Scholarships for Foster Youth: Requirements and Opportunities
Paying for college in the United States presents significant challenges for most young people, a burden exacerbated by recent economic difficulties. For foster youth, the cost of college and the complexities of the application process can be particularly daunting. This leads to a concerning statistic: only 3-4% of former foster children obtain a four-year college degree. Considering the increasing importance of a college education for workforce success, it's crucial to explore the financial resources available to foster children who aspire to higher education.
Understanding the Challenges Faced by Foster Youth
Foster children are among the most at-risk members of society. Adults who have been in foster care are more likely to experience homelessness, incarceration, and dependence on state services compared to the general population. A critical factor in determining a foster child's successful transition to adulthood is the quality of education they receive during their primary and secondary years. Unfortunately, many foster children experience a substandard education due to instability and frequent school transfers.
Instability is a significant problem for children in foster care. Roughly half of all foster children will spend at least one year in foster care, with 20% remaining in the system for longer than three years. Children in long-term foster care often experience multiple home placements, leading to multiple school transfers. These transfers can create gaps in the learning cycle as children adjust to new classrooms, teachers, students, and special services. They also contribute to emotional instability and the loss of important peer relationships.
Providing foster children with tuition scholarships can help ensure they continue attending a quality school, even if they experience frequent home transfers. Moreover, scholarships can offer better educational opportunities to children who must overcome many challenges to succeed in the classroom.
National Foster Parent Association Scholarships
The National Foster Parent Association offers scholarships to assist foster parents and foster children in paying for higher education. Applicants must submit a 300-500 word essay detailing how foster care has impacted their future educational goals. Additional materials required include a minimum of two letters of recommendation and a copy of their high school transcript. This scholarship program supports tuition, books, housing, and professional and emotional development.
Read also: Camp Scholarships Guide
All-Star Scholarship
The All-Star Scholarship is specifically awarded to children who were adopted out of the foster care system at or after age 13. This scholarship, supported by the Living Legacy Foundation, commemorates David E.
Foster Care to Success Scholarships
Foster Care to Success scholarships offer a group of scholarships that share a single application, streamlining the process for students.
Tuition Waivers
Tuition waivers represent a form of financial aid funded by state governments. These waivers allow state public universities (not private institutions) to waive tuition fees for foster youth. Currently, 35 states have established policies regarding tuition waivers for foster youth. It is imperative to research options for post-secondary education for your child's welfare in the future.
Questbridge Scholarship
Each year, Questbridge orchestrates a national college match program. The Questbridge scholarship is intended for students who can demonstrate they have overcome adversity and have excelled in high school academics. While there isn't a finite criteria, those who do not fit this criteria are still encouraged to apply. Applicants should research the universities that partner with Questbridge and have an idea about their intended field of study. If a student is matched to a partner school during the early decision match round, they will receive a full four-year scholarship to that university. The national college match application typically opens on August 1st and closes around the end of September. The application process is extensive, but the opportunities provided by being matched to a school are worth the effort.
Smaller Scholarships and Athletic Scholarships
Many smaller scholarships are available to young people who are in foster care or aging out of foster care.
Read also: Benefits of NSHSS Scholarships
Athletic scholarships to university are a possibility for youth who excel in a sport they play in high school. If your child is interested in playing at the college level and receiving a scholarship to do so, encourage them to form supportive relationships with the athletic team at their school.
Foster Child Tuition Grant
The Foster Child Tuition Grant is awarded to students who entered state custody of the Department of Children’s Services any time after reaching 13 years of age.
The award amount for the Foster Child Tuition Grant is the cost of attendance less any gift aid with the total award not exceeding the cost of tuition and mandatory fees at an eligible postsecondary institution. Gift aid means scholarships and grants from any source that do not require repayment, including funds provided through the federal Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 and other similar programs.
