Running Head: FOSTER DROPOUT 1

Fosters Can Make It Through:

Effective Interventions for Adolescents in Foster Care to Decrease Drop-Out Rates

Deion Green

SWK-3910: Understanding Social Research

Dr. T. E. Savage

UNC-Pembroke
FOSTER DROPOUT 2

Abstract

Over the past several years there has been big pushes in education to help close the

achievement gaps of racial/ethnic minority students, English learners, students cultivated in

poverty, and students with disabilities. Many of us are unaware, and have been for some time,

about the education of school-aged students within foster care due to legal responsibilities for

these children that have largely kept their information quiet from the public. With the increased

numbers documented over the last several years of these students low performances, high

attendance problems, and even high drop-out rates, the data and research into these students has

led to policies to help the systems recognize and enact policies that will help the youth overcome

these obstacles. While many policies and procedures within our government target graduation

rates, it seems imperative to look at those youth in foster care as there are many disadvantages to

them that hinder them from graduating and helping tackle these would be a benefit to not just

these youth but all youth in terms of increasing graduation rates. This research aims to identify

effective interventions that will help educators, communities, and foster parents to help foster

care youth to remain in school and graduate despite the many disadvantages against them.

Background

Within the US today, foster care has grown at an alarming rate with approximately

400,000 children and youth within the system at any given time each year [ CITATION

USD16 \l 1033 ]. Of these about 20,000 will age out of the system each year [ CITATION

USD16 \l 1033 ]. Approximately 270,000 of those in foster care are school-aged [ CITATION

USD16 \l 1033 ]. Of these mentioned numbers, 65% have been placed within more than one

living environment after entering into foster care [ CITATION Nat14 \l 1033 ]. According to

Casey Family Program’s, approximately 30-50% of youth leave foster care without a high school
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diploma or equivalent with only 30.7% of all foster care youth graduating from high

school[ CITATION Nel18 \l 1033 ].

According to Fostering Success in Education National Fact Sheet [CITATION Nat14

\n \t \l 1033 ] 40.5% of foster youth have remained within the same home throughout their time

in foster care, 37.8% of foster youth have been in 2-3 different foster placements, and 22% have

been in 4 or more foster placements. Youth within foster care tend to struggle within schools, not

just from being moved from place to place, but due to a lack of consistency across all schools

within the US [ CITATION Mil19 \l 1033 ], with 34.2% of 17-18 year-olds having experienced 5

or more school changes[ CITATION Nat14 \l 1033 ]. The prevalence of foster care youth to have

more trouble in schools can be seen in the alarming numbers seen among 17-18 year-olds within

the foster care system: absences (about twice that than other students), out-of-school suspension

(about twice, and in some cases three times that of other students), expulsion from school (about

three times that of others), and reading levels that are of an average 7th grader rather than high

schooler[ CITATION Nat14 \l 1033 ]. These numbers seem to be barely changing over the last

few years, as data from 2012 shows the same trends except for the number of youth seem to be

increasing [ CITATION Nat18 \l 1033 ]. Many recognize students in foster care as a noticeably

destitute subclass[ CITATION But17 \l 1033 ] and that due to many changes within schools and

living arrangements there are a greater part of schoolchildren identified with disabilities and held

back one or more grades due to missing time within schools due to registration issues and

transferring home issues, as well as other physical or mental issues requiring treatments.

Behavioral differences of students in foster care seem to be the most troublesome in schools,

mostly thought due to the trauma they have experienced and not being taught proper ways for
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coping, but the numbers are alarming even when compared to students who fall under the

homeless category (with an alarming 18 times more prevalence) [ CITATION Mil19 \l 1033 ].

Significance

It is imperative that children of all ages receive necessary education to be successful in

life, and that despite their previous circumstances and pasts that they be allowed to grow and be

nurtured in positive ways. Butner (2017) discusses the instability of dwelling and school settings

for those inside foster care or the juvenile justice system, but that a good steadiness, stability, and

support system could come from the school. The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) new

provisions have been released in June of 2016 via the US Department of Education and the US

Department of Health and Human Services as combined leadership for sustaining youth in foster

care to states, school districts, and juvenile assistance partnerships [ CITATION USD16 \l

1033 ]. This is part of the collaboration of these agencies to all work together to help improve the

educational outcomes for students in foster care, after much national research shows that there is

a very high-risk of dropout for those children and adolescents in foster care [ CITATION USD16

\l 1033 ].

