Caregivers, school liaisons, and agency advocates speak out about the educational needs of children and youths in foster care.

Children in foster care comprise a population of students at great risk for school failure. The child welfare agency, schools, and home must all work together to provide the services and supports required to achieve better results. The purpose of this study was to conduct focus groups with participants from each sector to discuss their views on the educational problems and needs of students in foster care and their recommendations for what is needed to improve the academic prospects of foster students. The article provides details of the distinct themes identified by caregivers, school liaisons, and agency advocates and reveals how each group-while recognizing that foster students face substantial school problems-operates independent of each other and lacks a shared view on what is needed. The article concludes with recommendations for designing a model program that involves all the sectors and provides an arena for strategically addressing barriers to school success.

Removing barriers to educating children in foster care through interagency collaboration: a seven county multiple-case study.

This multiple-case study examines interagency collaboration between child protective services (CPS), local education agencies (LEAs), and other public agencies in seven California counties. These agencies were provided technical assistance to remove barriers impeding the education of children in foster care and improve their educational outcomes. Results of this study suggest that making changes to remove educational barriers for foster children and improve their educational outcomes requires successful collaboration between CPS and LEAs and strong leadership within at least one of the agencies.

Perceived barriers to health care access in a treated population.

OBJECTIVE: Health care access may be a significant contributor to health outcome. However, few data exist on perception of barriers by patients in treatment, and attending a clinic visit does not mean that no barriers exist. Understanding barriers for treated populations is particularly important in optimizing care for high vulnerability populations, such as those with mental illness and the elderly. METHOD: A structured interview, demographic questionnaire, and SF-12 were administered to 324 veterans presenting for primary care or mental health appointments at a Veterans Affairs medical center. Principle components analysis was performed and relationships to vulnerability characteristics were identified. RESULTS: Most interview items showed modest mean levels but high variance. Responses were stable over three to six weeks. As hypothesized, perceived total barriers were greater in participants from several vulnerable populations: those receiving treatment for mental health problems, those with disabilities, and those with worse physical and mental function. Minority participants did not perceive greater barriers. An "inverted-U" relationship with age was found. Principal components analysis assigned 18 items across six clinically meaningful subscales. Participants with mental health treatment perceived greater barriers in three subscales including provider communication. Curvilinear relationships were again seen between subscales and age. CONCLUSIONS: Even individuals "in care" perceive barriers. Members of vulnerable populations, particularly those receiving mental health treatment, perceive greater barriers. Data support a multi-dimensional conceptualization of perceived barriers, and different subgroups experience different patterns of barriers.