Healthy Minds, Strong-Futures: Aligning Systems to Advance Adolescent Development for Youth in Foster Care
Executive Summary
Overview
Adolescence is a time of profound transformation and a pivotal period for human brain development that drives future success. At this age, students are still building the entire map of their inner worlds. They have not yet become fixed in their mindsets. Their thinking has not yet been limited. To them, the world is still full of necessary curiosity and ingenuity. They have an unfiltered drive to question, learn, grow, and pursue knowledge for knowledge’s sake. However, not all young people have the same lived experiences or the same equitable opportunities to explore, question, and most importantly thrive during this pivotal stage. Youth in foster care face unique and compounded challenges—rooted in trauma, disrupted relationships, and systemic inequities—that can negatively impact their health, education, and overall well-being.
This report, designed for policymakers and advocates, examines the complex intersection of education, health, and child welfare systems in the lives of youth in foster care. It highlights the transformative potential of school-based approaches to support healthy adolescent development, identifies key policy barriers that prevent youth in foster care from getting their health and educational needs met, presents actionable recommendations to improve cross-system coordination to meet the health and educational needs of youth in foster care, and calls on policymakers to center the experiences of youth in foster care. This report is not just a collection of data points and policy recommendations. It is a call to action for cross-system collaboration that centers the needs of youth in foster care and recognizes their resilience. It is a rallying cry for advocates, policymakers, program administrators, and practitioners to build integrated systems that recognize that a student’s academic and future success hinges on more than just meeting their educational needs but also addressing their health needs. We must embrace a “learning system” where health and education work hand in hand to open pathways for success.
