When Ashley Haynes-Gibson first filled out a college application, she wasn’t sure if she should list her birth parents or her foster parents on the form.
“In my case, both my parents lost their legal rights, but I was never legally adopted,” Haynes-Gibson explained. “I wasn’t all the way legally independent.”
Her foster parents paid her application fees, but when it came time to co-sign on a student loan, Haynes-Gibson was on her own.
“It was just painful because I had thought they trusted me more than that and could see I am responsible,” said Haynes-Gibson, 22, who works two jobs to help support herself in college—one transporting foster children to supervised visits, and another running food in a restaurant.
Still, she is grateful for the financial support her foster parents did provide with her college application. She said her first foster parents probably wouldn’t have done so. And many other young people who grew up in foster care don’t get any help at all.
“I know of a lot of students who’ve also been in the system,” Haynes-Gibson, a senior at Seattle University, said of young people who grew up in foster care. “They get out (of foster care) and have no financial support.”
Removing obstacles
