Professionals' Perspectives on the Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic among Child and Adolescent Victims of Domestic Violence Living in the Portuguese Residential Foster Care System.

The COVID-19 pandemic had several negative impacts on child and adolescent victims of domestic violence, especially on those who lived in the residential foster care system. The main goal of the present study was to understand these negative impacts through the perspectives of professionals in Portuguese residential foster care structures using both individual interviews and an online survey. One hundred and three professionals aged between 22 and 64 years (M = 38.39; SD = 8.34) participated in the online survey (86 females and 17 males). Of those, seven professionals, four females and three males aged between 29 and 49 years (M = 38.43, SD = 7.50), were also interviewed. According to the participants, the conditions imposed by the COVID-19 pandemic contributed adversely not only to the increase in domestic violence against children and adolescents but also to the aggravation of the conditions children and adolescents living in the Portuguese residential foster care system were exposed to, namely concerning family relationships, access to resources and services, and institutional dynamics. The results suggest the necessity to develop standard procedures to cope with pandemic situations in the residential foster care system.

Fostering Higher Education: Preliminary Findings from a Small Randomized Pilot Study

Many youth with foster care experience have goals of completing a postsecondary program. While the past two decades have seen a great deal of growth in services, supports, and policies to help youth achieve these goals, the evidence base for postsecondary support programs remains limited, and the child welfare system continues to struggle to find ways to meaningfully support youth with foster care experience in meeting their goals. The purpose of this study is to contribute to the evidence base of what works to support youth with foster care experience in achieving their postsecondary goals by reporting on the first full-length evaluation of Fostering Higher Education (FHE), a postsecondary access and retention intervention designed specifically for this population. This was an underpowered study focused on implementation feasibility conducted with 25 youth in SW Washington. Analyses of intervention implementation data found implementation to be feasible, but reaching desired exposure levels was complicated by challenges such as the chaotic circumstances many youth were living in combined with the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic. Preliminary assessments of the impact of FHE were encouraging, with participants in the FHE condition experiencing a greater reduction in perceived barriers to education and increased participation in postsecondary preparation activities compared to the control group. FHE offers a promising approach to postsecondary support services for youth with foster care experience. Future research aims to continue to assess the effectiveness of and approaches to strengthen this program.

Don't Make Them Martyrs: Empowering Children in the Foster Care & Juvenile Justice Systems Through COVID-19 Vaccine Consenting Rights

Traditionally, the law has created only narrow avenues for children's rights to be recognized and vindicated. The COVID-19 pandemic has changed and reminded adults what it means to be in control, and what rights we should have to live a full, engaged, and productive life. Children in the foster care and juvenile justice systems have such little control, autonomy, and freedom. As it relates to the pandemic, they are at a higher risk of contracting the disease as they are predominately from underrepresented and underserved communities. This Article explores whether COVID-19 might be the turning point for a change in how children's rights to bodily autonomy can be reviewed across areas of constitutional and state law. Ultimately, for novel vaccines, there should be a strong presumption in favor of the child's right to consent to immunizations. Allowing children to engage in such healthcare decisions will make them active participants in a system where things tend to happen to them. It will require a revolution in how the law views these young people, but this Author believes that these children deserve such a revolution.

Enhanced-youth transition planning: An innovative practice change with transition-age youth involved with child welfare in a rural setting

This article presents Enhanced-Youth Transition Planning (E-YTP), an innovative child welfare workforce practice change for transition-age youth (TAY) involved with child welfare services from five rural jurisdictions in the State of Maryland. We describe the practice change from services as usual for TAY, including training and coaching needs for the child welfare workforce. This study presents quantitative and qualitative data assessing the impact of the E-YTP practice change on the workforce. A total of 36 supervisors and foster care workers participated in the study. The Professional Quality of Life and Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Services Survey were given to the workforce at four time over a four year period. Findings suggest an increase in burnout and secondary traumatic stress (for the PQL) and an increase in emotional exhaustion and personal accomplishment (for the MBI-HS). Focus group and interview findings suggest that the workforce endorses E-YTP. The workforce felt that the practice change made their work with TAY feel more meaningful, was a necessary practice change for TAY, and that E-YTP worked well in preparing youth for a successful exit from child welfare. We discuss implications for workforce practice changes with TAY in a rural setting, adaptations for the COVID-19 pandemic, and the need for ongoing supervision and coaching for the workforce. © 2023

