Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

Trump Says Many Are Starving in Gaza, Vows to Set up Food Centers

8 hours ago

California Governor Candidate Stirs Outrage With Auschwitz ‘Unemployment Plan’ Post

9 hours ago

Gold Price to Stay Above $3,000/Oz as Flight to Safety Endures

11 hours ago

S&P, Nasdaq at Record Highs as US-EU Trade Deal Sparks Optimism in Pivotal Week

11 hours ago

Trump Warns Iran That Its Nuclear Sites Could Be Bombed Again

11 hours ago

Israel Announces Daily Pauses in Gaza Fighting as Aid Airdrops Begin

1 day ago

California School Board Resigns After Audit Reveals $180M in Improper Funding

2 days ago

A First Look at Fresno State’s Quarterback Battle

3 days ago
Foster Youth Need More Than Education to Build a Stable Life
GV-Wire-1
By gvwire
Published 6 years ago on
August 26, 2019

Share

For the last three years, I have been working on public policy related to foster youth. But at a recent monthly foster care policy meeting in Sacramento, where experts were discussing the needs of foster youth fortunate enough to go to college, I found myself thinking, “They’re missing the point.” Getting the degree doesn’t fix the real problem that foster youth have, which is forming relationships.


Mike Stajura
Opinion 
I was fully aware of the implicit arrogance of my thought in this room full of well-intentioned, talented, and hardworking people. They’d been chipping away at a piece of marble for years—but I was claiming that I knew what the statue underneath really looked like.
As a former foster youth who is now middle-aged, it is sometimes difficult to sit in these meetings. Experts and advocates speak about interconnected challenges faced by foster youth aging out of the child welfare system: underemployment and job-hopping, educational disparities, housing instability and homelessness, and mental health issues related to childhood trauma and neglect. Advocates have helped to pass and implement many successful policies that have improved the odds and the outcomes for foster youth. In my estimation, though, the true root issue faced by foster youth has remained beyond the reach of policy even though everyone in the room knows what it is.
My problem is not that I think the policy proposals are wrong. I have lived through my own version of the challenges faced by former foster youth, and I know the limits of policy as a tool.

Every Foster Youth’s Experience Is Different

It is particularly difficult to acknowledge how the foster experience still shapes my thoughts, actions, and relationships to this very day. I can only speak for myself, but I’ll use words below like “we” when describing the broader group of foster youth, knowing that I can’t really speak for everyone. However, my observations are a good faith effort to apply my academic training to our experience, knowing that we’re similar in ways that might not be immediately obvious.

There are grim statistics for what happens to others. Fewer than half of foster youth don’t graduate high school on time (but many go on to finish later). Fewer than 4 percent earn baccalaureate degrees.
Every foster youth’s experience is different, but for anyone not familiar with what it’s like, here’s a snapshot of mine: From grades K-12, I went to 14 schools. I had four foster care placements: two in group homes, and two with foster parents. These were divided between two episodes of foster care that were separated by about four years. I spent about three cumulative years living with grandparents outside of the child welfare system, and I experienced short-term homelessness on about six occasions that I can remember (living in shelters, hotels, etc.). My “aging out” of the system was to join the U.S. Army.
And I was lucky. There are grim statistics for what happens to others. Fewer than half of foster youth don’t graduate high school on time (but many go on to finish later). Fewer than 4 percent earn baccalaureate degrees. More than 30 percent of current and former foster youth are arrested at some point, and we are 63 times more likely to wind up incarcerated than someone in the same age range who has not been in foster care. A quarter of foster youth have post-traumatic stress disorder; far more have other mental health issues that cause depression, anxiety, and attentional symptoms. Upon aging out of the child welfare system, an estimated 25-33 percent experience homelessness in some form.
So, here I was listening to an expert discuss how important it was for foster youth to stay in school and earn college degrees and get good jobs. To me, that sounded something like giving clean, fresh water to someone who had contracted E. coli—without having treated the underlying E. coli infection. Please bear with me.

