Assessing Foster Care From the Inside

Assessing Foster Care From the Inside
by Cecilia Garcia

March 8, 2004

Recent public opinion research indicates that most Americans don’t
know very much about the foster care system. They feel positive about
its mission – protecting children from abuse and neglect – but most
don’t believe that foster care works well for the more than half a
million children now in care.

Casey Family Programs, which has been providing long-term foster care
services for almost 40 years, is in the middle of a major effort to
understand how the experience of foster care affects individuals as
they leave “the system” to face the challenges of adulthood.

For additional insight into the experiences of foster care alumni,
take a look at:
A new Chapin Hall report of foster care alumni in three Midwestern
states.
Voices from the Inside, a new report from the Pew Commission on
Children in Foster Care.
The Future of Children’s report Children, Families and Foster Care.

The first new study to come out of this effort, “Assessing the Effects
of Foster Care”, is based on interviews with more than 1,000 alumni of
Casey foster care programs who were served between 1966 and 1998, and
on the same individuals’ case records. It attempts to discern whether
certain elements of the foster care experience are predictors of
success—or failure—in negotiating the demands of independent adult
life.

The Mystery of Resilience
In effect, the Casey researchers are attempting to identify the
ingredients of resilience—the uncanny ability of some children to
overcome not only whatever trauma brought them into the child welfare
system (abuse, neglect, a caregiver’s death), but also the subsequent
disruptions of life as wards of the state—such as frequent changes of
home and school, loss of contact with siblings or other relatives,
etc.

Quinn Alston entered foster care at the age of three months and left
it at age 21, and is now an independent living program specialist for
the District of Columbia’s Child and Family Services agency. His
experiences in the foster care system are similar to those of the
Casey alumni and he says the experience of going into foster care
itself produces resilient children.

Foster children, says Quinn, have to survive in “an unnatural state”
on a daily basis. “Resiliency starts at day one—it has to, in response
to this unnatural experience,” said Alston. “ Here’s what happens:
children placed in foster care are asked to make a transition
immediately, with no preparation. When adults make a transition, like
moving to a new house, they can take up to six months to plan this,
yet we expect kids to make the move immediately. This leads foster
kids to develop strong adaptation skills because they have to survive
on a day-to-day basis.”

For some dramatic examples of resilience, take a look at the current
issue of Represent, the Voice of Youth in Care. The theme of the issue
is “ ‘Crack Babies’ All Grown Up”.

Children find themselves in the foster care system because someone has
determined that they have been neglected or abused (or both). The
National Clearinghouse on Child Abuse and Neglect Information reports
that in 2001 an estimated 275,000 children were removed from their
homes due to a child abuse investigation. About 90 percent of the
Casey alumni experienced some form of child abuse or neglect.

Predictors of Success
Casey Family Programs, which provides foster care to children in 13
states in partnership with public child welfare agencies, provides a
number of services beyond those generally offered by public agencies
alone. For example, youngsters placed with Casey receive financial
support to participate in arts, sports and other activities; they can
apply for special scholarships; and their foster parents receive
frequent training. One goal of this new study is to determine which of
these services are most effective.

To find out, the Casey researchers created a research model that
looked at the relationships between 55 variables. Variables included
characteristics of the child (such as gender, race, and age at time of
first placement); service factors (such as length of time in care,
number of placements; services received while in care); and
characteristics of the individual as an adult (drug or alcohol use,
child bearing and child rearing, criminal history, educational
achievement, employment and housing status, physical health).

Then they identified a series of variables most strongly correlated
with successful adult life, which they termed the success index. Among
other things, the success index includes:

Receiving life skills or independent living preparation while in care
Completing a high school education or attaining a General Education
Degree (GED) while in care
Receiving college scholarships or job training
Participating in clubs and organizations while in foster care
Not being homeless within a year of leaving care
Not needing academic support services like tutoring while in foster
care
Not significantly using alcohol or drugs while in foster care
Casey researchers say that the survey results point to areas where
more support is needed. For instance, only 40 percent of the Casey
foster care alumni received independent living training. And the level
of homelessness within the first year of leaving the foster care
system for Casey alumni was high—22 percent. However, there is some
good news in the homelessness data: while Casey alumni that left care
in the 1970s reported a homelessness rate of 29 percent within a year
of leaving care, for those who left care in the 1990s, the figure
drops to 19 percent.

The results also validate Casey’s commitment to encouraging children
in care to take part in a variety of activities and hobbies; and to
the added support they give children in the area of education.

School: Success Against the Odds
Failing to reach their educational potential is one of the most
serious risks faced by foster children, with the most serious
long-term effects.

The Casey survey found that the foster children in the survey faced
numerous challenges to their academic success: about 38 percent
received special education services; more than 36 percent repeated a
grade in school; more than 67 percent attended three or more
elementary schools—and about half of those attended five or more
elementary schools.

Quinn Alston says that kind of experience requires persistent adult
intervention to overcome. “I had some pretty good teachers,” says
Alston. “I think most of them tried to get through to me but there was
no way I could be receptive. They didn’t know who I was.” Alston was
lucky to have a foster father and caseworker who worked with him to
see that he earned his GED and applied to college.

Overall, Casey program alumni appear to have been pretty successful in
overcoming the educational obstacles that came their way, perhaps
because Casey program services make education a priority. The
percentage of those completing high school is 86 percent, compared to
80 percent for the general population. These results are especially
strong for foster care alumni of color.

90 percent of African American foster care alumni in this study
completed high school, compared to 79 percent of the general
population of African Americans
88 percent of Hispanic foster care alumni completed high school,
compared to 57 percent of the general Hispanic population.
(These percentages are different from most frequently reported
high-school completion rates for a number of reasons, having to do
with the length of the period under study, the inclusion of those
receiving GED certificates, and other factors. Methods of calculating
accurate high school graduation rates are complex and contentious.)

Unfortunately, strong high school graduation rates have not translated
into a successful transition to college. Just over 40 percent of Casey
alumni attended some college, compared to over 50 percent of the
general population, and fewer than 11 percent of alumni received their
BA degrees, compared to over 24 percent of the general population.

Next Steps
The Casey National Alumni Study offers new statistical evidence that
stability, life skills training, participation in group activities and
employment experience are what’s necessary to make sure that today’s
children in foster care emerge as strong adults prepared to succeed.

Casey senior researcher Peter Pecora says that the study, conducted
over a five-year period, yielded very rich data that is being analyzed
with the intention of applying the lessons learned to improve services
for foster kids. Casey will continue to issue reports on their
findings.
http://www.connectforkids.org/conten...&doc_id=215205




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