Looking Back and Forward: Racialized Educational Experiences of Foster Youth in K–12 schools

• In Event: Examining the Bright Spots: Successful Strategies for Promoting Black Student Success in K–12 Schools

Abstract

Purpose: There are approximately 423,997 foster youth in the United States. Los Angeles County has the nation’s largest child welfare system, with more than 30,000 youth in its system. Less than 50 percent of foster youth graduate from high school, and only 3% of former foster youth earn college degrees (Harvey, et al, 2020). Most extant research amplifies deficit perspectives about foster youth based on highly problematic standardized test scores and measurements normalized for other student populations. They locate the "problem" in individual children rather than in the profoundly inequitable educational and social systems they must navigate. In a recently published brief, researchers revealed that Black foster youth, who are among the most over represented youth population in foster care, in Los Angeles County are overrepresented in special education, suspended eight times more than their peers, and accounts for the most considerable chronic absenteeism rate. The disenfranchisement experienced by foster youth in schools reveal deeper issues that must be explored.

Theoretical Framework This paper uses the concept of critical wellness in education as a framework to examine MLK high school in South Los Angeles. Critical wellness, situates critical pedagogy, wellness, and critical race theory to examine the experiences of vulnerable populations from a school and community safety standpoint (Howard et al, 2020).

Methods. Data were collected using a series of qualitative interviews with 10 foster youth and 5 administrators and teachers from MLK high school. A qualitative approach was used to capture first-hand accounts from multiple stakeholders around how school culture was established and maintained at MLK high school.

Findings. The findings revealed that schools that were intentional in the support of foster youth were effective in three key categories 1) explicitly identifying and knowing who foster youth were; 2) refusal to stigmatize foster youth, and 3) providing multiple tiers of support to ensure intensive academic and structural support for foster youth and their families were in place.

Significance. Black youth are the most disproportionately racialized group in foster care across Los Angeles. Moreover, Black foster youth are most likely to attend schools with limited support for their holistic needs. Identifying ways that schools and districts can consistently implement culturally
responsive practices by using the California Multi-Tiered System of Support to support the needs of Black foster youths’ academic, behavioral, and social emotional needs within a tiered framework of support is essential to support a historically marginalized group.

References
Howard, T.C., Camangian, P., Edwards, E.J. Howard, M., Minkoff, A.C., Orange, T., Tunstall,
J.D., Watson, K.T. (2019). All students must thrive. Transforming schools to combat toxic stressors and cultivate critical wellness. Rexford, NY: International Center for Leadership in Education.

Harvey, B., Whitman, K., Howard, T., (2020). "The Disenfranchisement of Black Foster Youth: An
Analysis of Los Angeles County Public School Data." Los Angeles, CA. UCLA Black Male Institute.

Author

• Demontea Thomspon, University of California - Los Angeles