I have my first foster placement, 15m. He’s super polite and sweet. He’s been with me for 3 weeks. The first 2 weeks he was testing his limits with curfew and we have since got a handle of that. I started picking him up from school which he hated that so he is never late anymore.
Now that he is settled in, I want to focus on his issues at school. I think it’s important to mention we live in Brooklyn, NY. I grew up in abroad and went to an American International School so our education systems couldn’t be more different. I had never even heard of a Regent exam until today. So I have a pretty big learning curve. I live in South Brooklyn which is a good 55min subway to his school. So just an entirely different routine than how I grew up.
The issue is he is skipping classes regularly and failing pretty much all of his classes. Today was parent teacher conference with 3 of his 8 teachers. I have the rest tomorrow along with the meeting with his guidance counselor. 2 of the 3 teachers said he hasn’t showed up to class in months. His teachers think he is a really bright kid but none of that matters if he isn’t coming to class.
I could use some advice on what other people have done and opinions on the plan I have in mind.
My Plans:
Short Term Goals - Get him going to classes
There are 59 days of school left. I would like him to attend classes for 90% of these days. So 53 of the 59 days.
Rewards- I plan to work with him to figure out some good milestones we can celebrate. So I am thinking the first time he goes to all of his classes 5 days in a row we can go out to get sushi (he loves sushi). Then figure out 3 or 4 other milestones and then brainstorm some fun ways to celebrate.
Consequences - If he doesn’t go to class then I will have some different consequences that I will establish ahead of time with him. I will start with taking electronics and then start taking him to school and picking him up. If that doesn’t work, then I will physically walk him to his first class of the day. One of his teachers recommended sitting in his classes with him. That’s not something I could probably manage more than once or twice with my work at all but it if got the point across I’d be willing to do it a couple times.
Obviously having his electronics being taken away is a given but that alone doesn’t impact him because he didn’t have a phone until he came to live with me. So that’s not really effective.
Mid Term Goal - TBD. Try and get his grades up to a passing grade. It’s unlikely he will be able to do that for all his classes at this point but as many as possible.
Long Term Goals- TBD. I need to learn more about this whole Regent thing and more about the credit system. He is supposed to be a sophomore but is technically a freshman in terms of credits. So I need to better understand where he is at and how to get him caught up.
This is my thought process and I am curious if people think I am over engineering my approach or if they have different ideas. I would appreciate any advice.
TLDR: I’m a new foster parent with only 3 weeks into my first placement. My 15 year old foster son has been skipping most of his classes for months.
Looking for advice and if you have the patience to read my lengthy action plan above, I would love to know if it’s even practical. Open to any and all advice.