Essays in child welfare and long-run economic well-being

This dissertation is composed of three papers, all using modern applied econometric methods that try to isolate causal estimates in several important settings. Each chapter examines social and formal institutions on the well-being of children.The first chapter studies the importance of parental presence for children's adulthood labor market outcomes. Through interactions with their parents, a child develops the basic foundations for cognitive and non-cognitive skills that directly shape their adulthood economic well-being. Motivated by this critical role, a large body of research has sought to uncover the consequences of disruptions to family structure and parental inputs on a child's development. Despite its importance, we know relatively little about the consequences of the most severe form of parental absence: the death of a parent. Empirical evidence of the long-run causal effects of parental death has been limited since it requires sufficient longitudinal data and plausibly exogenous variation in parental mortality. To overcome these challenges in the literature, I make use of a rich dataset of over 180,000 historical mining accidents and link individual accident victims to the full-count U.S. Census. Doing so allows me to follow the sons of mining accident victims through to adulthood and study the causal effects of parental death on economic well-being. To identify the causal impact of parental death, I compare the adulthood outcomes of children of fatal mining accident victims to children whose parents suffered a serious but non-fatal mining accident. I find that, compared to children of non-fatal mining accident victims, bereaved children experienced nearly four percent lower wage income during adulthood. Further analyses reveal the most severe effects stem from those that lost their parent at an early age. Specifically, adults who were younger than primary school age when they lost their fathers had roughly 15 percent lower wages. Exploring potential channels, I show that most of the estimated earnings penalty can be attributed to differences in employment along both the intensive and extensive margins and is not due to differences in human capital accumulation. Bereaved sons were more likely to be out of work, report unemployment assistance, and work fewer weeks. Together, these employment channels can account for more than 60 percent of the estimated loss of adulthood income. The second chapter of this dissertation, coauthored with E. Jason Baron (a classmate at Florida State University) and Joseph P. Ryan (Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan), examines the sources of over-representation of Black children in foster care systems and the causal effects of one popular reform that seeks to reduce this over-representation. The program, known as "blind removals," conceals demographic characteristics of children at-risk for foster care placement from child welfare professionals weighing whether or not to remove the child from their home. We present the first quantitative analysis of blind removals by examining a comprehensive administrative dataset of the universe of child maltreatment investigations in Michigan and presents two main findings. First, the over-representation of Black children in foster care systems is almost entirely driven by Black children being twice as likely to be investigated for child maltreatment as White children. Conditional on initial rates of investigation, White and Black children are placed in foster care at similar rates. Second, the study finds no evidence that blind removals impacted the already small racial disparities in the removal decision, but the program substantially increased the time to removal.The final chapter of this dissertation, coauthored with two classmates from Florida State University (E. Jason Baron and Cullen T. Wallace), highlights the link between educators... (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

