How can foster alumni pay for college?

What is ETV Funding?
Federal Chafee education and training vouchers provide financial assistance to youth who have aged out of foster care and are seeking additional educational opportunities. These funds can be spent at both college and technical schools.

How do students qualify?
- Must have aged out of foster care
- Must be enrolled in an accredited institution
- Must maintain at least at 2.0 GPA

What can these funds be spent on?
- Tuition at college/technical schools
- Rent and other living expenses
- School supplies, including textbooks and a computer
- Health care and child care

Where does OFA fit in?
Social workers and their departments are not set up to administer scholarship programs to emancipated youth.

Therefore, the Orphan Foundation of America works with several states to administer their ETV program and to ensure that foster alumni receive ETV assistance in accordance with federal law.

The following states have empowered OFA to administer ETV assistance: Alabama, Arkansas, Colorado, Indiana, New York, North Carolina and Ohio.

In a recent survey, 92% of students gave high marks to the help they received from OFA.

Challenges that foster youth face in college:
1.) Financial pressures: As well as college, foster alumni need to be able to afford to pay for their rent, transportation and basic living expenses (electric, phone). If they have children, they need to be able to afford child care.

2.) Work conflicting with school: In the recent OFA survey, over 20% of participants reported that their class hours were inconvenient.

3.) Need for academic support: When asked how often they met with their academic advisors, two out of five students (40%) reported that they rarely or never met with their academic advisor. Nearly one quarter (27%) reported that they received poor or no academic advising.

4.) Social isolation: One in ten foster youth reported in the OFA Spring survey that they did not have an opportunity to become involved with other students. Nearly a fifth reported that there were few people with interests and backgrounds like their own.

23% of foster alumni reported feeling lonely, and stated that those feelings of loneliness were having a negative impact on school performance.

What helps foster youth to succeed in college?
1.) Healthy social relationships: Speaking from personal experience, I know that I found the family I never had through my involvement with campus organizations.

Therefore, I was not surprised to learn from the survey results that between 45-55% participated in campus organizations. Students reported serving meals, tutoring and mentoring. They participated in dramatic productions or athletic teams. One student taugh English as a second language.

2.) A sense of direction: 42% of foster youth reported that they needed additional support in navigating their school's administrative services. 61% reported that they needed career counseling. Foster youth need guidance in order to set and meet career goals.

Personally, I changed majors five times in college. I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do. Eventually, they all added up and made sense, and I ended up going for a Master's degree. But I figured this out the same way I made most of my decisions: alone.

Recommendations
1.) In order to make the best use of funds, ETV funding should be coordinated with other sources of funding assistance. Ideally, foster youth would receive a combination of funding sources that is sufficient to provide for both their living expenses and education.

2.) Don't overlook the need for mentoring and counseling: One quarter of the participants in OFA's survey reported their need for academic and mental health counseling.

For more information, please visit: www.statevoucher.org

Source:
"Spring 2006 Survey of (1204) OFA ETV Students." Orphan Foundation of America, July 5, 2006.

Foster Youth and College

Here is a link to my article about educational vouchers for Arizona foster children: http://www.edspresso.com/2006/08/what_the_arizona_foster_vouche.htm

Educational challenges for foster youth to overcome:
- 65% of foster children experience seven or more school K-12 changes.
- There is often a lack of (biological) parental support.
- Many foster youth do not attend high schools with college preparatory curriculum.
- 37% of foster youth drop out of high school, as opposed to 16% of nonfoster youth.
- Many earn their GED, rather than a diploma.

Foster teens often perceive college as unaffordable. They may lack the skills (or patience) necessary to fill out a FAFSA form online.

Due to the myriad of disadvantages, it should not be surprising that, although 70% of foster teenagers express interest in attending college, only 10% of traditionally college-aged foster youth access post-secondary education. What this means is that roughly 100,000 college qualified foster youth are missing out on opportunity to attend.