Depleted educational success, class repeating and reduced high school commencement

frequencies have been observed to be more apparent among foster care minorities when equated

to other youth due to their encounters of diverse obstacles [ CITATION USD16 \l 1033 ], which

are due to high rates of mobility, instability, abuse, neglect, separation, impermanence and other

abrupt challenges faced by these youth. Thus, it is imperative that programs exist to help these

youth to graduate at the same rate as their peers despite their disadvantages. Many states are

considering tax credits for non-profits that service foster students and their families to help meet

their needs [ CITATION Mil19 \l 1033 ], or alternately trying to keep fosters within members of
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their family rather than in homes or other locations. Some other actions sought include keeping

students in the same school no matter where they are placed, as well as, enrolling students

promptly and making transitions quickly[ CITATION But17 \l 1033 ].

In an effort to help students in foster care, interventions are being sought that will help

these students get access to resources and programs that can help them not be behind their peers

and deal with the trauma they have encountered in positive ways [ CITATION But17 \l 1033 ].

Some programs seek to target dealing with trauma that foster students have faced, providing

better quality services in school to accommodate any educational needs, after school tutoring

programs, individualized education plans, credit retrieval, job skills training and assistance, and

many other avenues are being discussed and explored [ CITATION Nel18 \l 1033 ]. The

question is what some of the top programs within the state and nation are and how are they used

to help decrease dropout rates of high school foster children.

Literature Review

In researching interventions for use with foster care adolescents to help prevent or

decrease school dropout rates, some common themes arose from the literature. Among these

themes were identifying what leads to students dropping out, what schools can do to help

decrease dropout rates inside classroom, and programs outside of schools that help prevent

dropping out of school.

Predicting Dropouts

There are many intricate aspects that often go into the decisiveness of withdrawing from

education before graduation and is further complicated by disconnection within school due to

absences [ CITATION Tyl09 \l 1033 ]. While on-time graduation rates are increasing, there are

still students that are not graduating on time or at all [ CITATION Whi10 \l 1033 ]. With
FOSTER DROPOUT 6

education being a strong predictor for health across the world, youth education has become a

priority across the world and thus school dropout rates are world targets for concern

[ CITATION Wey17 \l 1033 ]. While absenteeism has been documented as a predictor for

dropout and is highly correlated to dropout rates [ CITATION Tan13 \l 1033 ], it is not the

harbinger of dropouts as previously theorized, and many other factors have been shown to be

correlated as well. Another important impact on school dropout rates tends to be excessive

investments in testing and accountability [ CITATION Tyl09 \l 1033 ].

Dropout rates tend to have a negative impact on our national economy and high rates of

future incarceration [ CITATION Iac13 \l 1033 ]. According to Clemens et al. [CITATION

Cle17 \n \t \l 1033 ], the foster care system involves many youth that have a fragmented

educational involvement due to combatting recurrent school fluctuations, stages of deficiency

due to breaks in registration which can be further deferred by the transference of records. Parr

&Bonitz (2015) identify several key predictors of a student becoming a dropout: demographic

factors, family environment, previous academic performance, school-related beliefs and

behaviors. As they recognize parent socio-economic status [ CITATION Par15 \l 1033 ] as one

of the most extensively studied predictors, this further lends into the foster care system youth as

we have previously identified those in foster care as mainly coming from low socio-economic

status homes in which they have encountered hunger, abuse, neglect, and other abrupt challenges

[ CITATION USD16 \l 1033 ] which puts them at a much higher hazard than youth their age

without these conditions. In low financial status homes parental association is low and the

support of training is likewise extremely inadequate with regards to, in this manner, allowing to

the students dropping out to either help bolster themselves or others to endure [ CITATION

