Postsecondary Education Experiences and Attainment Among Youth With Foster Care Backgrounds

Abstract

This article focuses on postsecondary education among young people who currently are or were in foster care (i.e., out-of-home care settings, including relative and nonrelative foster homes, group care, and other institutional settings). While there are numerous terms and labels used to refer to this group, we will use person-first language to avoid the risk of implying that “being in foster care system is related to internal characteristics of the individual” (Geiger and Gross 2019, p. 3, cited under Overview of Policies), rather than a function of the conditions in which they are placed. In the United States, as in many other countries, young people with foster care experience are among the most underserved student groups. Although most of these youth aspire to go to college, the reality is that few realize that dream. Most studies show that about 50 percent or less of young people in US foster care enroll in college, and about 2–10 percent earn a college degree. While research on postsecondary education among youth with foster care experience has increased in several countries, growth has been particularly rapid and expansive in the United States. Federal US child welfare policies began to address the difficult transition of youth aging out of foster care, broadly, in the mid-1980s. Since the turn of the millennium, several key policies have explicitly targeted education of youth in foster care by reducing unnecessary school changes, funding educational support services, providing grants and tuition waivers for postsecondary education expenses, and extending the age limit until which youth can remain in foster care. Internationally, countries are in various stages of policy development, with some beginning to study and raise awareness about the educational journeys of youth aging out of care, while others have well-developed national policies for this population. Research on programs designed to promote college success includes studies focused on pre-college programming to increase readiness and skills for navigating college, campus support programs (CSPs) that provide comprehensive support to students enrolled in college, publications that describe and evaluate CSPs, and the role of programs in student enrollment and attainment. This article begins by reviewing US-based studies on educational aspirations and outcomes (and disparities by race and gender), as well as barriers and promoters of postsecondary attainment. This is followed by studies on policies and programs designed to promote postsecondary access and completion. The article concludes with two sections on literature outside of the United States on postsecondary education among youth with out-of-home care experience.