Background <p>Adolescents in out-of-home residential care face significant challenges in engaging with school. However, the literature is full of inconsistencies regarding the factors associated with school engagement in this population.</p> Objective <p>This study aims to investigate how factors at youth, care history, and placement levels relate to school engagement from a multilevel perspective.</p> Methods <p>The sample included 161 adolescents (46.6% boys, 49.7% girls, 3.7% non-binary) aged 12–18 (M = 15.22, SD = 1.59), placed in 24 residential facilities in Spain. Data were collected through online questionnaires, completed by care workers (i.e., adolescent’s age, gender, nationality, age at entry into care, number of OOHC placements), and self-reported by adolescents (i.e., internalizing and externalizing problems, perception of the group climate, and school engagement, including overall school engagement and behavioral, emotional and cognitive engagement).</p> Results <p>After accounting for the hierarchical structure of the data (i.e., adolescents nested within residential facilities), the results showed that higher levels of internalizing and externalizing problems and multiple OOHC placements were associated with lower levels of school engagement. The perception of an open group climate was related to higher levels of school engagement. Subsequent analyses revealed that adolescents who experienced multiple placements were less behaviorally engaged in school. Cognitive engagement scores were lower for adolescents who perceived the group climate as closed and for girls.</p> Conclusions <p>This study highlights the importance of considering not only youth-related factors but also the group climate, as both can be integrated into educational practices to foster school engagement among adolescents.</p>