Of all demographic groups attending college, perhaps none are as vulnerable as students who have experienced foster care. According to recent studies, only 3 percent of youth who have lived in foster care ever complete a degree.
What little is known, however, mainly serves to underscore the difficulties that students who have experienced foster care have to overcome. In most states, individuals age out of the foster care system at age 18, although some states have extended their support to age 21. That means that, at about the same time that most students are going to college, all the supports that have guided them up to that point in their lives are taken away.
“Getting to college is difficult for any kid, but for a kid who is aging out of foster care, that is going to also involve meaning that you’re losing your place to live, you’re losing your place to go for the holidays and you’re losing a lot of the mentors that you have in your life,” said Celeste Bodner, founder and executive director of FosterClub. “For a lot of foster kids, their mentors are people who are in the system, like foster parents and case workers.”
FosterClub is a national support network for current and former foster youth with a membership of approximately 32,000. Most members are between the ages of 14 to 24, meaning that education is a high-priority topic for many, according to Bodner.
“In our years of working with young people, we have realized that there’s a great disparity when it comes to young people from foster care who plan or dream of going to college, and those who actually do,” Bodner said.
While FosterClub has not polled its membership on their college-going aspirations, Bodner pointed to a survey that found that 70 percent of 17-year-old youth in foster care wanted to go to college.
