{"id":169999,"date":"2021-03-11T07:15:45","date_gmt":"2021-03-11T12:15:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/?p=169999"},"modified":"2022-06-22T08:29:55","modified_gmt":"2022-06-22T12:29:55","slug":"qa-college-success-for-foster-youth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/2021\/03\/qa-college-success-for-foster-youth\/","title":{"rendered":"Q&A: College Success for Foster Youth"},"content":{"rendered":"\r\n

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After earning a master’s degree in clinical psychology<\/i>\u00a0from Duquesne University<\/i>, UConn social work assistant professor Nathanael<\/i>\u00a0J.<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>Okpych<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>worked as a therapist in high schools and in a\u00a0<\/i>c<\/i>ommunity-based program<\/i>\u00a0for youth with mental illnesses in the criminal justice system<\/i>\u00a0where\u00a0<\/i>he encountered many\u00a0<\/i>youth<\/i>\u00a0who were in or had been in foster care.<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

“That professional experience really put me in touch with the tra<\/i>u<\/i>ma and the difficulties many of these youth encounter. But one of the things that amazed me is just how strong and resilient they are,”\u00a0<\/i>Okpych<\/i>\u00a0says. “Some of these\u00a0<\/i>youth<\/i>\u00a0have gone through more trouble than adults have experi<\/i>enced in their whole lives. But they’re still there. They’re still fighting.”<\/i>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

\"ClimbingOkpych<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>also work<\/i>ed with young people in<\/i>\u00a0education<\/i>\u00a0settings<\/i>\u00a0as a middle-school teacher,\u00a0<\/i>an\u00a0<\/i>Upward Bound SAT instructor, and a college dorm director.\u00a0<\/i>He\u00a0<\/i>went on to pursue a Master of Social Work\u00a0<\/i>d<\/i>egree,\u00a0<\/i>and reading “astounding” statistics on foster youth in higher education pushed him to pursue his Ph.D.\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Okpych’s<\/i>\u00a0recently published book,\u00a0<\/i>“Climbing a Broken Ladder<\/i>:\u00a0<\/i>Contributors of College Success for Youth in Foster Care,” draws from\u00a0<\/i>“The Midwest Study” of a representative sample of 732\u00a0<\/i>foster youth<\/i>\u00a0that<\/i>\u00a0<\/i>Okpych<\/i>\u00a0was involved in, led by Mark Courtney of the University of Chicago<\/i>.<\/i>\u00a0The book details the factors that lead to fewer than one in ten foster youth completing a college degree despite having college aspirations\u00a0<\/i>similar to<\/i>\u00a0their\u00a0<\/i>peers an<\/i>d<\/i>\u00a0suggests policy and practice that could improve their success.<\/i>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Okpych<\/i>\u00a0spoke with Julie Bartucca of the UConn 360 podcast on the topic.\u00a0<\/i>This interview has been edited for length and clarity.<\/i>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

What are some of the factors\u00a0<\/b>behind<\/b>\u00a0so few foster\u00a0<\/b>youth<\/b>\u00a0completing two- or four-year college degrees?<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

You\u00a0can think about this in different steps, right?\u00a0First there is\u00a0the\u00a0step\u00a0of\u00a0going to college in the first place. And then the second step is\u00a0persisting through college and then ultimately graduating.\u00a0Our\u00a0study\u00a0found\u00a0that some\u00a0of the factors that decreased their likelihood of going to college were things like academic preparedness in high school,\u00a0issues with mobility while they’re in foster care, the number of foster care placements they were in.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

And then interestingly, once youth are in college, when we’re looking at their chances of ultimately graduating and earning a degree,\u00a0I found that youth who are parents, youth\u00a0that had to work extra hours to pay for their bills, and\u00a0the\u00a0number of\u00a0economic hardships that youth\u00a0faced in college\u00a0–\u00a0real world difficulties, everyday taking-care-of-the-finances\u00a0difficulties,\u00a0and parenting responsibilities,\u00a0are things that drove down their likelihood of\u00a0persisting and ultimately earning a degree.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

About half of the youth in the study ever set foot inside of a college classroom and among those who entered college,\u00a0less than a quarter\u00a0ultimately earned a college degree.\u00a0Taking a step back and comparing foster youth to youth\u00a0that\u00a0didn’t have foster histories, youth in foster care are about one-fifth or one-sixth as likely to earn a college degree\u00a0by their\u00a0mid-20s.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

What can be done to address this issue?<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

When we’re looking at getting into college,\u00a0one of the issues is the amount of instability\u00a0that youth experience switching from one placement to another.\u00a0Some youth also\u00a0have to\u00a0change schools, change communities.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

