Pupils in foster care struggling

Pupils in foster care struggling
Jennifer Buckingham
March 14, 2005

GETTING through school is rarely easy, but there are a growing number
of children across Australia who find it harder than most.

Children who cannot live with their parents and are placed in
out-of-home care face significant educational difficulties, putting
them at higher risk of educational failure and making them more likely
to drop out.

Almost 22,000 children and young people were in out-of-home care in
2004, according to government statistics, a number increasing by about
7 per cent each year over the past decade.

Rory Jeffes, chief executive officer of the Create Foundation, an
advocacy group for young people in care, says, "Twenty-two thousand is
a point-in-time estimate of the number of kids in care. Over the
course of a year there could be between 30,000 and 50,000."

Research into the educational outcomes of children in care paints a
bleak picture. A survey in 1997 by the Australian Council for
Educational Research found 34 per cent of children in care had a
disability, compared with 2 per cent of the general student
population, and that 47 per cent experienced difficulties in school.
Various studies over the past decade show below-average outcomes in
literacy and numeracy.






Only 35 per cent complete high school in NSW and few continue beyond,
according to UnitingCare Burnside, a child and family welfare agency
providing services to disadvantaged families, including children in
care. It provides financial support, tutoring and counselling
services.

One of Burnside's success stories is 20-year-old Christian Ibrahim,
who has defied the odds and is in his second year of a bachelor of
science degree at the University of Technology, Sydney. He plans to
become a science teacher.

Ibrahim did not start school until he was placed in a foster home at
11. He had taught himself to read, but when he arrived at school for
the first time in Year 5 he says he felt like he was "deprived of all
that learning and wanted to catch up".

"I decided I wanted to be a teacher around Year 8 or 9," says Ibrahim.
"I always wanted to do something to help people, and having come from
a troubled background I thought if I could help people like that it
would be a good thing."

Children go into out-of-home care for a number of reasons. Some have
been abused or neglected, others have special needs their parents are
unable to meet, and others are orphans. Many live in multiple foster
homes and must change schools regularly.

This disrupted school experience is one of the main factors involved
in educational failure, says the Create Foundation's report card on
the education of children in care.

The report cites research showing that 40 per cent of children in care
had attended four or more primary schools and 5 per cent had attended
10 or more. Failure to develop early literacy and numeracy skills is
also a factor, along with irregular school attendance and problems
with bullying.

Ibrahim was fortunate to have stayed in one foster home throughout his
schooling, only changing schools when moving from primary to junior
secondary and then to senior secondary.

"It was an advantage having stability, knowing where I'd be living for
the next three or six months. Once you have got stability there is
more time to concentrate on study," he says.

There is still much that can be done for children in care, but Jeffes
says progress is being made.

"Education departments in all states and territories are putting
efforts into improving education for children and young people in
care. Some are doing better than others," he says. "But they are all
aware of the incredible importance of education to enable these young
people to flourish."
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