Apply by completing the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), available at www.fafsa.gov. Applications must be received by September 1st for fall semester, March 1st for spring semester and May 1st for summer semester. You will be redirected to complete your FAFSA. Once you have completed your FAFSA, you have applied for the Tennessee Hope Scholarship. You will be redirected to the TSAC Student Portal. Applying for a scholarship (example: the Tennessee Promise) is not complete once a student portal account has been created. Next, you must re-enter your Username and Password and answer the challenge question. Once you have accepted the “User Agreement”, click the “Apply for Scholarships” button and then click the appropriate scholarship program to complete and submit the online application.
Education and Training Voucher (ETV) Program
The Education and Training Voucher (ETV) Program is part of the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood (Chafee Program), which provides eligible teens and young adults in foster care with the basic living skills, education, and employment preparation needed to become self-sufficient.
Read also: Scholarship Guide
The ETV Program provides funds to current and former foster youth and young adults to support the pursuit of education and training at colleges, universities and vocational training institutions. Based on available funds and applicant’s need, students may receive up to $5,000 a year for college or vocational training.
ETV cannot pay for items such as your cell phone bill, painting your car, traffic tickets/fines, personal loans, lost or stolen debit cards, and computer games.
For a youth in foster care, the state with placement and care responsibility is responsible for providing a voucher to an eligible youth. The state in which a former foster youth resides is responsible for providing such an eligible youth with a voucher. This provision, however, does not apply to a former foster care youth who already is receiving a voucher and moves to another state for the sole purpose of attending an institution of higher education.
The ETV program requires states to describe how they will avoid duplication of benefits under this and any other federal assistance program. A youth may receive both a Pell grant and ETV funds.
The term "institution of higher education" in general includes three different types of institutions: public and nonprofit institutions of higher education; proprietary institutions of higher education; and post-secondary vocational institutions. A proprietary (for-profit) institution of higher education must provide a training program to prepare students for gainful employment in a recognized occupation. A post-secondary vocational institution must be a public or nonprofit school in existence for at least two years, which provides a training program to prepare students for gainful employment in a recognized occupation.
Certain institutions may not be considered an "institution of higher education" without obtaining special Secretarial approval if they have a high percentage of distance learning classes or students, incarcerated students and students without a high school degree, or have previously filed for bankruptcy or have been convicted of fraud using HEA funds.
If the State is paying for the "cost of attendance" for a student under the ETV Program, there is no statutory definition of allowable transportation expenses. If expenses related to the student's personal vehicle are not a part of the cost of attendance, they are not an allowable expense under the voucher program.
John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood (Chafee Program)
Eligible for services under the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood (Chafee Program), which is offered to all eligible foster care teens and young adults between the ages of 14 and 21. Each individual in care, age 14 and over, must have a written transition plan based on their needs, regardless of goal and placement.
Fostering Futures
Completed applications should be submitted to the local department of social services where the student is, or most recently was, in foster care or Fostering Futures. Applicants may apply for tuition and fees for the entire academic year; equal disbursements will be made for each term (e.g.
Great Expectations Program
In Virginia, thousands of students who have experienced foster care find success through the Great Expectations program at one of Virginia's Community Colleges.
Foster Child Scholarship Program: Model Legislation
The scholarship is the entitlement of the eligible student under the supervision of the eligible student’s foster parent or legal guardian. A participating school may not refund, rebate, or share a student’s scholarship with a student, parent, or guardian in any manner. A student’s scholarship may be used for educational purposes such as tuition, special education services, transportation costs, uniforms, books or other school fees, tutoring, and other extracurricular programs with an educational purpose. Such expenses are authorized when a participating school is either providing these services or is under contract with a third party to provide these services. Participating schools can accept eligible students on a first-come, first-served basis until such time as they have more eligible students applying than spaces available. A participating student shall be counted in the enrollment figures for his or her resident school district for the purpose of calculating state aid to the resident school district. The funds needed for a scholarship shall be subtracted from the state school aid payable to the student’s resident school district.
