PASS Pathway for Academic Stability and SUCCESS

1. PASSPathway for Academic Stability and SUCCESS Dr. Bibhuti Sar, Principal Investigator; Dr. Becky Antle, Evaluator, Dr. Collins-Camargo, Team Leader; Dr. Emma Sterrett, Team Leader; Ramie Martin-Galijatovic, Program Infrastructure Coordinator; Jim Guinn, Research Assistant

2. University of Louisville Raymond A Kent School of Social Work ▪Founded in 1918 and for over 100 years has maintained a close working relationship with the practice community and the region’s human service needs ▪ Offers BSW, MSSW, and PhD degrees ▪ One of the highest producers of funding for research  per faculty member in the University - approximately $4-5 million per year, with a total portfolio of about $15 million to support research and training • ▪ Four-Year State University • ▪ Known for Basketball and Football • ▪ 22,000+ student population • ▪ Offers graduate, professional, baccalaureate, and associate degrees as well as certificates in over 170 fields of study

3. Overall Purpose of PASS • To promote academic stability and success of foster youth in 6th through 8th grade at risk for dropping out of school.

4. Project Partners • ▪ Kentucky Department for Community Based Services (Child Welfare) • ▪ Jefferson County Public Schools • ▪ Family and Children’s Place (Community Mental Health) • ▪ Seven Counties, Inc. (Community Mental Health) • ▪ Jefferson County Family Court • ▪ Kentucky Department of Juvenile Justice • ▪ Louisville Metro Health Department TARGET POPULATION Targeting 100 foster youth in 6th through 8th grade in Louisville (Jefferson County), KY who have been placed in Out of Home Care.

5. Proposed Services, Activities, and Processes • Identify local infrastructure and service needs to promote academic stability and success among foster youth in middle school • ▪Assemble project team • ▪Secure IRB protocol • ▪Review goals of project with project team and partners • ▪Conduct focus groups with youth and key stakeholders • ▪Set up a program steering committee (PSC) • ▪Set up workgroups under the leadership of the PSC to review and make recommendations

6. Proposed Services, Activities, and Processes • Develop/Establish a new infrastructure • ▪ Review, modify existing and/or establish new policies and procedures within and • across systems of care • ▪ Foster, strengthen coalitions and networks through coalition meetings • ▪ Educate foster parents, teachers, and other professionals on foster youth and achieving stability • and success in school • ▪ Educate foster youth for academic stability and success • ▪ Identify, review, change (if necessary) practices including the use of screening protocol/checklists • for referral sources, assessment procedures, intervention, and case management services • ▪ Identify indicators of academic stability and success

7. Proposed Services, Activities, and Processes • Implement the new collaborative infrastructure Pathway for Academic Stability and Success • ▪ Establish school success navigators for each foster youth • ▪ Screen, assess, and provide services to bring about academic stability and success • ▪ Link to related services as needed • ▪ Monitor progress • ▪ Evaluate and if necessary modify school stability and success plan • ▪ Provide feedback to PSC and workgroups for review and modification

8. Proposed Services, Activities, and Processes • Evaluate the effectiveness of the new infrastructure: Collecting process and outcome data at baseline and throughout, to enable the project to inform the field • ▪ Consent participants • ▪ Collect baseline/pre-test data • ▪ Collect post-test data • ▪ Perform data entry and appropriate data analysis to answer research questions

9. Proposed Services, Activities, and Processes • Refine/revise the PASS approach based on implementation experience: A • Continuous quality improvement approach driven by evaluation results • ▪ Present process and outcome findings to PSC and workgroups • ▪ Modify PASS approach if necessary • ▪ Produce final program implementation manual

10. Proposed Services, Activities, and Processes • Disseminate lessons learned, relevant findings, and best practices • ▪Write reports for funding agency as required • ▪Prepare and make presentations at conferences • ▪Submit papers for publications to relevant peer-reviewed journals

11. Evaluation Plan • A mixed methods, multi-level, evaluation design that will combine both quantitative methods (survey research and chart file review), as well as qualitative (focus groups and interviews) The evaluation will operate at multiple levels including: ▪ Needs Assessment ▪ Process Evaluation ▪ Training Evaluation ▪ Outcomes Evaluation

12. Key research questions

13. Expected opportunities • Increased Communication and Collaboration between systems (child welfare, education, and judiciary). • Increased awareness of the importance of school stability as well as the need for collaboration. • Increased understanding of the legal authority for information sharing (FERPA and USA) • Foster parents will take an active role in advocating for educational rights of their foster youth.

14. Expected Challenges • 1. Policy Based and Interorganizational: challenges associated with legal and regulatory mandates affecting individual agencies, limiting the ability to implement the initiative • The PSC will assess and obtain guidance on legal and institutional barriers and work within the • Organization to overcome them. • Financial and Logistical: budget and timeframe restricted restrictions limiting the resources available to the initiative , and impact the sustainability of the project after the grant period • The PSC will explore pooling of existing financial resources. Also, careful monitoring of the project timeline and available resources will help the project to address this challenge. • Community Context: lack of buy-in and organizational commitment, as well as historical issues associated with interagency relationships, may impinge on implementation • The PSC will develop shared culture, an openness to examine self and others’ views, values, and actions as well as work to establish organizational commitment outside of the PSC.

15. Expected Challenges • 4. Logistical Barriers: scheduling, transportation, and loss of interest over time • The PSC will provide a high level of administrative support of the initiative, which filters down to staff at various agencies.

16. Sustainability Plan • The child welfare, education, and judiciary systems have mandated responsibilities in terms of educational assessment, planning, and promoting educational stability and success. Our partners are undergoing this work purposefully to develop a process for fulfilling those responsibilities more effectively. ▪ Significant emphasis will be placed on analyzing policies, procedures practices of each agency regarding the education of foster youth, and the interagency coordination and communication with an eye to determining gaps ▪ New infrastructure and procedures will be developed and approval secured within individual systems during the course of the project which will drive the day-to-day work of practitioners in child welfare, education and the courts. No infusion of funds will be required to support these changes ▪The role of the educational navigators can absorbed into existing systems should the evaluation demonstrate their value in promoting desired educational outcomes for foster youth ▪Trainings will be embedded within existing training systems in the child welfare, education, and judiciary trainings.

17. Dissemination Plan • Intra-Project Dissemination Strategies • ▪ Regular sharing of updates on the progress of each work team at the PSC meetings • ▪ Evaluation data will be analyzed and shared internally with project partners to motivate • on-going commitment and to enable adjustment of practice strategies to address challenges • ▪ Use mechanisms that are established within each partner system to disseminate information about the project, its progress and evaluation results • State Dissemination Strategies • ▪ Statewide conferences and meetings held by child welfare, courts, and education • ▪ Agency newsletters • ▪ Kentucky’s State Interagency Council • ▪ Kentucky Educational Collaboration for Sate Agency Children

18. Dissemination Plan • Federal Dissemination Strategies • ▪ Presentations at national conferences and meetings • ▪ Production and distribution of technical reports and products through the Child Welfare Information Gateway, listservs, and the project website. • ▪ Generate peer reviewed articles for publication

19. What questions do you have for your fellow CWED Grantees? • This is a great deal of confusion around FERPA and the Uninterrupted Scholars Act (USA). Is there a particular curriculum/ tool kit that is suitable for presentation to family court, schools, and the child welfare system?