New placement, new school. Change of schools for children in out-of home care

A placement in care for children/young people, or a change of care placements, often involve a change of school. The aim of this presentation is to account for how schools and Child Welfare Services recognise this change, how... [ view full abstract ]

A placement in care for children/young people, or a change of care placements, often involve a change of school. The aim of this presentation is to account for how schools and Child Welfare Services recognise this change, how they cooperate and plan for the child/young person's education, and what impact change of schools may have on grades and academic identity for children and young people placed in care.

The aim of the project Educational Careers and School Achievement of Children and Young People Placed in Public Care is to improve knowledge about what factors cause the low level of educational achievements for children and young people placed in public care, as well as to find factors which can lead to positive educational achievements for this group. The project is an extension of the study Young People from a Public Care Background - pathways to education in Europe (YIPPEE), which was carried out 2008-2010 within the 7th framework program of the EU. In the project we use data from GOLD (Gothenburg Educational Longitudinal Database) which includes all individuals born 1972‐1992, who lived in Sweden at 16 years of age (N=2 184 866) and UGU, part of GOLD. UGU includes samples of about 10% of nine cohorts born between 1948 and 1998, which have been followed from either grade 3 or grade 6. Students have responded to questionnaires about their school situation and leisure activities, and they have taken tests of cognitive ability. Additionally, we have also analysed social services case files from four time periods: children born 1967, 1977, 1987 and 1992. 40 case files were selected from each time period (in total 160 cases). In the case files we have focused on transcripts of collaboration between social services and schools concerning education for children in care, and also to the educational support given to children in care.

Results from the case files give at hand that about 70 percent of children/young people changed schools when they were placed in care, and 71 percent also moved to another local authority. In 10 percent of the files we found evidence that the ”new” and the ”old” school had been in contact before the child moved. Social services had informed the child’s ”old” school in 26 percent of the cases, but it was possible to find any documented planning for the change of schools only in 9 percent of the files. Thus, it is evident that changes of schools seldom is given relevant attention. Results from GOLD and UGU- analyses show that changes of schools have a much stronger negative impact on grades for children/young people placed in care than for their peers.

When a child/young person is placed in care, social services has a responsibility to plan and take an interest in the future of the child/young person. This responsibility should include an interest in and a commitment to education. We know that educational success is one of the main factors for a successful future, and also for a successful transition from care to adulthood. Evidence from this project sends a strong message to social services and to research that changes of schools need to be given more attention and better planning, in order to give children/young people in care a fair chance to achieve well at school.