Educating Children in Residential and Foster Care

Abstract

abstract abstract Among the many disadvantages suffered by children looked after by local authorities, low educational achievement probably has the most serious consequences for their future life chances. This article reviews research over nearly twenty years which consistently shows that children in residential and foster care fall progressively behind those living with their own families and leave school with few qualifications, if any. Until recently child‐care agencies and social workers have shown little interest in the educational progress of children for whom they are responsible. Findings from a study of young people previously in care who have been educationally successful confirm that education is crucially important for the quality of their adult life. However, this and other consumer studies indicate that at present the care system is more likely to put additional obstacles in their way than to make any particular effort to compensate for their earlier disadvantages. It is suggested that local authorities and their social workers need to give the same degree of primacy to education as do well‐informed parents looking after their own children. Some promising new approaches aim to address the problem at different levels: structural, attitudinal and practical.