Par15 \l 1033 ]. Furthermore, pupils from low-salary families are numerous times more bound to
FOSTER DROPOUT 7

drop out of school needing to be of assistance to their family stability and support [ CITATION

Whi10 \l 1033 ]. Parr & Bonitz (2015) discuss that the struggle for academic achievement of the

student is a problem as well, with an emphasis on the fact that many of these are coming from

the families who were previously dropouts or with the lack of encouragement about school as

many of these parents are not concerned about the welfare or protection of the youth and just try

to survive themselves, lacking support to help their own children. Parr & Bonitz (2015) even

further state that students who have not been encouraged about their skills or beliefs in

themselves tend to lack the confidence to overcome and further fall into the gap due to lack of

motivation. Also, the amount of time students miss from school tends to play a significant part in

their ability to achieve and can be a predictor for dropout [ CITATION Par15 \l 1033 ].

The effects of school dropout are substantial and have consequences socially,

psychologically, and financially [ CITATION Whi10 \l 1033 ]. As Weybright et al. [CITATION

Wey17 \n \t \l 1033 ] discuss the cross-sectional studies they have also found risk behaviors that

include use of tobacco, alcohol, marijuana, and other drugs as well as that parents have

participated in these risk behaviors. Drop out students tend to be have higher unemployment

rates and frequently are in lowly task and humble paying jobs, as well as increased rates of

criminal violations [ CITATION Whi10 \l 1033 ]. According to White & Kelly (2010), “the

negative effects of school dropout on society are extreme and include forgone national income,

lower tax revenues for social services, and higher crime rates committed by individuals who

have dropped out of school.” Thus, the need for interventions and changes are imperative and

need to be addressed to help reduce academic disengagement and somehow create a pattern for

reengagement that helps students overcome dropping out of school [ CITATION Iac13 \l 1033 ].

Interventions and changes (school-based)

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Students have referenced the need to dropout towards behavioral and discipline

challenges, lack of support of teachers, and lack of individualized planning toward graduation

[ CITATION Iac13 \l 1033 ]. With this in mind, the disengagement of students in school has

been an overwhelming issue [ CITATION Par15 \l 1033 ] that stems from their family

background, behaviors, and beliefs about the importance of school. Without proper motivators,

which Iachini et al. (2013) denotes as support of others, self-determined motivation, and a design

that fits within student needs. Also, schools need to focus on certain characteristics that promote

success, such as: individualized approach to learning, school structure that promotes success and

a school climate that has a restrictive allowance of drama [ CITATION Iac13 \l 1033 ]. Schools

and communities need to consider creating programs and interventions that not only focus on

reducing absenteeism but also provide kinds of remediation needed to increase engagement,

attendance, and academic performance [ CITATION Tan13 \l 1033 ]. As Somers et al.

[CITATION Som09 \n \t \l 1033 ] discuss strategies that high schools should use to combat

dropout rates: integrating experiential learning that makes the classroom more engaging and

connects the world to school learning, understanding different learning styles and using

appropriate methods to teach them, adding support for struggling students, reducing class sizes,

individualized instruction, more highly qualified teachers and the use of role models/mentors

within the school have all been documented and suggested.

Within most countries, low performance has been marked by retention of students in their

current grade which tends to not be effective [ CITATION Wey17 \l 1033 ]. Weybright et al.

(2017) discusses a Life Orientation Curriculum, which focuses on self-motivation and informed

choices/decisions in life through personal, social, intellectual, emotional and physical growth

through developing skills, knowledge, and values. Through this program healthy leisure
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behaviors replace negative actions in an effort to promote a learning that encompasses personal

motivation as a reasoning for students to make choices that are more beneficial to their lives

[ CITATION Wey17 \l 1033 ].

