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By Jennifer Jay Palumbo

For most children, school is the one constant. Teachers may change each year, but the building, the friends, and the morning routine provide a rhythm. For youth in foster care, that rhythm is often shattered.

A new placement can mean a new zip code, a new school, and lost progress, academically, socially, and emotionally. That instability comes with consequences that echo for a lifetime.

According to the U.S. Government Accountability Office, 95% of foster youth experience at least one unplanned school change during a single academic year. Each transition chips away at academic growth. Reading levels slip. Writing skills regress. Math performance stalls. Those setbacks don’t fade quickly; they linger well into the next year.

But even against these odds, some young people find stability in an unlikely place: through long-term, consistent mentorship.

The Weight of Instability in School

The statistics are sobering. Nearly half of foster youth are chronically absent from school. More than half fail at least one grade. Only about 65% of students graduate from high school by age 21, compared to 84% nationally. And college completion is even rarer: just 3–10% earn a bachelor’s degree.

“The system is reactive instead of responsive,” said Charde Hollins, a licensed clinical social worker and founder of Relevant Connections. “Too often, foster youth fall through the cracks because we expect them to adapt to structures that ignore their lived realities. When trauma shows up in behavior, it’s disciplined, not understood.”

It’s not simply about academics. Many foster youth carry trauma, attachment disruptions, and a constant sense of uncertainty into the classroom. This makes learning difficult and creates a heightened risk of suspension or expulsion. Research shows that foster youth are twice as likely to be suspended and three times as likely to be expelled compared to their peers.

Schools, even with the best intentions, often lack the resources to respond. As Dr. Sarah Davidon, founder of Davidon Consulting, put it: “Frequent school changes and limited access to mental health care, despite higher rates of PTSD, anxiety, and depression in foster youth, can limit academic progress and emotional stability. Policy responses need to prioritize integrating supports, including mental health services and information sharing between education and child welfare systems.” ...