Higher Education Does Not Help People Learn How to Build Relationships

Education is necessary but insufficient for overcoming the challenges faced by youth coming out of the child welfare system. I have a Ph.D. in public health. That’s on top of two master’s degrees. I’m also underemployed and sometimes need to find creative ways to explain or cover up job-hopping and employment gaps on my resume. Education was great—like the clean water—but my underlying issue, as expressed on my resume and in a lifetime without any real or lasting mentorship, is a difficulty with creating and sustaining relationships.
Higher education does not help people learn how to build relationships. In fact, it may do the opposite for some people. School has a built-in release valve that I think every former foster youth might secretly crave (whether they are aware of it or not): It provides structured, organized change. With each new semester come new teachers, new classmates, and a new routine. Any former foster youth reading this will immediately understand what that means: placement change.
Whenever we changed foster care placements, it was like starting over from scratch in a new environment. It wasn’t exactly a fresh start, though. We had little or no control over placement changes, and they were often done for adverse reasons. In school, though, the changes were built in. While the circumstances were different, those of us lucky enough to be in higher education were merely continuing old patterns without realizing it.
Did you have a problem with a teacher? It doesn’t matter because they will be out of your life soon. Did you have any problems connecting with your assigned group members for the class project? It doesn’t matter; this will only last so long. Everything in education is transitory—just like our foster care experiences. For those with the aptitude for learning in academic environments, being former foster kids can actually make us very good at being students. We’re right at home.

Most of Us Didn’t Ask to Be Placed in Foster Care

So while earning a degree is worthwhile in and of itself, we often leave school without learning what we really needed to: how to create and sustain healthy relationships over time. That quality of personal connection that is required to really make it in this world is not something that school alone can teach.

Many foster youths become masters at gaming this phenomenon at a young age; it’s a finely tuned survival technique. College is just a new game to play, one semester at a time.
Here we arrive at the real problem. A foster youth advocate spoke up at the meeting I attended and said, “We see great results for youth who we can work with for 18 months.” Then came the unsurprising follow-up: “We hardly ever get 18 months working with a youth.” When someone enters the life of a current or former foster youth, we already know in our bones that person is transitory. Even if we like that person.
Most of us didn’t ask to be placed in foster care. We wound up in foster care through the actions of others, not ourselves. From that point forward, we’re often in the position of being acted upon rather than acting with agency. By seeing everyone we bond with as transitory, we anesthetize ourselves to the pain of their pending departure from our lives. We have also honed an exceptional ability to sense trouble with relationships, but we also sometimes sense it even when it really isn’t there. If we don’t like someone, then we hasten that person’s departure.
It is tough to unlearn that behavioral pattern, and higher education isn’t the best place for this unlearning.
In fact, many foster youths become masters at gaming this phenomenon at a young age; it’s a finely tuned survival technique. College is just a new game to play, one semester at a time. The educational system is designed so we can leave relationships, sometimes even before they have a chance to go bad. Get in, get out, and get gone. This is how college can sabotage our opportunity to develop what we’re really missing.

Current and Former Foster Youth Are Resilient and Adaptable

Current and former foster youth need the opportunity to create and sustain relationships, and many of us aren’t even aware of that gap. I wasn’t aware of it myself until much later in life. Some colleges and universities have taken baby steps to address this through supportive programs such as Guardian Scholars. These programs are good at connecting youth to campus resources to help with education and degree completion; connecting youth to other social supports for things like housing and food, and; connecting former youth to each other. But then the foster youth graduate as part of the 3-4 percent of the lucky ones. They graduate and they’re gone, heralded as success stories. Attention then returns to the younger ones lucky enough to enter college.
Meanwhile, many older former foster youth (whether we got into college or not) move through life without having truly learned the most important lessons about good relationships. There wasn’t a class on that, and neither a degree nor a job placement program will solve that. We simply don’t know what we don’t know: meaningful relationships take skills and time to grow, and we’re short on both. If given the opportunity, we move on.
We’ll also be fine. Current and former foster youth are resilient and adaptable. I’ve anecdotally observed that we fare better than others with sudden and adverse changes. Been there, done that. You can’t do anything to us that hasn’t already been done.
At my current age, though, I can’t help but acknowledge that we can’t grow or succeed without stable relationships over time. That is prerequisite to everything else. This is a problem that requires something beyond the standard policy toolbox to address.
About the Author
Mike Stajura went from being homeless to being a West Point graduate and U.S. Army officer. He has a Ph.D. from UCLA. He wrote this for Zócalo Public Square.
[activecampaign form=31]

DON'T MISS

What Are Fresno Real Estate Experts Predicting for 2025 and Beyond?

DON'T MISS

First California EV Mandates Hit Automakers This Year. Most Are Not Even Close

DON'T MISS

Two Arrested in Dollar General Burglary in Fowler, Third Suspect at Large

DON'T MISS

New York City Mayor Says ‘Active Shooter’ Incident Taking Place in Manhattan

DON'T MISS

Shooting Outside Casino in Reno, Nevada, Leaves 3 Victims Dead, 2 Critically Wounded

DON'T MISS

Fresno County Repeat DUI Offender Sentenced to 15 Years to Life for Deadly Crash

DON'T MISS

Venezuelan Little League Team Denied Entry to US Over Travel Ban

DON'T MISS

Fresno Seals Deal with Police Union. No Deal Yet With Firefighters.

