Evaluación de las características ópticas

This theme delves into the systemic and contextual circumstances that create challenges for educational leaders, and as a result, barriers for school leaders to support children in care. The first major sub-theme, Systems that Cannot Accommodate the Socially Complex Lives of Children in Care, has two areas of focus including Barriers to

Interorganizational Collaboration and Communication for Education and CFS, and

Policy, Process, Practice – Challenges in Education. The second major sub-theme outlines the challenges of social perceptions and assumptions in educational leaders’ work with children in care. Its two areas of focus include challenging negative community and family perceptions of children in care and challenging staff assumptions and mindsets around children in care.

System That Cannot Accommodate the Socially Complex Lives of Children in Care

The CFS Act (2018), the Protocol, the Companion Document, and the Christensen and Lamoureux’s (2016) report all indicate explicitly the need for coordinated and

integrated services between CFS and schools. However, questions connected to this topic elicited comments of frustration, confusion, and misunderstanding among principal and vice principal participants, as well as focus group participants.

Barriers to Interorganizational Collaboration and Communication – Education and CFS

The challenges that participants associated with trying to communicate and collaborate with CFS stakeholders included (mis)interpretation of complicated systemic guidelines, the impact of ambiguous responsibilities and commercialization of foster care and group homes, the inconsistent elaboration of processes and practices that characterize the social worker mandate, inconsistent practices associated with the intake process form, as well as processes and practices related to the aging-out policy that releases children in care out of the system at age 18.

I thought of a whole bunch of systemic conditions that make it more difficult, and those are transiency of students from different foster placements...transiency of social

workers...large gaps in schooling with the kids coming in...lack of time, money and resources at the school. (Joanna)

We have a girl who’s moved to [name of street redacted]…well she might as well go to [name of school redacted] because that’s too far, and she’s never going to get here. The worker is dragging her feet about that…don’t drag your feet, make a decision, get the girl into school, or bring her back to us and get transportation for her every day. (Victoria)

(Mis)interpreting complicated systemic guidelines. Participants’ comments

suggested that organizational policies, processes, and practices were often the reasons why each principal, vice principal, social worker, clinician, foster parent and group home worker appeared to interpret the information in the Protocol and Companion Document to meet their own needs and small picture perspective of responsibilities and organizational mandates. This means that participants were often hampered in their advocacy work towards social justice for children in care. Starting children in a new school without all the forms in place or demanding additional time to gather information when a child’s history is uncertain are two practices shared by participants based on their personal interpretation of CFS processes that did not align with the interpretations of the social workers involved.

Lots of times it will be one of us [who takes control]...'cause sometimes the social worker won't come when they're told...this is what we're doing, and other social workers will organize it all, so it just really...it depends, but in the end we know here that regardless who the legal guardian is...if it's CFS, the people that influence that kid's life on a day to day basis are us, and whoever the foster home is, so...I don't need the legal guardian to tell me I can do this...'cause they don't...it's just paperwork at this point. They're not the influence in that child's life. (Goria)

Right now if we don’t have a social history on a student we’re saying, “Whoa wait a minute”, even though there’s the two week window [to get children in care back into school]….If we don’t have enough information about that student…what they’re history is, we’re kinda putting the brakes on, so I think we’re gonna get some pushback on that.

(Victoria)

Educational leaders in this study voiced that a lack of trust between education and CFS systems still affected relationships between school and CFS staff members.

examples where CFS workers did not share students’ complete history, to ensure a speedy registration. As a result, students received inappropriate programming that later

represented personal or group safety concerns.

The justice piece is interesting too, because I understand Fippa and Phia and privacy but it's really interesting if a child [in care]'s been arrested 4 or 5 times for assault with a weapon and they refuse to tell you that...I don't really think you're doing anyone any good...so some of those are challenging... (Fontaine)

So you'd have social workers come in and they would kind of forget about the mental health piece and now the kid's involved...they're embraced in the school and all of a sudden you start to recognize all these mental health pieces, and when you dig a little deeper...oh yah, they've been at MATC since grade 3, so this really isn't the place for them, and then...well they're here...and that's the real frustrating thing...dealing with the other systems that aren't quite there. (Murray)

Lots of times I'm more concerned about mental health pieces...there's the stigma around that still...to me again, you're gonna send someone to school that has cancer and is doing chemo and you wouldn't tell us?...Of course you'd tell us, but then if someone has some serious mental health concerns...where they're actually perhaps medicated or self- harming or any of those things, and you don't want to tell us? That's crazy talk...but it would be good to know that if we see a change in baseline behaviour and we're a little suspicious about that or you lock yourself in the upstairs bathroom and smash [name of object redacted]...yah that's when we kick the door in...all of these are things that have happened just this year with children in care. (Fontaine)

All participants commented on the fact that providing children in care with access to assessment, trained clinicians, or addictions workers was also more complicated, as children in care usually receive those supports through interorganizational processes from agencies outside of the school, and outside of principals’ and vice principals’ area of influence. Whereas, clinical services are available to children not in the CFS system through an internal school referral system. The resultant backlog of children in care who waited for clinical services was a real concern mentioned by about half of participants.

