{"id":103161,"date":"2026-03-26T11:21:41","date_gmt":"2026-03-26T15:21:41","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/?p=103161"},"modified":"2026-03-26T11:21:41","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T15:21:41","slug":"the-crisis-of-youth-aging-out-of-care-is-why-canada-needs-a-children-and-youth-commissioner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/26\/the-crisis-of-youth-aging-out-of-care-is-why-canada-needs-a-children-and-youth-commissioner\/","title":{"rendered":"The crisis of youth aging out of care is why Canada needs a children and youth commissioner"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By Jacquie Gahagan,\u00a0 Dale Kirby, Mary Rita Holland,\u00a0 and Melanie M. Doucet Youth in Canada\u2019s child welfare system need stronger government leadership to improve educational outcomes. Fewer than half of youth who have spent time in foster care \u2014 known as care-experienced youth \u2014 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 \u2014 including the lack of a co-ordinated national data collection and reporting process \u2014 contributes to the current patchwork of data that exists. As a result, we lack a clear understanding of which publicly&#8230; <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\">\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription &#8211; Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div>\n<div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F03%2F26%2Fthe-crisis-of-youth-aging-out-of-care-is-why-canada-needs-a-children-and-youth-commissioner%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Jacquie Gahagan,\u00a0 Dale Kirby, Mary Rita Holland,\u00a0 and Melanie M. Doucet Youth in Canada\u2019s child welfare system need stronger government leadership to improve educational outcomes. Fewer than half of youth who have spent time in foster care \u2014 known as care-experienced youth \u2014 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 \u2014 including the lack of a co-ordinated national data collection and reporting process \u2014 contributes to the current patchwork of data that exists. As a result, we lack a clear understanding of which publicly... <\/p>\n<div class=\"pmpro\"><div class=\"pmpro_card pmpro_content_message\"><div class=\"pmpro_card_content\">This content is for Yearly Subscription, Yearly Subscription - Corporate, Print Subscription Only, and Canada Print and Online members only.<br \/><a href=\"http:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?action=register\">Register<\/a><\/div><div class=\"pmpro_card_actions pmpro_font-medium\">Already a member? <a href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/wp-login.php?redirect_to=https%3A%2F%2Ftheturtleislandnews.com%2Findex.php%2F2026%2F03%2F26%2Fthe-crisis-of-youth-aging-out-of-care-is-why-canada-needs-a-children-and-youth-commissioner%2F\">Log in here<\/a><\/div><\/div><\/div>","protected":false},"author":101363,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pmpro_default_level":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[8,13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-103161","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-national-news","category-ticker","pmpro-level-required","pmpro-level-3","pmpro-level-2","pmpro-level-5","pmpro-level-4","pmpro-level-6","pmpro-level-7","pmpro-no-access"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.4 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>The crisis of youth aging out of care is why Canada needs a children and youth commissioner - The Turtle Island News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/theturtleislandnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/03\/26\/the-crisis-of-youth-aging-out-of-care-is-why-canada-needs-a-children-and-youth-commissioner\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"The crisis of youth aging out of care is why Canada needs a children and youth commissioner - The Turtle Island News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Jacquie Gahagan,\u00a0 Dale Kirby, Mary Rita Holland,\u00a0 and Melanie M. 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