The communication gap
Both education and child welfare professionals care deeply about the children they serve. Yet too often, essential communication does not occur and children suffer the consequences.
Consider the experiences of one former foster child who had to take action herself to get the educational support she needed. Use the audio player below to listen.
“It made a huge difference”
Transcript
“When I was placed in foster care I missed a lot of school and fell behind in all of my classes. On the days I was able to attend class I couldn’t pay attention and never had my homework completed, so my teachers were disciplining me because they thought I was just lazy. It made a huge difference when I gave permission for my social worker to tell my teachers that I was in foster care. They knew I wasn’t just skipping class, so they were able to be more understanding and accommodating. I was able to get extra help with assignments and extended deadlines which allowed me to pass the classes rather than failing.”
And consider this student’s story of getting in trouble not because she did anything wrong, but because the adults in the two systems didn’t communicate with each other.
“That would have really helped”
Transcript
“I remember my freshman year and I was trying to tell the teacher that I had to leave because I had counseling, but he wasn’t listening and I had to skip counseling and I got in trouble. If there was like a written note or something that my foster parent or my social worker could give the school that would have really helped. So I got on the bus and everything and I got a truancy ticket 'cause I wasn’t at school.”
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