REDUCING FAMILY SEPARATIONS IN NEW YORK CITY: THE COVID-19 EXPERIMENT AND A CALL FOR CHANGE

Child welfare agencies and family courts have long removed children from allegedly abusive or neglectful parents as an ultimate means of ensuring a child's safety. The theory that high numbers of removals are necessary to keep children safe, however, had never been tested-there was no mechanism or political will to do so until the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in March 2020. With the near-complete shutdown of New York City, the child welfare apparatus had no choice but to remove fewer children from their homes. Catastrophe did not ensue. Rather, the numbers tell a different story. Children remained safe across a range of metrics, avoided the trauma of removal from their homes during a global pandemic, and experienced sustained safety as the City began to reopen. This Piece argues that New York's child welfare system must learn from COVID-19 and significantly curtail its drastic measure of removing children from their families, which can cause substantial, often irreparable trauma to children. It uses the COVID-19 pandemic as a case study to demonstrate the safety and soundness of reserving removals (also known as remands) for only the most extreme circumstances. This Piece focuses on the dramatic reduction of removals specifically during the pandemic;examines the traumatic, racially biased, and overused practice of family separation from a child's perspective;and calls for specific reforms within the existing system to reduce remands while protecting children's safety.

Is the child welfare system prepared for an increase in children with type 1 diabetes?

This article discusses the child welfare system for children with type 1 diabetes (T1D). Research on chronic physical illnesses among children and adolescents in foster care has been infrequent, and the capacity of state child welfare systems to respond to certain health-related challenges remains unknown. Children diagnosed with T1D have substantial healthcare needs, requiring close coordination between involved caregivers and a pediatric diabetes multidisciplinary care team. The majority of children with T1D lack the cognitive skills and maturity to manage their condition independently. Meeting the needs of children with T1D upon their entry into foster care can be a challenging task for state child welfare agencies. The pandemic coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) brings a new sense of urgency to conversations about children with T1D in foster care. Emerging research suggests that a COVID-19 diagnosis can precipitate or accelerate T1D onset in children and youth, leading to an increase in new cases. An increase in children with T1D can add strain to an already overburdened US foster care system, plagued by shortages of placements for children and youth with complex medical needs. The prevalence of T1D has increased rapidly over the past two decades and may increase further due to the COVID-19 pandemic. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved)

Use of Telemedicine for Children in Foster Care.

Introduction: Telemedicine studies specific to children in foster care are needed, given unique health care needs and barriers. It is important to utilize lessons learned from telemedicine programs deployed by necessity during the COVID-19 emergency. Objectives: Describe telemedicine health assessments for children in foster care performed during the COVID-19 pandemic. Compare medical recommendations resulting from telemedicine and in-person assessments. Methods: After navigating barriers specific to children in foster care including consent issues, we implemented a telemedicine program at our specialty clinic for children in foster care when in-person visits were restricted. Outcomes of telemedicine referrals were tracked. After each visit, physicians were asked to rate ability to express themselves, hear and see patients from 1 (strongly disagree) to 5 (strongly agree) using items from the validated Telehealth Usability Questionnaire. Recommendations for laboratory work, medication, and health services referrals were recorded and compared with 205 patients seen in-person the year prior. Results: From 91 referrals, 83 (91%) children with a mean age of 9 years completed telemedicine visits. Physicians rated receptive and expressive communications more favorably than visual quality. Most telemedicine patients (77%) received a referral for health care services but had significantly lower rates of laboratory work completion, vision referrals, and prescriptions for new medications compared with 205 patients seen in-person. Conclusions: Results suggest that telemedicine was accessible to most patients and highlighted essential in-person components of comprehensive health assessments. Findings could inform ongoing telemedicine applications and advocacy for underserved populations.

A Mixed-Methods Study Exploring the Educational Experiences of Foster Youth and Foster Parents During COVID-19.

The COVID-19 pandemic and measures taken to decrease the spread impacted youth in foster care and foster parents in a myriad of ways. One critical yet unexplored area is how educational changes during the first 2 years of the pandemic impacted this specific group of youth in foster care and foster parents. This exploratory study used three methods: (1) A scoping review of the prior research on pandemics/climate events and school closures and the research from early 2020; (2) individual interviews and focus groups with foster parents and teachers; and (3) an online survey of 88 foster parents. We endeavored to include findings at each stage of the process. Research from prior epidemics and school closures and predictive models predicted learning losses which were verified by the findings in the survey and interviews. Foster parents reported that the youth in foster care had great difficulty concentrating with on-line delivery and the absence or greatly limited access to mental health services compounded the challenges. Even as children returned to classrooms, the behavior of children, youth resulted in suspensions and expulsions likely increasing learning losses. The discussion identifies some approaches to addressing COVID-19 learning gaps and the mental health needs of this vulnerable group of children and youth.