School counselors are considered one of the school’s first and most important roles in

helping decrease dropout rates. Through the use of strategic interventions that address protection

or risk, counselors can tackle the dropout problem with valuable tools: social support, monitoring

and mentoring, skill development (personal and social), parent involvement, academic

instruction, and academic support [ CITATION Whi10 \l 1033 ]. But according to White and

Kelly (2010), the data steadiness and intensity demands a more concentrated effort of all school

personnel and not just putting it on the heads of counselors. While school counselors may design

interventions and programs to help with individual and school risk factors, the problem is that

they aren’t always followed through beyond initiation or eventually die out in practice or even

may not be used regularly enough [ CITATION Whi10 \l 1033 ]. They also seem to lack the

ability to evaluated or tracked consistently in terms of long- or short-term goals [ CITATION

Whi10 \l 1033 ]. A major concern seems to be that while there are attendance policies, the

implementation and follow-up has been lacking and a struggle [ CITATION Whi10 \l 1033 ] and

in many schools has led to the counselor receiving help from mental health, social workers, and

other advocates to help with follow-ups, even in some instances principals are joining in the

battle. But the key has to be that interventions need to happen earlier rather than at the end of the

students career[ CITATION Whi10 \l 1033 ], thus when the struggles are witnessed within

elementary schools the counselors at this stage need to start working towards interventions and

discussions to help motivate the student beyond their level and to help them set goals that focus

on achieving graduation.
FOSTER DROPOUT 10

Some areas have focused on the creation of dropout recovery-focused charter schools or

alternative school settings [ CITATION Iac13 \l 1033 ] to help tackle working with students who

are challenged in many ways and need extra push, attention, and help to keep from dropping out

of school. One of the biggest things that these alternative schools have is that school personnel

are fully into the effort required to not only help students but also to recruit them into these

facilities, as Iachini et al. (2013) discusses how they take the time to present information about

their programs within their community, other schools, and outreach programs where they can

either be referred or apply on their own. The learning emphasis in these facilities is focused on

workforce development that function through internship-based career opportunities [ CITATION

Iac13 \l 1033 ]. The intake procedure for these facilities not only looks at academic levels, but

takes into account barriers to learning and mental health evaluations [ CITATION Iac13 \l

1033 ]. In the case of the school discussed by Iachini (2013) the motivators for these students to

enroll in this school is affected by motivation from family, friends, or staff or from the self-

revelation that these students want to get a diploma rather than getting a GED, or even in some

cases because the law required them to attend school to get help with child care or due to a

consequence of probation. In some cases, the design of the school fit better with students and

adapted to allow them to feel better about getting their education in a smaller environment with a

flexible schedule and less drama.

Vera et al. (2016) discusses how the results from a summer dropout prevention program

initiated with freshman after witnessing an increase in dropout rates of freshman. Through the

research gathered some evidence showed that through a connection built with an adult at the

school and that the overall sense of belonging to the school increased during the summer

program [ CITATION Ver16 \l 1033 ]. Also, the program helped the students to gain a clearer
FOSTER DROPOUT 11

understanding and preparedness of the expectations and requirements on them for high school

[ CITATION Ver16 \l 1033 ]. The program also seemed to have the effect of strengthening the

understanding of the importance of graduation and valuing pursuit of a higher education

[ CITATION Ver16 \l 1033 ]. Overall, it seems that strengthening the confidence of these

students in their ability to perform well academically before freshman year had a drastic

influence on their performance and attitude towards graduation, thus implicating that such

programs that reach out to them and open up the classrooms with a focus on learning without

grading and through activities helps students to open up, make real-world connections, and

ultimately focus on the goal to be more of a part of the world and its influence through

graduation.

Interventions outside of schools

With the sanctioning of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) there has been an

undertaking to confirm educational constancy to students while in foster care [ CITATION

Cle17 \l 1033 ]. The advancement of encouraging learning experiences, lessening of school

disengagement, and ending of sporadic progress are safeguarded by educational constancy

[ CITATION Cle17 \l 1033 ]. With the innovative changes it would permit students that

notwithstanding their change in placement to endure within the school they were attending,

except when the change in schools is deliberated to be in the paramount interest of the student

