Highlights
The school environment can be a haven for treatment foster children to build social connections, develop academic skills, and experience measures of achievement that promote confidence and efficacy. In order to better attain positive school outcomes foster parents and school agents must value their respective roles and intentionally collaborate within the guidelines of federal policy.
The existent literature tends to focus minimally on the role of treatment foster parents in promoting school success for foster children even though federal legislation provides a robust framework for generating positive school outcomes for this vulnerable population of students.
This article provides a conceptual depiction of how schools and treatment foster parents partnerships can be formed and maintained. The authors adopted four evolutionary components from Christenson and Sheridan’s Four A’s Contextual Process (2001):
- A1- Approach- The focus for interagency interaction
- A2- Attitudes- The values and perceptions held about children in foster care
- A3- Atmosphere- The climate in schools for families and educators
- A4- Strategies for building shared responsibilities between schools and treatment foster parents