Residential education: Examining a new approach for improving outcomes for foster youth

This paper contains a description of the program design and implementation of a residential educational program for foster youth. This program was meant to provide an innovative long-term placement option for adolescent foster youth who did not have other placement options, and who would not likely return to their biological families. The program would provide a stable home and a comprehensive educational program in preparation for emancipation from the foster care system.Preliminary outcomes for the first three graduating classes are encouraging relative to other published reports of discharged foster youth. School completion and college attendance rates are higher than the rates reported in most other studies. However, non-college bound graduates on average are reporting low incomes and much flux in their housing and employment situations. Youth are also reporting higher rates of substance use than one would expect to find in the general population, but graduates are not reporting any of the criminal justice involvement or victimization found in other studies of discharged foster youth.These data suggest that residential education with supportive services providing placement stability may be a promising strategy for insuring school completion and more positive outcomes for foster youth.