[ CITATION Cle17 \l 1033 ]. With the joint federal leadership released in June 2016, in a little

timeframe the best-interest resolve requires gathering of the following: child’s inclination,

opinions of parents/person with educational executive civil liberties, the child’s impressions

concerning staff and the school, locations of siblings, and the value and convenience of services

at the current location and at other potential placements, school environment/security, effect of
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the transfer including commute, and special needs of the child [ CITATION Cle17 \l 1033 ]. The

potential of this helps students to decrease the risk of loss of school time and missing key

instructional time just because they are placed in foster care, but also helps to make sure that

students have input and all considerations are made. According to Plueck et al. (2010) when

planning interventions it is imperative to pay attention to low socio-economic status families as

the parents are less able and very reluctant to participate in interventions that require time or

money or any substantial obligation.

In an endeavor to concentrate efforts on the innumerable of reasons steering to student

disengagement, communities are stepping headfirst and operating with schools to collaboratively

tackle dropout rates through intervention programs [ CITATION Iac13 \l 1033 ]. Programs of

intervention range from addressing peer and individual risk factors to family-related risk factors

or school-related risk factors, and sometimes targeting many at the same time[ CITATION Iac13

\l 1033 ], and even more are looking at the impact of policies and laws on the impact of

education of all. According to Briand et al. (2011) community-based educational or athletic

endeavors that interpose to the overall development of individuals has optimistic bonuses for the

social relationships between teenagers, peers, and teachers thus helping create an atmosphere that

motivates students.

Other community programs that focus on helping students with many issues do exist, but

there is a lack of research on their effects in combatting dropout rates or working with foster

youth to stay in school. There seems to be more effort and focus on programs at younger ages

than with adolescents and thus lends to the concern that the community needs to make more

effort to help the schools and families than they currently have seen or have been discussed. It is

imperative that the students feel a desire and need for education from within the community,
FOSTER DROPOUT 13

their families, and their educators that coincide to engage them in learning through graduation,

and beyond[ CITATION Jon15 \l 1033 ]. High schools are not the only ones facing dropouts, as

colleges face similar problems, the question then becomes how do we prepare them as youth to

understand that they must thrive and complete their education with haste[ CITATION Jon15 \l

1033 ].

In wrapping up the literature, many things arise in the life of the youth that could target

them to be in foster care, but without the proper attention and support given to them at home, in

the community, and in the schools then we can’t help them towards graduation rather than

dropping out. Interventions, whether in the community or within schools, need to focus not just

on the individual but also on the family and the relation within the community. Interventions

should address the problems within the schools of engagement but in terms of foster youth the

focus needs to be on providing them alternatives to learning, working within the families and

schools to provide them motivation and guidance, and ultimately to help them overcome the

obstacles associated with their past and where they come from so that they can move past why

they are in foster care and rise above it to want to graduate and face a better future through

graduation.

Research Question(s)/Hypothesis

The aim of this research proposal is to identify targeted interventions that would help

foster care youth from becoming a dropout statistic and rather provide them advice, help, and

guidance in maintaining their education until at least graduation. In evaluating the problem of

dropout rates there have been several things that have become evident and lend to the dropout

rate of youth in foster care. It has been theorized that proper interventions that are done with the

school, community, and foster families could help to prevent students within the foster system
FOSTER DROPOUT 14

from dropping out of school. The intervention that we is a collaboration between our child

welfare agency (CWA) and a certified education specialist (CES) to collaboratively work

together with each foster student to secure appropriate and effective educational programs and

services from the school district. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effectiveness of

intervention by the CES on the school performance of children receiving liaison services.

The comparison is made to a control sample consisting of a true random sampling of all

cases served by the CWA office, whereas the treatment cases were specifically drawn from the

pool of cases experiencing more or less substantial educational problems that warranted actions

to help them continue to graduation. The dependent variable is whether students have prior

educational problems and thus will receive extra help through the CES working with them and

the school system. The independent variables looked at will be GPA, special education status,

math achievement test scores, reading achievement test scores, daily attendance, and the number

of schools attended during the 2-year period.

Variables and Measurement

Through school records data was obtained on students prior to receiving assistance

looking at data on absences, GPA, discipline reports, special education status, and test scores.

