Youth in Canada’s child welfare system need stronger government leadership to improve educational outcomes. Fewer than half of youth who have spent time in foster care — known as care-experienced youth — complete high school and even fewer attend or complete post-secondary education.
These educational gaps can have lasting consequences for the life chances of care-experienced youth, including higher rates of unemployment, poverty, homelessness, criminalization and other longstanding disparities.
Education falls under the provincial and territorial jurisdiction. However, the absence of strong federal oversight — including the lack of a co-ordinated national data collection and reporting process — contributes to the current patchwork of data that exists.
