Trauma, Labels & Learning: Rethinking Foster Care Education with Sharon Dunlevy

Watch:

Listen:

Summarized Transcript of Episode

Aaron DeVries: Good day, Fellow Champions of Inclusion. I am A-A-Ron, and this is the Inclusive Dad Podcast, where we explore inclusion and make it practical. Before we dive in, don't forget to subscribe, rate, or review the show on your favorite platform. We truly appreciate your feedback and would be honored if you shared the podcast with friends and family who might benefit from it. If you want to support us in our mission, please click on the link in the show description today.

My guest is Sharon Dunlevy. Welcome to the show.

Sharon Dunlevy: Thanks, Aaron. It's nice to be here.

Aaron DeVries: Absolutely. Why don't you start by telling my listeners a little about yourself?

Sharon Dunlevy: Absolutely. I'm Sharon Dunlevy, and I live in the Indianapolis area. I'm an educational advocate for children in foster care. I make sure that foster parents know about the laws that ensure that the kids in their care receive the support they need to succeed, like the Every Student Succeeds Act, the Individuals with Disabilities Act, and the Family First Prevention Services Act.

Aaron DeVries: That's awesome. I love that. My first question is, what is your definition of inclusion?

Sharon Dunlevy: We should be embracing people with disabilities, people with differences, rather than not including them. I work with people where they are and open doors so they can have the same opportunities as everybody else. But inclusion for me is not just opening doors, but inviting them in, having them at the table, and having their voices be heard. Just because somebody has a developmental disability does not mean they don't have the mental capacity to think thoughtfully and create policy and other things like that.

So that's what inclusion means to me.

Aaron DeVries: Could you briefly explain what foster care means and some circumstances that would lead a child to end up in the foster care system?

Sharon Dunlevy: That’s a great question, Aaron, because when people hear foster care, they have some image that pops into their head, and some of it's negative. Children enter foster care for a lot of reasons, and some of them are what we hear in the news, in the media, and on TV shows. Their parents were drug addicts or alcoholics and/or possibly abusive. That is a piece of foster care.

But other children end up in foster care for reasons that are a little more subtle, for example, things like poverty. Our country and systems are set up in such a way that, rather than helping a family in poverty get out of poverty, we often remove their kids. But getting out of poverty becomes an obstacle to getting their kids back. Parents who want to get their kids back must attend court dates and things like that, and they're missing work. When they miss work, they get fired and remain impoverished. Maybe they wouldn't be in the system if we had some front-end things to help them.

Aaron DeVries: Are there enough foster parents for the number of kids in the foster care system, or what does that look like?

Sharon Dunlevy: Absolutely not. Right now, we have about 400,000 children in foster care nationwide, and we have probably one-third of that number of families who are taking children. Some families can take two, but most states will not let you take three or more children unless you have a special license. Especially after COVID, there is a need for more foster parents.

Aaron DeVries: Very interesting.

I don't know if you know a percentage, but how many children in foster care have IEPs?

Sharon Dunlevy: Based on their trauma, a lot of kids have developmental delays. Trauma affects your body physically and your brain physically, not just mentally. We've learned that our brains shrink and grow based on negative and positive experiences. Negative experiences will cause the brain to be stuck in that fight, flight, or freeze mode.

So, based on that trauma, I would say about 80% of children in foster care should qualify for an IEP. One of the things I do is go into the schools and fight for that IEP because schools sometimes don't want to include children with trauma in the special education process. I help parents navigate that system and help the kids get the IEPs they need.

Aaron DeVries: That's pretty high.

Sharon Dunlevy: Very high.

Aaron DeVries: It doesn't surprise me, but that is pretty high. One of the jobs I've had was working at a residential treatment facility, a mental health treatment facility for adolescents in my hometown. It was where they came to stay for a period of time. I don't know the number of kids that were in foster care or wards of the state, in that situation, but they were there.

And like we've discussed, if they're in foster care, they get a label. I don't like labels. My daughter has a disability, and she's in special ed. We needed to label her to get the services she needed to succeed in school. But it stays with her, and you can't get rid of it. The next teacher, the following year, sees the label. They have some preconceived ideas about what she can and cannot do.

I think it's probably similar to once a kid is in foster care and has that label attached to them, there are preconceived ideas that move with them as well.

Sharon Dunlevy: Yes. I can tell you a story about a student I worked with that I will call Jim. When Jim came to our foster licensing agency, he had been in a residential home for several years. He came out of the residential home in ninth grade and was placed in one of our best foster homes. But the school didn't want to enroll him because, as you know, Aaron, in residential settings, when kids are around other kids who have violent tendencies, they can become violent. They feed off of each other. So yeah, he had some violent tendencies in residential, but that wasn't who he was.

He was a different kid as soon as he was out of there. But his IEP said he had anger issues, he had violence issues, he had all these issues. It took the foster parents and me all summer long to convince this school to let him enroll. Once he got in there, he was great. He had periods where he'd get mad and he'd mouth off and stuff, but he never got into fights. He never did any of that. That was the label that followed him.

Foster kids don't want to be known as foster kids for that reason. But they'll also tell you that if they don't reveal that they're foster kids, then they're being marked off when they must go to a court date. They miss school, and it's considered an unexcused absence. They're missing a lot of classroom time, and they get penalized by being suspended. What's the point? Now they miss even more classroom time by being suspended.