When there's substances abuse in the mix...that's another really big one that is out of our control and trying to get whether AFM [Addiction Foundation of Manitoba] involved or how we do that. We have our own clinical services unit here, so we have social workers and psychologists…they have a bazillion things going on as well and we don't double-dip in services, so if a child [in care] has a...social worker or psychologist outside of school,

we don't double-dip and use ours as well. We just found there were too many conflicting messages that way. (Gloria)

Social workers, justice, AFM, Mental Health supports...I find it harder…when I have kids that have mental health issues that are living with their parents for the most part...the whole idea of social capital...they feel that they can reach out and demand more supports...especially around things around mental health, where again sometimes [for children in care] it takes more time...it takes more effort...you've got more fingers in the pie...the social worker has to have time to fill out the referrals...there's that extra step in there...I don't see that at all as being equitable either...to me it's a real issue...services around health and mental health...and of course addiction is a mental health issue too.

(Fontaine)

Impact of ambiguous responsibilities and commercialization of group/foster homes. In Manitoba, foster care homes represent private homes where single adults,

couples, or families, approach CFS to support no more than four children taken into care in their home environment (CFS Act, 2018). In return, the families are provided with financial support for the children. Group homes, on the other hand, represent independent fee-for-service organizations, contracted by the government to hire staff members that provide care and support in eight-hour shifts, around the clock, for a group of five to eight children in a house setting (CFS Act, 2018; Manitoba Advocate for Children & Youth [MACY], n.d.).

According to respondents’ comments, one of the most frustrating aspects of the CFS system outside of the control of educational leaders is the structure, function, and related transitions connected to foster and group homes. The layered effects of using this complicated network of processes to house children in care makes communication and planning for students in the care system more complicated and unpredictable for schools.

It's often because their whole life is turned upside down. They're in an emergency shelter. There's so many factors there that make them feel like life is just not predictable and so sometimes it can be worse, sometimes it's better, but I want our social workers [to know] that we will hold on to kids if that is the right decision for them. That we're not trying to gate-keep in any way as principals in the work that we're doing here in the school.

Why move them midyear? But I get it. Placements break down. Something happens, or this is the place they've been waiting to come, like a home or something. But they're not always great educational decisions, but maybe better or a good decision in the other facets of their life. (Fontaine)

So, making contact with a group home is very difficult sometimes...you don't know who you're talking to and they may not even know who you are talking about...they're like...the kid in Room 6...it definitely makes things more difficult for communication purposes.

(Joanna)

What’s a group home, what’s a foster home, what’s [the] status of adult in charge, who’s running the show and how do they operate…[this new neighbourhood] seems a magnet for people to build a home and then have a bunch of kids come into it. And so, we

have…really affluent communities where kids in care are living and there are a bunch of them in a house, and I’m just trying to figure out the people who run those homes.

(Victoria)

Participants also added that students’ lives appeared to become more, and more commodified, with few avenues open for educational leaders to improve communication and collaboration. The comments represent both elementary and high school examples of how processes, connected to the funding and monetization of foster homes, appear to encourage practices that objectivate children in care.

I think our greatest challenge for our children...[is] when you say this child can earn you this much money...and…being a principal of a school where I see people taking in 4 or 5 level 5 kids and how much money people are making on the backs of our Indigenous kids.

(Amelia)

These kids are all coming from [neighbourhood names redacted]…it's almost like a business...I know a couple of them that live in one house and [the foster parents] have a second house and the kids live in that and yes they spend time there but they also have respite and...they have staff...it's almost like a business...like a group home, but not a group home...maybe to make ends meet, and so that's impacting it...a lot of our kids in care are coming from there. (Fontaine)

I think they’re being manipulated honestly in their placements...because if they’re in school, someone else is still getting money for them and that sounds kind of blunt but that’s the facts and so I see some not good things sometimes...and I think if someone was responsible for that specifically, you’d see a lot less of that and a lot more responsible parenting of kids in care. (Joanna)

Intended to resemble an integrated triangle of support and care between

foster/group homes, social workers and schools, educational leaders in this study found it difficult to communicate and collaborate with these extensions of the social work system in order to develop and implement academic and social-emotional programming for children in care.

