Children & Youth in Foster care: A multidimensional issue for educators

In Australia there are more than 20,000 young people in the care of the state and the majority of these individuals are in foster care due to previous maltreatment or neglect. Across Australia the number of children in care has been steadily increasing and children in foster care represent a diverse, vulnerable, and at times challenging cohort of students in schools. Traditionally, the research literature has concentrated on children in foster care from a social work perspective. In contrast, this paper investigates this cohort of young people from a developmental and educational perspective and reviews procedures and strategies teachers can consider that facilitate the inclusion of these individuals into the classroom. These strategies are identified under the four broad headings of: relocation issues; protection issues; classroom climate and friendship enhancement issues; and programming suggestions.