Aaron DeVries: What factors lead to positive educational outcomes for students in foster care?

Sharon Dunlevy: That's a great question, Aaron. There are several, but obviously, school stability is the most significant factor. And the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), enacted in 2016, has helped address that. Under ESSA, if a student is placed in a new home, they can stay in the school they call their school of origin, even if it's out of district, and the schools must provide transportation for that student.

The other thing happening with foster kids was that if they had to change schools, schools would not enroll them immediately because of missing records. Under ESSA, schools have to enroll the student immediately, regardless of the status of the student's records. The more time they miss in those classrooms, the more they fall behind. So those were the two biggest things that ESSA covered.

But some things that could improve the educational outcomes of children in foster care have not been addressed, the biggest one being trauma-informed personnel. This does not just affect children in foster care. Children with disabilities often have trauma because of the way the world perceives them. And we don't always look at that. Plus, there has been a growing number of incidents where all children are exposed to trauma because of things like 9/11, school shootings, and COVID. They're exposed to so much via social media. So, trauma-informed school personnel need to be a big push.

Another thing that helps kids in terms of educational outcomes is focusing on college and career readiness. We need to focus on teaching students how to live independently as adults. Children in foster care especially struggle with that because once they age out, they're out. There's no safe adult to fall back on, or they end up going back to those parents who abused them, who used drugs, who used alcohol. How many of them have come back to those parents and fallen into drugs and alcohol themselves?

Aaron DeVries: So, in foster care, are they out of it as soon as they turn 18?

Sharon Dunlevy: No, thank goodness. It used to be that way. However, thanks to the Family First Prevention Services Act, depending on each state and how they enact it, the children can stay in a transition program up to the age of 23. Like my friend Jim, whom I was telling you about, he elected to remain in Collaborative Care in Indiana until he turned 23. Now, at 24, he has his own apartment and is a manager at Domino's. He's doing fantastic.

Aaron DeVries: How can foster parents advocate for the educational needs of students in their care?

Sharon Dunlevy: They need to know the laws, and that is what I teach. I have a contract with the state of Ohio, and part of their foster parent training is that they require their foster parents to take educational advocacy classes. I teach them those laws, plus how to talk to the schools about the children's rights in their care.

I also encourage foster parents to teach independent living skills at home, which is true for any parent. You can teach your kids independent living skills even as babies. Give them a sense of responsibility. Get them out and active in the community. Connect them to other people. Get your kids active, get yourself active, be a community leader, and speak out.

Aaron DeVries: Do foster parents have legal and physical custody of the children?

Sharon Dunlevy: Yes, they do. The children are considered wards of the state, but the foster parents are licensed and paid by the state, so they are the legal custodians of the children. Now, in some states, the way they word it might be slightly different. But they have parental rights over the kids.

Aaron DeVries: Are foster parents treated differently for the child that they're taking care of versus a birth parent with their children? Do you see any differences like that?

Sharon Dunlevy: Yes, definitely. But, this changes from state to state and from district to district. For example, some schools seem to have a little more understanding of the foster care system and the role of foster parents. Other schools don't let foster parents enroll the kids or get into the online grading system.

And it also gets confusing if a child is on the road to adoption or the parents of birth are involved in the case because they're working to get the children back. Ideally, it should be a partnership between foster and biological parents. But sometimes that happens, sometimes it doesn't.

Aaron DeVries: I didn't even think about that aspect. If you're trying to get them reunited with their birth parents, and then you go to an IEP meeting, you could have the foster parents there, maybe the birth parents, and then you get like a bunch of stuff happening.

Sharon Dunlevy: And I think they should all be there because the foster parents know the kids right then, but the birth parents also need to know what's going on, and they should be involved.

Aaron DeVries: What is one tip you can share to help our listeners be more inclusive today? Just something simple.

Sharon Dunlevy: Think about your own biases. I consider myself very open-minded, but I will tell you that if somebody says something or somebody looks a certain way, I automatically have a thought in my head. Be aware of that. Be aware that we all have biases, no matter how hard we try to break them.

Aaron DeVries: Ready for the last question? Do you like Spam lunch meat? Yes or no?

Sharon Dunlevy: That's too funny.

Aaron DeVries: Yeah, so I live in Austin, Minnesota, where Hormel is located, where they make Spam, and where the Spam museum is located. So I've been asking all my guests. Just to see.

Sharon Dunlevy: This is too funny because my mom grew up in Hawaii, and Spam is a huge thing in Hawaii, especially in their ramen. I grew up eating Spam, but it's not my favorite.

Aaron DeVries: I told my partner last night, after I did an interview, that I should have kept track of how many people mentioned Hawaii in their answer from the beginning.

Thank you so much for being on the show today.

Sharon Dunlevy: Thank you, Aaron. I'm so glad you reached out to me and invited me on.

Aaron DeVries: Absolutely.

Sharon Dunlevy: This has been fantastic.

Aaron DeVries: To all of you listening, thank you for joining us on this episode of The Inclusive Dad Podcast. If you enjoyed today's conversation, please subscribe, rate, or review the show. Your feedback helps us connect with more champions of inclusion. Remember to share this podcast with friends and family who might benefit.

If you want to support us in our mission, please click on the link in the show description. Together, we can make the world more inclusive. Until next time, stay empowered and be a champion for inclusion.