Preventing the School‐Justice Connection for Youth in Foster Care

• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12043
• Author: Anne H. Gallegos,Catherine Roller White
• Date: 01 July 2013
• Published date: 01 July 2013

PREVENTING THE SCHOOL-JUSTICE CONNECTION

FOR YOUTH IN FOSTER CARE

Anne H. Gallegos and Catherine Roller White

Youth involved in the child welfare system face many barriers to educational success and are at a higher risk of becoming

involved in the criminal justice system as youthand as adults. They face disruptive school changes, social stigma and isolation,

lack of educational supports, disproportionately high rates of special education services, and exclusionary disciplinary actions.

The implementation of promising practices and interventions regarding school discipline, delinquency prevention, educational

supports, and collaboration among service agencies can help improve foster care experiences and educational outcomes.These

can help prevent the crossover of youth in foster care into the criminal justice system.

Keypoints

• Learn about specific experiences linked to educational outcomes for youth in foster care.

• Learn about some practices and interventions that can be implemented to help improve school experiences and

outcomes for youth in care.

• Ideas in this article can contribute to strategies aimed at preventing negative behavioral, social, and academic experi-

ences that make the crossover from foster care to juvenile and criminal justice systems so common.

Keywords: Criminal Justice;Crossover Youth;Education;Foster Care;Foster Youth;and Juvenile Justice.

Youth involved in the child welfare system face many barriers to educational success; they are

also at a higher risk of becoming involved in the criminal justice system as youth and as adults.They

experience many disruptive school changes, endure social stigma and isolation, lack educational

supports, are assigned to special education services at a high rate and are often subjected to harsher

exclusionary disciplinary actions compared to their peers who are not in the child welfare system

(Advocates for Children of New York, Inc., 2000; Courtney et al., 2007; Courtney et al., 2005;

Courtney et al., 2004; George et al., 1992; Osgood & Courtney, 2010; Pecora et al., 2005; Scherr,

2007; Smithgall et al., 2004). These experiences often lead to poor educational outcomes, such as

low high school graduation rates and low postsecondary education enrollment and completion,

compared to their peers in the general population (see, for example, Brandford & English, 2004;

Courtney et al., 2005; Havalchak et al., 2009; Pecora et al., 2005). The links between child welfare,

poor educational attainment and the justice system are apparent. In fact, foster care has been referred

to as the breeding ground for criminal justice (Krinsky, 2010). Youth who have experienced abuse

and neglect are more likely than their peers in the general population to become involved in the

juvenile justice system; up to 29 per cent of youth in child welfare engage in delinquent acts (Herz,

Ryan & Bilchik, 2010; Ryan & Testa, 2005; Widom & Maxfield, 2001). Alumni of foster care are

more likely to end up in the criminal justice system as adults than their peers (Courtney et al., 2004;

White et al., 2012), and young adults who do not complete high school have higher rates of involve-

ment in the criminal justice system as adults (Chung et al., 2005 and Uggen & Wakefield, 2005 in

Osgood & Courtney, 2010).

Research has found that certain foster care experiences are linked to better educational outcomes.

This paper discusses those experiences and discusses how promising practices and recommendations

regarding school discipline, delinquency prevention, educational supports and collaboration among

service agencies—including child welfare, education and juvenile justice—can be implemented to

help achieve the optimum foster care experiences. By targeting interventions that improve the

Correspondence: agallegos@ncsc.org; crwhite@casey.org

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol.51 No. 3, July 2013 460–468

© 2013 Association of Familyand Conciliation Cour ts