. We argue that comprehensive approaches for supporting these young people to succeed educationally requires effective interagency collaboration among schools and the community-based agencies that serve children and families. Partnerships such as those found in Full Service Community Schools and systems of care are described as possible methods for implementing interagency collaboration in schools.