Programs that support college access by foster youth:
- Chaffee Independence program
- Chaffee Education & Training Voucher
- Statewide and independently-based programs (Guardian Scholars Program at CSU, Governor’s Scholarship Program in Washington

Facts about foster alumni who go to college:
- Foster youth represent less than 1% of undergraduates.
-The majority of foster youth undergraduates are female .
- Foster youth have substantially lower incomes than non-foster students.

Despite their disadvantages, foster youth are just as likely to attend 4-year colleges, are as likely to attend full-time and their college costs are nearly identical.

However, foster alumni are more likely to drop out of college. (53% of foster vs. 31% nonfoster college students dropped out in 2001).

Two suggestions to improve the situation:
1.) Housing: Residence halls need to open year-round. States can provide former foster care youths, ages 18, 19, and 20, with financial, housing, counseling, employment and education. However, there is a federal requirement that no more than 30% of a state’s allotment of funds may be used to provide room and board.

2.) Programs like GEAR UP and TRIO should target foster youth. Foster youth in high school need mentoring and guidance.

Sources:
Davis, Ryan K. Research and Policy Associate. National Association of Student Aid Administrators 2006 Retention Conference.

Foolish to view foster care vouchers as a threat

I've been asked to write an article for Edspresso on Arizona school vouchers.

As a former foster child, I will be sharing:
1.) How being in foster care limited my educational opportunities.
2.) How the Arizona voucher program might have made a difference.
3.) Other reasons that I think that the voucher program is a good idea.

I will post a link once it is published.

Meanwhile, I would like to explain more about these vouchers, and why some groups are threatened by them.

Arizona vouchers for foster children
Within the $10 billion state budget recently signed by Governor Janet Napolitano was a new $2.5 million voucher program was approved for foster children, granting scholarships of $5,000 per student to attend the school of their choice (public or private).

This could be good news for Arizona's population of approximately 10,000 children in foster care. A scholarship would mean that a foster child would stay at the same school, learning (and hopefully exceling) in the same curriculum, even if he or she were forced to change foster homes.

Accusations by naysayers
School choice advocates call the vouchers a victory, while public education advocates are outraged.

Was this budget deal, as some claim, "negotiated in secrecy" and "voted on in the middle of the night?" Does it "jeopardize school funding?"

Is it true that, as Chuck Essigs, a lobbyist for the Arizona Association of School Business Officials, has claimed that, "The deal is not worth the damage?"

Does it breach on a core value or set a dangerous precedent? My answer is: no.

Was Chuck Essigs ever a foster child? Does he know what it's like to change schools on average of five times per year? Would he like to attend the public school in whatever foster home he was living in, regardless of whether or not that school offered suffient college preparatory classes?

I don't think so. My suspicion is that his paycheck is on his mind more than whether foster children in public schools are receiving the support they need to overcome their economic challenges.

Get your facts straight
Rep. John Allen, of Scottsdale, reports that, "The vouchers weren't taking money away from the public school system. We weren't going to spend more money there in the first place."

Darcy Olsen of the Goldwater Institute commented that, "This is about students, not systems. It's not about whether we fund private schools, public schools or some combination. Grant money goes directly to students."

Or, how about this quote from Joyce Thompson in Cleveland, OH: "Kids don't ask to be born in this world. They don't pick their parents. I really wanted the best education for my daughter but I couldn't afford it. Then I heard about the scholarship program and there was hope."

For more information, check out Dan Lips' article at: http://www.edspresso.com/2006/08/help_foster_children_on_educat.htm

Sources:
Falkenhagen, Andrea. School voucher deal angers some. SchoolChoiceinfo.org
Lips, Dan. Help foster children on education. Edspresso.com
McNeil, Michele. Arizona adds foster care voucher to school choice package. Education Week, Vol. 25, Issue 42: July, 12, 2006.
Strickenberger, Benjamin. Arizona state legislator and Governor Napoliteno expand school choice. Lexington Institute, Issue Brief: June 26, 2006.