"Trying to be positive in the face of the storm": The experiences of independent college students during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The COVID-19 pandemic created multiple stressors for college students, particularly for young adults experiencing multiple forms of disadvantage. Little is known about the pandemic experiences of independent college students, many of whom are emancipated minors, former wards of the state, and other students who lack familial financial and practical support as they pursue higher education. Twenty-three independent students, ages 18-23, from one northeastern university were interviewed to understand how independent students were affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, and their needs for support from the university during this time. Most participants were identified as Black or Latinx, and two thirds were first-generation college students. Participants reported an overall lack of support from their families prior to the pandemic. During the pandemic, they experienced compounding academic, economic, and mental health-related stressors. Students responded to these stressors in resilient and resourceful ways, by adapting to their new realities, expressing gratitude, and finding opportunities for self-growth. Participants recommend that institutions of higher education support independent students during periods of emergency through providing financial assistance, offering opportunities for connection with both adults and peers, and demonstrating administrative flexibility and understanding of their unique needs.

142. The Reach, Implementation, and Effectiveness of Virtual Sex Education for Youth in Foster Care

Purpose: Youth in foster care have high rates of adverse sexual health outcomes and are important targets for evidence-based sex education. With the COVID-19 pandemic, sexual health programming was moved to a virtual format. However, few data existed to guide this transition. While it lowers expenses and can potentially broaden geographic reach, it is unclear if virtual programming meets the needs of youth in foster care or other vulnerable populations. We conducted a mixed-methods analysis comparing the reach, implementation, and effectiveness of virtual vs in-person sex education for youth in foster care before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. Methods: Indiana Proud and Connected Teens (IN-PACT) provides evidenced-based sex education programs to system-involved youth. The data used in this study focused exclusively on foster-care programming and includes attendance records, facilitator session reviews (n=64) from 2020-2021 virtual programs, and youth surveys from 2018-2020 in-person (n=965) and virtual (n=50) programs. Reach was measured using youth baseline survey demographics and sexual behaviors;implementation by free responses from facilitators on challenges and adaptation for virtual teaching;and effectiveness by attendance records and youth behavior intention on follow-up surveys. Results: Reach: Youth demographic diversity was maintained for virtual programming in ethnicity, race, sex, and sexual orientation. However, youth in virtual programs had lower rates of self-reported risk behaviors including lower rates of involvement with juvenile justice (35.0% vs 59.4%, p<0.01) to have ever had sex (44.4% vs 78.8%, p<0.001) or contributed to a pregnancy (4.4% vs 23.4%, p<0.05). And though not statistically significant, virtual youth reported higher rates of condom use (44.4% vs 30.4%, p=0.371) and lower rates of substance use before sex in the past 3 months (15.6% vs 28.5%, p=0.114) as compared to in-person youth. Implementation: Technical challenges included connection difficulties and learning curves to using Zoom. Virtual facilitators incorporated more technology than they did in-person by playing videos on complicated topics such as conception and STIs. In terms of curriculum, hands-on condom demonstrations were changed to facilitator-run experiments such as having youth use socks at home to simulate condoms on their arms. Breakout rooms were utilized to maintain small group work but were cumbersome. Relational challenges included awkward silences, disengagement, and a decrease in group trust due to cameras being turned off during sensitive topics and less connection between youth and facilitators. Effectiveness: Attendance records show that fewer virtual youth completed 100% of programming, as compared to in-person youth (23% vs 54%). More virtual youth answered yes to the question "As a result of this program, will you abstain from sex for the next three months?” as compared to in-person youth (55% vs 45%, p=0.462). However, virtual youth were significantly less likely to have baseline sexual experience. Conclusions: In-person sexual health programming had a wider reach, experienced fewer implementation challenges, and was potentially more effective than virtual programming for youth in foster care. If virtual programming becomes necessary again, sex educators and researchers can use these data to redesign virtual programming that maximizes reach, implementation, and effectiveness. Sources of Support: HHS 90AK0041-02-00 to Health Care Education and Training Inc.

