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Youth, Education, and Rural Vitality

Fostering Inequality: How Foster Care Privatization Shapes Educational and Employment Outcomes in Rural and Urban Communities in the U.S. Jude Edelman*, Jude Edelman,

Researchers disagree on the extent to which privatization of the U.S. foster care system benefits the long-term outcomes of young adults aging out of the system, as some states increasingly embrace private models while others retreat towards public systems. However, the effects are likely not uniform across place.  The effects of privatization may vary across rural and urban areas as rural foster care systems face geographic barriers, provider shortages, and a lack of integrated care networks. In contrast, urban providers are burdened by high volume, leading to service and placement delays. In this study, I examine how privatization differentially impacts youth across the rural-urban continuum, with particular attention towards implications for educational equity. Using merged cross-sectional and longitudinal National Data Archive on Child Abuse and Neglect (NDACAN) data from 2020-2024, I test the extent to which state privatization status impacts post-secondary educational enrollment and employment status among rural and urban youth who recently aged out of the foster care system. Preliminary analyses show that privatization is significantly associated with improved rural employment outcomes, yet worse post-secondary enrollment compared to their urban counterparts. These findings suggest that by integrating research in organizational sociology, social work, and market-based governance, foster care has the potential to serve as a critical intervention in rural regions. However, privatization may also perpetuate rural educational trends, perpetuate service deserts, and cultivate geographic dependencies that lead to service displacements. Findings also highlight the diversity of needs among youth in the foster care system, providing evidence regarding the drawbacks of states assuming a one-size-fits-all model. Future analyses will explore the moderating factor of vocational tracking and control for additional state effects.