Inconsistent elaboration of processes and practices that characterize the social worker mandate. All provincial legislation and guiding documents, including the

CFS Act (2018), Protocol and Companion Document, mention social workers as critical participants in all facets of the life of a child in care. Most principals and vice principals also noted social workers as a crucial member of the interorganizational team. As the guardians of children in care, social workers are mandated to liaise with schools and thereby directly impact the educational experience of children in care. In their responses, participants related their interactions with social workers in the pursuit of information, or development of programming for children in care, as inconsistent, frustrating and

difficult. Participants commented on the fact that a growing number of social workers were inexperienced professionally, unfamiliar, or disconnected from the students and situations they were trying to support.

...a lot of it [educational outcomes for a child] really hinges...on who they're tied to as a social worker....So, if the kid's file has been moved to a new social worker or an

inexperienced social worker, or someone who just doesn't have the organizational skills that other social workers have, it really, really hinges on that key piece when they're the legal guardian….There's gotta be someone driving the ship. (Gloria)

Everything is new to them...most of the time they have a brand new social worker that lots of times hasn't even met them...[the social workers] just come to the school intake 'cause we make it mandatory and that's the first time they've seen this kid or maybe it's the second time or the third time or they switched during the year...the foster parent obviously is usually brand new. (Fontaine)

This made it difficult to build relationships and communicate shared information about children in care with social workers. The government’s own documents, the

Protocol and Companion Document, both set out relationships and communication

between all stakeholders as being of the utmost importance. Participants felt strongly that true advocacy should not be characterized by service delays, and at times saw school transitions as being hindered by day-to-day CFS organizational barriers.

I say that different agencies are in different systems. I would argue in some cases [they] work in isolation of each other or when they try to work with each other are stymied by their own policy and [that] doesn't allow for the transition from one agency to the next to be seamless...it becomes more of an additional request that has to go through the proper channels...rather than seen as a holistic [process]. (Liam)

Social workers will say...I have this many kids on my caseload and I'm just trying to get them registered for school...Why is it that all of our children in care are all of a sudden being registered for school in the first week of September when everybody else gets to start on those first days? Is it because you just can't seem to get your act together? Is it because the schools don't open their doors until the last week of August? I don't know what it is, but those kids are starting the year one step behind. (Amelia)

Inconsistent practices associated with the CFS intake form. To facilitate

interdepartmental communication, the CFS intake process and forms were highlighted by both the Protocol and the Companion Document as important for planning, and

integration. Yet, participants comments emphasized that the practices in place for the CFS school registration process and forms used for sharing information between social

workers, schools and other organizations developed into a barrier for their social justice advocacy work.

The CFS school registration intake form, which is part of the Protocol, represents an early point of interorganizational contact between CFS and a school, often before a child in care is registered in the school. Completing the intake form is a mandatory step for social workers, so that the receiving school has all the academic and personal details

about a child to help support a successful transition. For children in care, school leaders used the form to develop the personal programming that supports children in care; yet at times, these plans were based on snippets of information that represented an incomplete collection of information that did not do justice to the child’s strengths and needs.

…it takes more time...it takes more effort...you've got more fingers in the pie...the social worker has to have time to fill out the referrals...there's that extra step in there...I don't see that at all as being equitable either. (Fontaine)

I think it [the intake form] just gives us a little bit more information or a starting point to ask more questions, because it talks about students' strengths...students' interests, but also their challenges…some social workers don't fill them out very well or they don't have enough information...they just don't really know the child. (Hannah)

Well the identification for the kids in care is pretty easy, because of the child in care forms that the social workers have to fill out, which is a pet peeve of mine, because they don't really tell you anything, so you're left interviewing the kid and then you only get their perspective...you don't get others. (Murray)

Education and aging-out of the CFS system. Although this sub-theme was

touched on explicitly by only three of the five high school participants, their compelling comments form a separate sub-theme that continues to endure in the media because of the long-term potential implications and impact that the associated policy appears to have on the life-trajectory of all children in care. The recent report of the Legislative Review Committee, Transforming Child Welfare Legislation in Manitoba: Opportunities to

Improve Outcomes for Children and Youth (Manitoba Families, 2018) recommends an

extension of support for youth in care beyond the age of 21. Based on the Manitoba Child and Family Service Standards Manual (Manitoba CFS, 2017) in effect at this time,

children in care who reach the age of 18 no longer have access to CFS support services, unless their case manager developed an Extension of Care Agreement with them prior to age 18. This plan provides children in care with supported access to treatment, training or