Students in out‐of‐home care: Their experiences of Transforming Educational Achievement for Children at Risk, an Australian education programme

Children living in out‐of‐home care are at greater risk of poor educational outcomes compared to other children. To address their educational needs, several programs have been developed. Within a qualitative paradigm, this study explored the experiences of students about their involvement in TEACHaR (Transforming Educational Achievement for Children at Risk), a specialized education programme. Eight students (aged 13 to 18 years) from the programme participated in individual, semi‐structured interviews. Responses were analysed using Interpretive Phenomenological Analysis. Participants indicated that the programme provided individualized and flexible academic support, reduced their shame and embarrassment and provided them with more than academic support. They highlighted the importance of the student–educator relationship, and the need for encouragement and motivation to pursue their educational goals. Finally, findings report on how COVID‐19 impacts on student experiences of the programme. Recommendations for the development and improvement of education programs for students in out‐of‐home care conclude this paper.

Mental health engagement among foster and adopted youth: the transition from in-person to telemental health services

Using the electronic health records of 55 foster and adopted youth, this study compared in-person mental health service utilization to telemental health (TMH) service utilization during COVID-19. Clients attended a greater number of therapy sessions, had more accumulated session time, and had shorter sessions via TMH compared to in-person. Similar results were found for school-aged children, females, and caregivers who engaged in their children's treatment. Notably, for non-significant differences in engagement, engagement numbers during TMH were always higher than in-person services.

Successes, challenges, and opportunities in providing evidence-based teletherapy to children who have experienced trauma as a response to Covid-19: A national survey of clinicians.

While teletherapy is not a new phenomenon, most clinicians have not been trained and do not routinely practice it. The current study was designed to ascertain challenges and opportunities presented by the widescale usage of teletherapy especially for traumatized children, which was necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. Two hundred and fifty clinicians across the United States providing teletherapy to traumatized children completed an online survey. Results revealed that many logistical aspects of treatment were perceived to be easier when implemented remotely. Some clinical aspects of care were also perceived to be easier, notably engagement with caregivers. Developing rapport, assessing emotions, and keeping children's attention, however, were perceived as more challenging. Child characteristics such as age, attention span, and screen fatigue were viewed as creating challenges. Most clinicians had not received training in relevant topics for teletherapy and were eager to receive such training. These results suggest many avenues for refining and fine-tuning remote mental health services especially for children.

Emergency Fostering of Dogs From Animal Shelters During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Shelter Practices, Foster Caregiver Engagement, and Dog Outcomes.

Each year, millions of dogs enter thousands of animal shelters across the United States. Life in the shelter can be stressful, and one type of intervention that improves dogs' experience is human interaction, particularly stays in foster homes. Prior research has demonstrated that fostering can reduce dogs' cortisol and increase their resting activity. Despite these benefits, little is understood about the utilization of foster caregiving in animal shelters, and even less so during a crisis. On March 11, 2020, the World Health Organization deemed the coronavirus outbreak a worldwide pandemic, and subsequently a nationwide emergency was declared in the United States. Nearly all states issued stay-at-home orders to curb the spread of the virus. During this time, media outlets reported increased interest in the adoption and fostering of shelter pets. This study explores canine foster caregiving at 19 US animal shelters during the first 4 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. In our investigation, we found that shelters' utilization of foster caregiving increased from March to April 2020 but returned to initial pandemic levels by June 2020. Slightly less than two-fifths of foster caregivers were community members with no prior relationship with the shelter, and these caregivers were over four times more likely to adopt their fostered dogs than those with a pre-existing relationship to the shelter. Individuals fostering with the intention to adopt, in fact, adopted their dogs in nearly three-quarters of those instances. With regards to shelters' available resources, we found that very low-resource shelters relied more heavily on individuals with prior relationships to provide foster caregiving while very high-resource shelters more often recruited new community members. We also found that our lowest resourced shelters transferred more dogs out of their facilities while more resourced shelters rehomed dogs directly to adopters. To our knowledge, these findings represent the first in-depth reporting about dog fostering in US animal shelters and, more specifically, foster caregiving during the COVID-19 pandemic. In total, they provide greater understanding of how monetary and human resources were utilized to affect the care and ultimately, the outcomes of shelter dogs during this time.

