Bridging the Gap: How Tutoring & Intervention Can Help Youth in Foster Care

In the past few years, we have seen the gaps in education widen, with students dealing with learning loss from a multitude of individual, national, and worldwide crises. Many schools and districts are looking to bridge these gaps by providing high-dosage tutoring, reading and math interventions, and educational scholarships to allow students to seek private help.  

But there is a huge group of students who have been impacted much harder than their peers. Almost 400,000 children across the United States are in foster care, and 270,000 of these students are school-aged. While we have seen the pandemic’s effect on school-aged children in the National Report Card, the numbers are even more dire for students in foster care.  

According to the National Working Group on Foster Care and Education, youth in foster care are typically 16-20 percentile points behind their intellectually equivalent peers in standardized testing, and only 3 percent of students in foster care complete a college program. Another study published by Georgetown University found that “foster children are three times more likely to drop out of high school than other low-income children, only 50 percent graduate from high school, and only three to eight percent graduate college by age 25.” The study also found that youth who do not graduate high school are three times more likely to end up homeless, unemployed, or imprisoned.  

While these numbers can seem frightening, those working with youth in foster care know that having a consistent mentor, academic intervention and educational stability can dramatically change the course of a child’s life. For younger students, educators can bridge learning gaps using proven tutoring methods, building and maintaining positive academic growth. This is especially true when students are taught using trauma-informed teaching practices, where tutors can be positive and consistent mentors.  

The significance of supplemental intervention in education is not limited to young school-aged children. In fact, studies have shown that the ripple effect of positive academic success reaches into adulthood. A study done by the Department of Children and Family Services showed that young adults who are between the ages of 17-19 who are given the opportunity for supplemental education have an 85% chance of going to college. Given the opportunity and support, education can be a transformative force for youth in care, allowing them to overcome the adversity of their childhood and build a brighter future.   

Through our research-based, student, and data-driven education practices Huntington Learning Center can provide students with educational stability as well as tutoring to bridge academic gaps caused by displacement and change.