During the course of the study, all groups were given a pre-test and post-test in both math and

reading assessments. Student grades, discipline reports, and reports of accommodations were

updated through teacher information sheets on a monthly basis. The data received was used to

look at information to determine continued improvement or to put in place other actions to

resolve issues. The attendance, number of schools, special education status and GPA were

compared pre-testing and post-testing. The measurements for each variable such as attendance,

GPA, number of schools and testing scores will come from the numerical data received from the
FOSTER DROPOUT 15

schools. Students receiving special education services were assigned a value of 1 and all others a

value of 0 for the purpose of this study. We will use a nested analysis of variance (ANOVA), t

tests, and Chi square analysis for numerical data to determine significance. The quantitative

approach used here strives toward: measurability, objectivity, reducing uncertainty, duplication,

and the use of standardized procedures [CITATION Gri12 \p 96 \l 1033 ].

For the questionnaires we will use a qualitative approach,

Sampling

The CWA office served approximately 2640 cases of children within grades 9-12 in the

area of the school district. Social workers made referrals to the CES when confronted with an

educational issue for a child that impacted the students ability to perform in school: attendance

issues, placement with probation services, criminal actions, trouble with foster care

arrangements, frequent changing of foster care or schools, and excessive disciplinary problems

reported within school. During the study a total of 35 cases were referred to the CES by CWA

workers. The use of random probability sampling was best for this study as it allowed for a fixed

and known opportunity for selection, allows for conclusive research, has unbiased results, and

statistical inferences while generating objective data that tests the hypothesis. Probability

sampling also allows for small amount of cases and allows the samples to be selected before and

during the study, thus allowing for new qualified youth data to be added in throughout the study.

With the way students who only were referred to CES became the treatment group, this followed

a multi-stage random sampling with first narrowing it down to cases from the CWA office and

then cluster random sampling of those being helped by CES. The advantages of this method was

the convenience and ease of use, but disadvantage is that it doesn’t take into account the

differences of the people within the study except that all are child welfare clients in grades 9-12.
FOSTER DROPOUT 16

Informed consent was obtained by the case worker from the CWA office to refer the student to

the CES, who then obtained informed consent to gather the information on their behalf as a part

of determining efficiency of the efforts that would be made. The informed consent gave access to

the CES of information needed from the schools and for them to be a part of decisions made

within the schools and on behalf of the student to help them work towards graduating. All parts

of the process involved privacy, confidentiality, and anonymity for students, caretakers, and

faculty/staff of schools, CWA, law offices and CES in reporting results. In no way was any of

the collection of data or work done by any office associated or mandated harm to any participant.

The qualitative survey was used to investigate opinions to determine satisfaction with

services or suggestions for change among the work and participation through CWA, CES,

caregiver, and the schools. This data was used in office to make changes in policies and

procedures for the future. The surveys were structured and asked about behavior, academic

performance, attendance, and relative issues associated with the processes of the CES. The

disadvantage was that some areas were not answered, and other answers were vague and

nonconclusive, as well as their not being a mandatory part. Also, these were only done within the

treatment group.

Research Design

The CES used information about the youth’s current school status then directly

intervened to ensure the needs of the foster youth were appropriately addressed. This often

involved contacting a resource person at the school about attendance, soliciting information from

or providing information to the caregiver and CWA worker, attending IEP or 504 meetings at the

school, and investigating alternative school options. Some cases were able to be resolved within

one or two inquiries while others took ten or more inquiries to seek resolution, with some cases
FOSTER DROPOUT 17

being referred to the advocacy law office. In these few instances, the CES, a CWA worker, and a

law office staff attended meetings at the school with personnel, caregivers, and student. In some

cases where the school was not following compliance with federal or state special education law

the law agency filed noncompliance complaints with local, state, and federal governments.

The qualitative approach of the design focused on collecting information in the natural

settings without changing the basic atmosphere, i.e. it was normal school with help in some areas

[CITATION Gri12 \p 134 \l 1033 ]. The data obtained was This research used mostly

quantitative analysis of performance and other variables, avoiding the qualitative results from

surveys as many were thrown out due to noncompletion, vagueness, or no relevance.