Eight Months of Telehealth for a State-Funded Project in Foster Care and Related Services: Progress Made and Lessons Learned.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many behavior analysts and other health professionals modified their services for delivery via telehealth modalities. The transition to telehealth is especially important for providers working with foster youth who exhibit challenging behavior because these youth often move to another placement due to such behaviors. The primary objective of this article was to evaluate the extent to which service indicators for a state-funded team working with foster youth changed after the service delivery model changed from in-person to telehealth services. In particular, we evaluated changes in monthly count of client contacts, appointments, intakes, closed cases, and medication reviews. The secondary objective was to outline potential benefits and environmental barriers encountered by the team and to integrate our findings with the literature on behavior-analytic services provided via telehealth. Overall, results show that we maintained service quality with a broad range of behavioral interventions and increased overall client appointments. Given these outcomes, our team may continue to provide behavioral services via telehealth after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Essays in child welfare and long-run economic well-being

This dissertation is composed of three papers, all using modern applied econometric methods that try to isolate causal estimates in several important settings. Each chapter examines social and formal institutions on the well-being of children.The first chapter studies the importance of parental presence for children's adulthood labor market outcomes. Through interactions with their parents, a child develops the basic foundations for cognitive and non-cognitive skills that directly shape their adulthood economic well-being. Motivated by this critical role, a large body of research has sought to uncover the consequences of disruptions to family structure and parental inputs on a child's development. Despite its importance, we know relatively little about the consequences of the most severe form of parental absence: the death of a parent. Empirical evidence of the long-run causal effects of parental death has been limited since it requires sufficient longitudinal data and plausibly exogenous variation in parental mortality. To overcome these challenges in the literature, I make use of a rich dataset of over 180,000 historical mining accidents and link individual accident victims to the full-count U.S. Census. Doing so allows me to follow the sons of mining accident victims through to adulthood and study the causal effects of parental death on economic well-being. To identify the causal impact of parental death, I compare the adulthood outcomes of children of fatal mining accident victims to children whose parents suffered a serious but non-fatal mining accident. I find that, compared to children of non-fatal mining accident victims, bereaved children experienced nearly four percent lower wage income during adulthood. Further analyses reveal the most severe effects stem from those that lost their parent at an early age. Specifically, adults who were younger than primary school age when they lost their fathers had roughly 15 percent lower wages. Exploring potential channels, I show that most of the estimated earnings penalty can be attributed to differences in employment along both the intensive and extensive margins and is not due to differences in human capital accumulation. Bereaved sons were more likely to be out of work, report unemployment assistance, and work fewer weeks. Together, these employment channels can account for more than 60 percent of the estimated loss of adulthood income. The second chapter of this dissertation, coauthored with E. Jason Baron (a classmate at Florida State University) and Joseph P. Ryan (Professor of Social Work at the University of Michigan), examines the sources of over-representation of Black children in foster care systems and the causal effects of one popular reform that seeks to reduce this over-representation. The program, known as "blind removals," conceals demographic characteristics of children at-risk for foster care placement from child welfare professionals weighing whether or not to remove the child from their home. We present the first quantitative analysis of blind removals by examining a comprehensive administrative dataset of the universe of child maltreatment investigations in Michigan and presents two main findings. First, the over-representation of Black children in foster care systems is almost entirely driven by Black children being twice as likely to be investigated for child maltreatment as White children. Conditional on initial rates of investigation, White and Black children are placed in foster care at similar rates. Second, the study finds no evidence that blind removals impacted the already small racial disparities in the removal decision, but the program substantially increased the time to removal.The final chapter of this dissertation, coauthored with two classmates from Florida State University (E. Jason Baron and Cullen T. Wallace), highlights the link between educators... (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)

