Surviving the Transition from Summer Back to School with Foster Kids

Heading into a new situation is never easy, especially for children and teenagers in foster care. In our blog article, What Back To School Means For Foster Families, we discussed some of the unique challenges students in foster care may face at the start of the school year, including an increased risk of separation anxiety and bullying, and the overwhelming difficulty of starting over once again. You’ve also already learned about tackling the transition from school to summer break, and the disruption in routine and structure that comes with it. Today, we are offering some tips and tricks to help foster kids (and parents) survive the transition from summer back to school this autumn.

Schedule a Personal Visit

Many schools are open for summer hours and will accommodate children with special needs and situations. If your foster child is feeling anxious, you can erase some of their worry by scheduling a personal visit before the first day of school. Open houses are nice, but let’s face it — they can also be a bit noisy and chaotic. On the other hand, a personal visit gives you adequate time to quietly walk the halls, review their daily schedule, find their classrooms, and talk with their teachers and administrators without feeling rushed.

Gradually Shift Your Routine

In the summertime, most kids like to stay up late and sleep in. But come fall, they no longer have this luxury. According to KidsHealth.org, school-aged children (6–13 years) need 9–12 hours of sleep, and teenagers (14–17 years) require 8–10 hours. Figure out what time the school bus arrives/when the first bell rings, and adjust your routine accordingly. Don’t wait until the night before, or you will have cranky students, a stressful morning, and possibly even a tardy slip on the first day!

Care.com notes that, “Making the shift a gradual one is key. As many parents know from adjusting to daylight saving time, kids’ bodies and brains don’t just fall asleep because the clock says it’s time. There’s an internal rhythm at play that needs to be nudged a little at a time. Slowly transitioning to an earlier bedtime and wake-up time is especially important for adolescents, whose biology naturally steers them toward a later sleep schedule.”

Develop a Game Plan

As autumn approaches, Scholastic.com recommends going over the ground rules and developing a game plan, as a team. This includes discussing goals and expectations for the upcoming school year, making and shopping for a list of school supplies together, picking out an outfit for the first day of school, setting up a homework station, stocking up on favorite packable snacks and lunch ingredients, planning ahead for extracurricular activities, and so on, so everyone is on the same page. Most of all, it’s important to enjoy the last few days of summer break as a foster family!

If you live in the state of Illinois and want to become a foster parent, we invite you to visit our website for more information, or click on the following link to get started: https://family.binti.com/users/signup/camelot-il-initial.

Every child needs and deserves to grow up safe and protected from abuse and neglect, and caring foster parents offer children support and stability when they need it most. At Camelot Care Centers, we specialize in higher-level foster care for children and adolescents that need extra support. We partner with our foster parents/homes to provide trauma informed care and additional services, including in-home counseling, parent support and training, tele-psychiatry, and therapeutic mentoring, to maintain children at the least restrictive, yet most appropriate level of care. Camelot Care Centers (“Camelot”) is a Child Welfare Agency.