The resident school district shall provide transportation for an eligible student to and from the participating school under the same conditions as the resident school district is required to provide transportation for other resident students to private schools as per current law.
The Department shall ensure that eligible students and their guardians are informed annually of which schools will be participating in the Foster Child Scholarship Program. The Department shall create a standard application that students interested in the Foster Child Scholarship Program can use to submit to participating schools to establish their eligibility and apply for admissions. Participating schools may require supplemental information from applicants. If the Department decides to bar a participating school from the program, it shall notify eligible students and their guardians as quickly as possible.
Administrative Accountability Standards include conducting criminal background checks on employees. Financial Accountability Standards include having an auditor certify the report is free of material misstatements and fairly represents the costs per pupil, including the costs of the testing required in subsection 4(C)(1)(a). Academic Accountability Standards. Participating School Autonomy.
The legislature may require periodic reports from the researchers.
The definition of an eligible student in this model legislation is all children of school age who are placed in foster care at the time of enrollment. Legislators may also want to consider including in the definition of sibling the biological children of foster care parents for purposes of program eligibility.
Legislators should consider several options when designating which agency or organization will administer the program. It may be expedient to designate the agency in charge of foster care and other social services. Alternatively, legislators may choose to create a new small agency to oversee the program if they are concerned about the hostility the program would face from the existing state education department.
This model legislation allows students to use a scholarship to attend a public school outside their districts as well as a private school. The authors support giving guardians the widest possible array of choices so they can choose a school that best meets their children’s needs. Legislators may also want to consider the inclusion of home-based education providers in the participating school definition. This change should be reflected throughout other sections including exemptions from some of Section 6. In addition, a primary purpose of the legislation to provide children in foster care with new education options is to improve education stability. Allowing for the broadest range of choices will help maximize the likelihood that a child in foster care receives a quality and stable education. Providing students with the opportunity to attend a public or private school of choice is not only the right policy but also the best legal strategy. Supreme Court and various state courts have all cited this broad array of choices as an important part of the reason they have found school choice programs constitutional. The courts have reasoned that these scholarship programs are not an inappropriate subsidy of religious institutions because the purpose was secular (the education of children) and the parents were given many options including public schools, charter schools, private secular schools, and private religious schools. If a state already has an open enrollment or some other form of public school choice, then this legislation should be made consistent with the existing program.
For this model legislation, the authors have limited eligibility to 21 years of age.
Determining who makes the decision about the education of a child placed in foster care presents interesting questions. A child who has been placed in foster care is a charge of the state. However, at any given time, a number of different decision-makers (from state officials, caseworkers, foster parents, and the children themselves) have a say in a child’s future. In order to afford students in foster care as many choices in school placement as possible, it is important that non-government actors be given authority to make the selection on behalf of the student. For this reason, it is preferable to give foster care parents the authority to apply for a scholarship on behalf of the foster care student as well as select whichever participating school they think best for the student. The agency in charge of administering the program should create an application system that verifies the choice of school was determined by the student’s foster care parent in non-binding consultation with the other parties who hold some stake in the welfare of the foster care student.
Interviews and a focus group of foster children and foster parents have identified that covering additional costs beyond tuition would be an important component of a successful scholarship program to provide participating students with a quality education.
The legislation requires participating schools that are oversubscribed to use a random selection process for determining which students gain admission. This random selection process will assure that students are admitted on an equal basis regardless of their educational attainment, athletic talents, or life challenges. Critics of school choice often falsely allege that schools will “cream” the best students from the list and not take the more difficult challenges. The model legislation makes two exceptions from this random selection process in order to facilitate attainment of educational objectives. Children already attending the school on a scholarship are not required to join the lottery for admittance so as not to interrupt their educational experience. Similarly, the siblings of students already attending the school are exempted so families can send all of their children to the same school. A requirement that siblings join a random selection process could produce a logistical nightmare for parents when their children are all admitted to different schools.