"Just being there, like a shoulder to lean on": Resilience and Mental Health among Older Youth in and Aged out of Foster Care during COVID-19.

Disasters share a common potential for significant ecological and psychosocial disruption at the individual, community, and societal levels, and are especially harmful to members of social groups in vulnerable situations, including youth in foster care and those recently emancipated from care. These young people are susceptible to mental health challenges and understanding their resiliency is key to mitigating pandemic-related harms. This qualitative study aims to (1) understand how the COVID-19 pandemic affected the mental health of older youth between the ages of 18 and 23 (M = 20.5 years, S.D. = 1.7 years), currently in or aged out of foster care (M = 5.9 years in care, S.D. = 4.4 years), and experiencing mental health challenges, and (2) gain insight into the resiliency that supports young people in dealing with these challenges. Twenty-six young people (77% female-identifying, 38% White, 27% Hispanic) in the USA participated in in-depth interviews. Salient themes include: 1) supportive relationships, 2) adaptive coping skills and mindsets, and 3) environmental, institutional, and social supports. Results amplify the voices of these young people concerning the impact of COVID-19 on their mental health and foreground the dynamic strategies they are using to alleviate their distress. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40653-022-00498-7.

The impact of COVID-19 on campus-based support programs serving students with foster care experience: Focus groups with administrators and students.

The onset of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic forced higher education institutions to abruptly transition to remote services and online learning. Students with a foster care background are a subgroup of students who have been particularly hard hit by the pandemic, as were the campus-based programs (CSPs) designed to support them. The purpose of this study was to learn about the impact of the pandemic on CSPs and CSP participants. Focus groups were conducted with CSP administrators and separately with CSP students from two- and four-year colleges in California. The first theme that emerged from the data focused on challenges exacerbated by the pandemic, with six subthemes zeroing in on breaks in social connections, academic disruptions, technology woes, gaps in basic needs, employment challenges, and the toll on mental health. The second theme described participants' responses, including their creative and collaborative actions. Administrators quickly adapted service delivery, formed partnerships with new units and organizations to ensure students' needs were met, and found creative ways to stay connected with students during a time of pervasive isolation. Students talked about their own efforts to access resources, connect with peers, and use of strategies to manage challenges such as burnout and depression. A second subtheme highlighted the ways participants displayed resilience, such as creating boundaries to manage their own self-care and leaning on each other for support. The findings from this study increase our understanding of the experiences students faced during the pandemic and shed light on implications moving forward to support students with foster care histories in higher education.

“Why is my skin so intimidating to you?”: Exploring social connectivity and racial identity of youth of color with foster care experience

Social support, racial/ethnic identity, and foster care exposure are concepts largely understudied in child welfare research. With the rise of racialized violence against persons of color and the COVID-19 pandemic, these intersecting identities are of great importance. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 14 youth of color with current or past foster care exposure. Three themes were identified: 1) feeling uncomfortably me, 2) not equal in opportunity, and 3) skin as a threat. Increased mental health support by caseworkers and understanding collective racial trauma is needed to help foster youth of color as they strive to achieve self-sufficiency in emerging adulthood. [ FROM AUTHOR] Copyright of Journal of Public Child Welfare is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full . (Copyright applies to all s.)