Permanency, especially reunification with birth parents, is the priority for most child welfare systems. But reunification may be associated with lower educational achievement, according to a recent study based on Wisconsin data.
Researchers from Pennsylvania State University and the University of Wisconsin found that young adults who aged out of foster care had “significantly higher odds” of graduating high school and enrolling in college than those who reunified, and that earnings were equivalent across all exit types, including adoption and guardianship.
Adopted youth showed the greatest academic achievement, with 84 percent finishing high school and 41 percent enrolling in college. Aged out youth and youth who left care through guardianship were second, with 68 percent of each group completing high school and nearly 30 percent attending some college. Reunified youth trailed behind the other three exit types, with just over half of youth graduating high school and less than a quarter continuing to college.
[For more on this story by Emma Davis, go to https://chronicleofsocialchang...tion-education/31666]
Comments (0)