The study examined the impact of child protective services (CPS) contact on out-of-school suspensions for 49,918 Wisconsin students (followed from ages 5-6 to 14-15; [school years 2010-2019; 74% White; 7% Black; 11% Hispanic; 8% other; 49% female]). A quasi-experimental design comparing recent CPS contact to upcoming (future) CPS contact shows…

Post-secondary educational outcomes for care-experienced youth are poor. This has been a consistent finding across studies in many countries. Most studies do not distinguish between different types of post-secondary educational pathways and outcomes, however. There has been limited attention to the potential for post-secondary vocational education…

Life skills development among youth in foster care is critical in helping them overcome the barriers they face when leaving care. While foster care agencies, child welfare professionals, and caregivers play important roles in life skills development, little research has examined the topic from their perspectives. This study examined the barriers…

While foster youth miss more school versus their non-foster counterparts, their status as a foster youth is not static, with many of them entering and exiting the foster care system over time. These dynamics of entry and exit can represent particularly crucial transition periods of stability and instability that may differentially influence…

Post-World War II, the vocational parent system was established in Japan in 1951--based on the Child Welfare Law--to provide aftercare for older dependent children. The vocational parents lived with the children and provided the guidance necessary for them to live independently. The evolution of the vocational parent system is divided into three…

This paper explores modes of expectation among care-experienced young people when navigating educational success. Luhmann's theoretical framework is used to conceptualise experiences of educational success and the role of uncertainty. We identify three modes of expectation: trust, risk and danger. To illustrate these modes, we draw on selected…

Youth in foster care experience disproportionate rates of abusive relationships, teen pregnancy, and sexually transmitted infections (STIs). Extant research points to the need for interventions at multiple levels of the social ecology, however, there is a lack of evidence to guide the development of coordinated interventions for youth, foster…

Over the past 10-15 years, self-described "statewide networks of support" have emerged to serve students experiencing foster care (SEFC) who seek to access postsecondary education. These networks, designed to foster communication between professionals in higher education and their counterparts in the child-welfare system, consist of…

In this paper, we explore the critical praxis approach of an equity initiative with students who have left care. We contend that 'praxis' ("International Studies in Widening Participation," 2018, 5: 10-20) -- understood here as the close, dialogic and iterative relationship between research and practice, can be a powerful tool for…

Mandatory reporting is the first step in a troubling and common cascade: Poverty, reframed as "neglect," precipitates far too many reports, with roughly one-third of children enduring a CPS investigation. Investigated families are monitored and coerced to change their parenting (usually without support for alleviating their poverty),…

During the Armenian Genocide, the Ottoman Empire's Young Turk government forcibly transferred and assimilated thousands of Armenian children into Turkish society. After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the First World War, Armenian and international bodies and individuals began to liberate the transferred children. However, they encountered…

We conduct the first quantitative analysis of "blind removals," an increasingly popular reform that seeks to reduce the over-representation of Black children in foster care by eliminating biases in the removal decisions of investigators. We first show that over-representation in most foster care systems is driven by Black children being…

This brief is designed for various stakeholders that work with youth with multiple system experiences, specifically for Title I, Part D State coordinators, State Agency and local program staff, Education for Homeless Children and Youth (EHCY) State coordinators and liaisons, and Title I, Part A Foster Care State Education Agencies (SEAs) and Local…

This dissertation examined disparities in initial placements and Length of Stay in Custody of children in North Carolina experiencing child maltreatment. This research examined how the Length of Stay in Custody and type of initial placement was associated with the age, race, and gender of children who had been removed from the care of their…

This study examined and explored the lived experiences of foster parents of color who were educators at the time of providing care. Additionally, this study sought to make recommendations to schools and the child welfare system to improve support for foster parents and foster children. Although there is extensive research that encompasses the…