Early Foster Care Experiences, School Absences, and Transition to Kindergarten

• In Event: Poster Session 09
  In Poster Session: PS 09 Topic - Education, Schooling

Abstract

Over 437,000 children in the United States were in foster care in 2018 (AFSCARS data, 2019), and of those, 42% were five years old or younger. Young children are in the midst of critical developmental time periods establishing attachment relationships, building self-regulation, and practicing socio-emotional skills that will support successful transitions into kindergarten. However, foster children are more likely to experience multiple caregiver, preschool program, and geographic transitions simultaneously (Manfra, Turley, & Kerr, 2017), putting them at particularly high risk for difficulties during the transition into kindergarten. Recently, the associations among various “at risk predictors,” school attendance, and school achievement have been examined (e.g., Chang & Romero, 2008; Morrissey et al., 2014; Ready, 2010). However, examination of these constructs is limited in the foster care literature. Given the likelihood of additional transitions and potentially traumatic experience of foster care, we anticipate foster group membership to exacerbate the relation between school absences and math and reading grades.

The dataset analyzed consists of a county-representative sample taken from Miami Public Schools administrative data. The sample of 1,631 low-income (<185% federal poverty line) kindergarten children included 58% Hispanic, 38% Black, and 4% identified as “other.” Nearly all (99%) were Free/Reduced lunch recipients. Given the unequal groups of children based on foster membership, comparison group matching was conducted based on zip code, race/ethnicity, sex, English language skills, and age. This created a comparison group (non-foster) to resemble that of the foster group before addressing hypotheses. Descriptive statistics for both groups are presented in Table 1, including means of absences and mean math and reading grades. The primary moderation model explored attempted to predict kindergarten math and reading scores from school absences with foster care placement as the moderator. No additional control variables were used because matching removed demographic differences between groups.

Overall, foster children were absent more often from school compared to non-foster children (F1,164 = 4.70, p = .032), had lower math scores (F1,163 = 6.24, p = .013), and lower reading scores (F1,163 = 4.80, p = .030). Further, a significant interaction was observed between foster group membership and absences on math grades, supporting a moderation model (β = -.072, p =.005). This finding indicates absences are detrimental to math grades especially for children in the child welfare system. The interaction was not significant for reading grades (β = -.024). It should be noted, however, absences were significantly associated with lower reading grades across both groups.

It is concerning that foster children are missing more school than non-foster children. The differences in absences might occur for a number of reasons, given the mental and physical health issues found more among foster children than their non-foster peers (Steenbaker et al., 2018). Given that absences are particularly harmful for foster children’s math achievement – an important predictor of long-term school success (Duncan et al., 2007) –, it is important to find methods for supporting consistent attendance in school among foster children.

Authors

• Danielle Turley, California State University - Stanislaus
  Presenting Author

• Louis Manfra, University of Missouri - Columbia
  Non-Presenting Author

• James A. Larsen, University of Tennessee - Knoxville
  Non-Presenting Author