Legislators may want to consider giving enrollment preference to any school age children who share the same guardian and household as an enrolled student in addition to those covered under the sibling definition. Legislators may also want to consider whether further discretion should be afforded participating schools when admitting students who represent disciplinary challenges.
The bill has been drafted so that any savings in the cost of educating a student shall accrue to the state. School choice legislation drafted in this manner has the political advantage of either reducing state expenditures or making more funds available for other public schools. Legislators should know that some local school districts will claim that because the state is capturing the savings the program is “draining resources” away from public schools.
It is important that the Department calculate the scholarship amount in strict accordance with the definitions in the legislation.
Under 42 USC 1981, private schools are already prohibited from discriminating with respect to race, color, and national origin. In addition, if private schools are recipients of federal funds, they are subject to nondiscrimination requirements under 42 USC 2000d (race, color, national origin) and 29 USC 794 (disability).
The model legislation provides schools with the tools they need to ensure that students will be safe. The schools are required to conduct criminal background checks on existing and potential employees, and then they are given the flexibility to determine from this information whether the employee might pose a risk to students. This language is valuable in two cases: 1) a small number of states prohibit discriminating against felons in hiring even for sensitive positions in schools, and this language would give schools clear authority to dismiss or not hire individuals who pose a risk to student safety; and 2) some religious schools see rehabilitation as part of their mission. In this case, the schools could hire someone with a criminal background who they believe is no longer a threat to students, such as someone who committed nonviolent crimes or has decades-old violations followed by a clean record.
The purpose of the financial information report is to make sure that the Department can ascertain the costs of educating a student at the school and to ensure public funds are used appropriately.
The model legislation provides for two methods for schools to demonstrate financial viability to ensure that public funds are secure. The first method employs a market-based means of demonstrating viability. Private companies that issue surety bonds have a financial interest in making sure that the schools can repay any funds that might be owed the state. They will therefore conduct the checks necessary to protect their financial interest as well as the taxpayers’ financial interests. Surety bonds can be expensive (one to three percent of the amount covered) or invasive for some institutions, so the legislation allows schools to demonstrate by some other means that they have the financial wherewithal to pay back any amount they might owe the state.
The authors believe that empowered parents are the best way to achieve academic accountability. Clear and consistent information about the academic performance of participating students will help empower parents and will also provide the public and policymakers with the information they need to evaluate the effectiveness of the program and participating schools. Therefore, all participating schools should be required to annually administer either the state achievement tests or nationally norm-referenced tests that demonstrate learning gains in math and language arts. Most private schools already administer such norm-referenced tests so this provision should not be seen as burdensome. It is important, however, to give schools the ability to choose between a state test and the nationally norm-referenced test. Many private schools would simply refuse to participate in the program if they were forced to administer the state tests, because it implies that they are no longer independent of the state. Participating schools should provide the parents of each student with a copy of the results and should provide the results to the state or an organization chosen by the state, as described in Endnote 19, in a manner that protects the identity and privacy of individual students. The purpose of this testing requirement should be to provide each parent with a measure of their student’s achievement and to allow the taxpayers to measure the achievements of the program. The number and scope of the tests should be carefully limited to ensure that there is sufficient information to demonstrate the achievements of the program without being so exhaustive or prescriptive as to end up dictating the curriculum at participating schools. The costs of the testing requirements for a private school must be included in the costs used to determine the size of the scholarships at that school.
If legislators are concerned about the hostility the program would face from the existing Department of Public Instruction, they may choose to create a new small agency or contract with a private nonprofit organization to oversee the academic accountability responsibilities of the state. Allowing an organization chosen by the state to oversee this program allows for the flexibility to implement market-based models of academic accountability.
The purpose of administering tests is to create transparency in participating students’ academic progress and to demonstrate learning gains. These learning gains can only be demonstrated when the public has access to more than one school year. When this information is made public in the first year, the media and opponents often attack school choice programs, noting that participating students are not performing as well as their public school counterparts. It is important to note that there are multiple factors that affect academic performance in addition to the quality of the school.
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