Fostering Education
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Date
2021-05
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Volume Title
Publisher
The Ohio State University
Abstract
Children in foster care are at an extreme disadvantage in comparison to students that did not grow up in the foster care system. Students in foster care are at a higher disposition to not graduate high school, be homeless, or die younger. To address this issue, Fostering Education was developed. This program will work as an intervention during the added stress of being online for schooling and assist students in succeeding. (Educational Tutoring Services, 2020). The effects of COVID-19 are endless, affecting every single person in society. Children in foster care, already being at a disadvantage before the Coronavirus pandemic, are now even more vulnerable than ever before (Alvis & Gupta, 2020).
In an effort to address these issues, Fostering Education will support kinship care youth, Kindergarten through grade 12, in their education. Youth are currently attending school virtually due to COVID and are being tutored in coordination with their current studies. The tutors are students recruited from Ohio State University and who have undergone extensive training. In the recruitment process for the tutors, there is an application with questions regarding passion and intellect, as well as an interview process which assesses motivation for becoming a tutor. The training includes: BuckeyeLearn trainings on HIPAA and Institutional Data Compliance and Activities and Programs with Minor Participants, a training PowerPoint that focuses on boundaries, cultural competency, behavior management, trauma informed care, and working effectively with children. Tutors are asked the topics they are competent to teach. Tutors self-define their topic expertise. Tutors are with students based on tutor expertise and student academic need. Tutors and students meet weekly for one hour on Zoom. In the tutoring session, the tutor assists the student in completion of their homework and then moves on to reviewing lessons from that week in class. The course outline from each student's teacher is attained and provided to the tutor to become familiar with before their session. When homework is complete, the tutor and student will review class concepts using the information provided from the teacher. An Idea Bank was developed through a brainstorming activity with tutors as a resource for use when the student does not have homework. The Idea Bank is an online Google document resource of educational activities categorized by grade and subject matter.
The program began once the Memorandum of Understanding was signed between The Ohio State University and Franklin County Children's Services, tutors completed training, and background checks completed by Franklin County Children Services. The start date was March 2021. The program will end in May 2021. Plans for program sustainment are in progress.
Description
Keywords
Foster care, Youth, tutoring, COVID-19