Although special programs have been set up at the state and federal level to provide financial aid for students who’ve been in foster care, the program requirements can be so confusing and restrictive that many foster youth “continue to slip through the cracks,” a new report has found.
“Significant social policy and program development aimed at supporting foster care reform exists, and while social policy has intended to increase supports, gaps remain in the policy framework,” the report states.
The report laments how only 3 percent of the 415,000 youth in foster care in the United States ever obtain a college degree — putting their attainment rate woefully below the national rate of degree attainment.
For instance, as of 2015, among 25- to 29-year-olds, 46 percent had completed an associate degree or higher, and 36 percent had completed a bachelor’s degree or higher, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
One of the most startling aspects of the report is that it found that even workers whose job it is to help foster youth secure financial aid are confused about how the programs work or are financed.
“It was overwhelmingly clear that while states have various funding-based initiatives in place to assist college-going in foster youth, there is a fair amount of confusion as to who exactly finances those initiatives and how are funds appropriated,” the report states.