DON'T MISS

North Korea Says Trump Must Accept New Nuclear Reality

DON'T MISS

What Does Trump Crackdown on Homelessness Mean for California?

DON'T MISS

Naindeep Singh Joins Fresno City Council Race as Campaign Fundraising Totals Roll In

DON'T MISS

Fresno Home Suffers Major Damage in Saturday Night Fire, Family Cat Rescued

UP NEXT

Israeli Columnist Alleges Ethnic Cleansing Plan in Gaza

UP NEXT

No One Controls MAGA, not Even Trump. The Epstein Files Prove It

UP NEXT

A Pro-Trump Community Reckons With Losing a Beloved Immigrant Neighbor

UP NEXT

Why American Jews No Longer Understand One Another

UP NEXT

Masked Raids and Impersonators Driving Force Behind Terror Campaign Across Nation

UP NEXT

Fresno Unified’s Free Immunization Clinics for Students Start in August

UP NEXT

I’m Not Leaving Measure C and COG Can’t Make Me: Brooke Ashjian

UP NEXT

I’m a Genocide Scholar. I Know It When I See It.

UP NEXT

California Is Finally Adopting Phonics, Fulfilling a Grandmother’s Dream

UP NEXT

New CA Budget Papers Over $20 Billion Deficit, Ignores Day of Reckoning

Fresno County Repeat DUI Offender Sentenced to 15 Years to Life for Deadly Crash

3 hours ago

Venezuelan Little League Team Denied Entry to US Over Travel Ban

3 hours ago

Fresno Seals Deal with Police Union. No Deal Yet With Firefighters.

3 hours ago

North Korea Says Trump Must Accept New Nuclear Reality

3 hours ago

What Does Trump Crackdown on Homelessness Mean for California?

4 hours ago

Naindeep Singh Joins Fresno City Council Race as Campaign Fundraising Totals Roll In

5 hours ago

Fresno Home Suffers Major Damage in Saturday Night Fire, Family Cat Rescued

5 hours ago

Senator to Unveil Aviation Safety Bill on Eve of Fatal Crash Hearing

6 hours ago

Fox Business News Host Throws Shade at Merced Over High-Speed Rail

6 hours ago

Trump Says He Turned Down Invitation to Epstein’s Island

6 hours ago

Two Arrested in Dollar General Burglary in Fowler, Third Suspect at Large

Two suspects are behind bars after a commercial burglary at a Dollar General in Fowler, the Fowler Police Department said on Monday. Officer...

1 hour ago

Two repeat theft offenders were arrested and a third suspect remains at large after a burglary at a Dollar General in Fowler, police said. (Fowler PD)
1 hour ago

Two Arrested in Dollar General Burglary in Fowler, Third Suspect at Large

New York City Mayor Eric Adams speaks during a press conference at City Hall in Manhattan in New York City, U.S., June 3, 2025. (Reuters File)
2 hours ago

New York City Mayor Says ‘Active Shooter’ Incident Taking Place in Manhattan

The Grand Sierra Resort casino is seen after a fatal shooting in Reno, Nevada, U.S., July 28, 2025 in this still image taken from a video. ABC Affiliate KOLO via REUTERS
2 hours ago

Shooting Outside Casino in Reno, Nevada, Leaves 3 Victims Dead, 2 Critically Wounded

3 hours ago

Fresno County Repeat DUI Offender Sentenced to 15 Years to Life for Deadly Crash

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio attends a nuclear cooperation Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) signing ceremony with Bahrain's Foreign Minister Abdullatif bin Rashid Al Zayani (not pictured), at the U.S. Department of State in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 16, 2025. (Reuters/Umit Bektas)
3 hours ago

Venezuelan Little League Team Denied Entry to US Over Travel Ban

Fresno City Hall Fresno Police Officers Association
3 hours ago

Fresno Seals Deal with Police Union. No Deal Yet With Firefighters.

Kim Yo Jong, sister of North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un attends wreath laying ceremony at Ho Chi Minh Mausoleum in Hanoi, Vietnam March 2, 2019. (Reuters File)
3 hours ago

North Korea Says Trump Must Accept New Nuclear Reality

San Diego Homeless Encampment
4 hours ago

What Does Trump Crackdown on Homelessness Mean for California?

Help continue the work that gets you the news that matters most.

Search

Send this to a friend