Helping foster youth excel in education

UPDATE 6/16/16 5:15 P.M.: Foster kids can face an uphill battle, from being shuffled from place to place to not having a stable support system. Monterey County educators and providers are trying to change that.

According to the Monterey County Office of Education, there are nearly 300 foster students in the county. The largest concentration are enrolled in Alisal Union, MPUSD and North Monterey County Unified. Research has shown students in foster care had the highest dropout and lowest graduation rates.

Nearly 100 stakeholders and students attended the first-ever Foster Youth Education Summit at Hartnell College on Thursday. While students shared their challenges, educators and providers learned how to better serve their needs.

“I felt like no one really wanted to listen to my voice growing up,” said Willie Mendez, who went through the foster care system, “or listened to what I wanted and what my needs were, and I feel like most of that was ignored.”

Jasmine Flanagan said it took a caring environment for her to excel.

“Not feeling relevant, not feeling cared for, my grades, it’s like being on a roller coaster, you know, fluctuating from having a 4.0 to having C’s and D’s,” Flanagan said. “Before I transitioned out of the system, it was a little easier when I found a placement, I learned I was cared for. Someone was able to break through those trust barriers I had.”

Both Willie and Jasmine have been able to overcome these obstacles are now help others going through the system. The goal is to surround the students with support.

“That means being able to listen to them and understand the challenges they are facing,” said Dr. Faris Sabbah, assistant superintendent at MCOE. “Being able to provide support, whether that’s career, education and advocacy. Perhaps it’s a way of limited the number of transitions they’re confronting and making sure they are able to stay in their current school. Perhaps it’s providing counseling and social and emotional support.”

Attendees also heard from motivational speaker Sade Daniels, who spent many of her adolescent years in group homes. She managed to overcome her obstacles and is now working toward her master’s degree at the University of California Berkeley.

ORIGINAL POST: According to the Monterey County Office of Education, research shows students in foster care have the highest dropout rates and the lowest graduation rates. Former foster care youth said it’s because they were moved from school to school and they didn’t have the support system needed to succeed.

“Some of the challenges that I faced were growing up in different foster homes, moving place to place after a year or so,” Willie Mendez said. “I lived in five different foster homes. I attended five different high schools. It was hard for me to get comfortable and trust the family I was living with and build a relationship with them.”

But educators hope to change that. Tonight at 6 p.m., KION’s Mariana Hicks, who attended the first ever Foster Youth Education Summit, will show us how educators and students hope to learn from each other, to make sure all foster youth have a bright future.