Data Collection

A nested analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to scrutinize the intervention effects

with treatment group and lack of interventions within the control groups. We concluded that a

nested ANOVA was essential for this construct due to the considerable differences between the

control and experimental groups by the disposition of the treatment that was instituted. While the

CES agent retained files from the school about GPA, attendance, corrective actions, actions

introduced, test scores, special education category, and the number of schools attended

throughout the period of research. They also collected data from the caregiver, teachers,

principal, and student through questionnaires about the effectiveness of the interventions in

place.

For testing scores from math and reading, evaluations were given at the opening of the

school year devoid of intercessions and then at the completion of the school year following any

and all interventions. In both testing factors, the control group had meaningfully greater scores

on the pretest than the treatment group [math: F(1, 9.05, p<.004); reading: F(1, 6.25, p<.01)] but
FOSTER DROPOUT 18

no substantial variances were found in math or reading test scores at the posttest [math: F(1,

3.14, p<.082); reading: F(1, 0.59, p<0.448)]. While the control group surpassed the further

burdened youth prior to intercessions, the treatment group indicated hints of progressing in math

and reading whereas the control group’s test execution followed a conventional descending

trajectory for youth in foster care throughout time. In terms of GPA, no considerable variations

were found between the groups from pretest to posttest except for the fact that they both

demonstrated improvement in GPA.

For attendance data, a t test was calculated to determine pre and post discrepancies

between the groups. There was no substantial discrepancy in attendance amongst the groups for

the duration of pretest time period, while the control group had considerably less absences for the

duration of the post period than the treatment group (t=2.31, p<0.03). To look at the affiliation

of special education involvement between treatment and control groups we performed a Chi

square analysis. A considerable disparity was found [Χ2(1) =5.73; p<0.02], which signifies that

more students in the treatment group were obtaining assistances across special education than

those contained by the control group.

The questionnaires were analyzed by the CES and CWA and thrown out due to

incompleteness by students, caseworkers, and faculty staff. Only the CES and CWA had

completely completed the surveys and thus including the information seemed to be bias towards

the agency and their work rather than providing valuable information that could have helped

make changes beneficial to the program.

Conclusion

Youth in foster care do not have the parents to promote for their behalf and are very

susceptible educationally, thus it falls to others to find ways to help them be productive in
FOSTER DROPOUT 19

working out difficulties that hinder their learning headway. The data here indicates that the

intercessions provided by the CES can be a valuable instrument for championing school

demands of children in foster care. The group of students receiving intercessions by CES

received affirmative improvements as indicated in math and reading attainment test scores,

markers of educational growth over the school term. The vulnerability of foster care youth can

still be seen in the downward movement of the control group test scores over the term, signaling

that help is needed across the board with all foster care youth. Also, the differences in attendance

between the groups shows that the intercessions did not help attendance. With more students in

the treatment group originally and finally receiving special education assistance there is no

correlation to note, but a concern might be noted that the numbers in both categories decreased

over the term meaning that students did stop receiving surfaces over the time period but not sure

why this was happening.

A restriction to the study was that a element assessment could not be performed, thus it

was hard to determine the specific effects from a particular strategy or set of actions that were

implemented. While the population that the subjects were drawn from was similar, they were not

equivalent causing another limitation. No relative information is known as to the effects or

interactions that students in the control group were a part of and thus what kept them from being

a part of the treatment group. Further research is needed into the quality interventions and

support actions that would help improve attendance and secure programs to reduce the need for

special education.

The research shows that collaboration of agencies with schools can help prosper student

learning and achievement as they make use other resources available that educators just can’t

always access or find other processes to help students remain in school. The process must be
FOSTER DROPOUT 20

openly available and foster the support of not just the school districts but all viable parties for

improvements to work. There should be shared accountability and responsibility across all

agencies and schools to address the educational needs of youth in foster care. The model of

educational liaison demonstrated here seems to be an effective solution, but more research is

definitely needed.
FOSTER DROPOUT 21

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