Analysis of about the Educational Needs of Children and Youths in Foster Care by Zetlin - Article Example

Zetlin, A., L. Weinberg, & N. Shea. (July . “Caregivers, School Liaisons, and Agency Advocates Speak Out about the Educational Needs of Children and Youths in Foster Care,” Social Work, 55 (3), 245-254 This article, published in the journal Social Work in July 2010, is not a traditional research study, but is a “write-up” of a series of four focus group sessions over the course of about a year, from August 2005 to July 2006. The groups, which consisted of foster parents and relative caregivers in California, discussed their experiences of ensuring that the children under their care received the educational services they needed in the public school.

The methodology that Zetlin and her colleagues used was not a traditional experimental design, but they used it because they felt that it would create more meaningful data. The authors of this article found that educational opportunities were dismally negative for children in the foster care system. One of the biggest complaints of foster parents and caregivers involved in this study was that schools tended to resist serving their children educationally or providing more intensive supports for the more challenging children.

Another complaint was that social work agencies were too overwhelmed to adequately serve their children, so the parents and caregivers had to seek out services themselves. Some parents were not equipped to do this, especially if the children were moved around from foster home to foster home, which often occurs in the life of a child in the foster care system. This article is relevant to social work practice because it demonstrates a fact of life in the field: social workers are overwhelmed by heavy case loads and by the needs of their clients.

The focus groups that participated in this study expressed the concern that foster parents, social workers, and school officials do not tend to work collaboratively as a team to address the needs of these challenging and at-risk children and youths. Many social workers and social worker agencies are not knowledgeable about how schools function, and the laws on the books regarding the schools’ duty to serve foster children. It is clear that many social workers need training in this area. Parents also need training in how to access services and how to advocate for their foster children.

The need for training is a key concept in the field of social work, as is advocacy for foster children and their caregivers. It is crucial that foster parents, social workers, and school officials work collaboratively with each other if the educational needs of these challenging children are to be addressed. In these days of budget cuts and limited resources, teaching parents how to be more effective advocates and learning how to work collaboratively is more important than ever before. I liked this article because it brought up many good points that social workers need to consider when working with foster care children and their families.

The authors admit that their methodology has problems, such as the small sample size and the choice of subjects, who were all committed caregivers. In spite of these problems, the article is valuable because it emphasizes key concepts in the practice of social work.