It’s a huge disruption\u00a0to\u00a0their\u00a0social connections, and\u00a0you might be in a high school class in one school,\u00a0then it\u00a0takes two to three weeks to get set up in the next school, and that school doesn’t offer that\u00a0class\u00a0so those credits are lost.\u00a0One of the\u00a0major\u00a0target areas\u00a0is decreasing\u00a0the disruption to foster youths’\u00a0educational experiences when they\u00a0have to\u00a0switch placements.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Many foster\u00a0youth\u00a0may not have family members or community members that have gone to college, so college is kind of an abstract thing\u00a0to them.\u00a0Over 80% want to go to college, but in terms of having people accessible to them who can help them with the very concrete steps of preparing for college, many foster\u00a0youth\u00a0don’t have a robust network.\u00a0One of the recommendations is to make\u00a0transformations to the child welfare department,\u00a0such as contracting with agencies that specialize in college advising\u00a0or developing an in-house program,\u00a0having\u00a0a\u00a0child welfare worker who specializes in assisting youth who want to go to college to prepare for college\u00a0–\u00a0\u00a0completing\u00a0financial aid applications, getting all their ducks in a row academically, searching for colleges where they might have a better chance of\u00a0succeeding and persisting.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

And then\u00a0once they’re\u00a0in college helping them persist:\u00a0one thing is meeting the financial needs of youth in foster care. There are many policies out there that provide money for foster youth to help with college. Some are generally available, like Pell grants;\u00a0some are specific to foster youth.\u00a0Making sure that youth know about these resources and are getting the resources they qualify for\u00a0is\u00a0huge.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Another\u00a0is\u00a0linking them to support on campus that will ensure that they’re academically ready to do well in\u00a0their\u00a0classes.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

One of the\u00a0really big\u00a0findings in the study was that of all the youth\u00a0that had\u00a0entered college,\u00a0about half didn’t make it through their first year. They left college and never returned. So that first year is\u00a0critical,\u00a0 kind\u00a0of all\u00a0hands on\u00a0deck, helping them to acclimate to college\u00a0and\u00a0making sure they have links to consistent mental health services that are trauma-informed\u00a0to\u00a0help address their\u00a0trauma.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

What would you advocate for on a national level to improve these outcomes?<\/b>\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Right\u00a0now\u00a0in about 20\u00a0states, once you’ve hit\u00a0your18th birthday,\u00a0foster care ends.\u00a0In\u00a0about 30\u00a0states, the age limit is 21, but again once you’ve hit their 21st birthday,\u00a0the state child welfare agencies\u00a0and\u00a0foster agencies\u00a0do not have a responsibility to provide them with housing\u00a0or any of\u00a0the usual supports that a parent would\u00a0help out\u00a0with.\u00a0\u00a0Imagine that\u00a0on\u00a0your 21st birthday.\u00a0It’s a very abrupt transition where\u00a0you may find yourself homeless or\u00a0out of resources.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

There was a law that was\u00a0passed in 2008 and then came into effect in 2010\u00a0that basically gave\u00a0states the option to extend the foster care age limit from 18 to 21.\u00a0So\u00a0I think one step is for the\u00a0two\u00a0in five\u00a0states\u00a0that end foster care at 18\u00a0to sign onto extended foster care.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

We also need to think about the age limit of 21. Realistically,\u00a0is age 21 a time when we think youth are ready to be on their own?\u00a0With students who are\u00a0successful in college, that’s right in the middle of their college career.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

There are also\u00a0grants specifically for youth in foster care\u00a0called an\u00a0Education and\u00a0Training\u00a0Voucher\u00a0(ETV).\u00a0When it was established in 2002, the amount foster youth can receive\u00a0is\u00a0$5,000\u00a0per\u00a0year to\u00a0help out\u00a0with college expenses.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Fast forward 20 years:\u00a0The amount that foster youth can receive to\u00a0help out\u00a0with college?\u00a0$5,000. The\u00a0cost of college has skyrocketed.\u00a0The ETV\u00a0has not kept pace with inflation.\u00a0Another suggestion would be to change the law so that this\u00a0ETV\u00a0keeps pace with the rising cost of college and inflation in general, like how Pell\u00a0Grants\u00a0are\u00a0adjusted.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

And then\u00a0third\u00a0thing is,\u00a0we’ve been seeing in the past 20 years, especially the last 10 years,\u00a0a flurry of college campuses\u00a0have\u00a0developed\u00a0support programs specifically designed for youth\u00a0in\u00a0foster care. Some also serve other vulnerable populations, such as homeless youth.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

Well over 200 campuses around the U.S.\u00a0have these programs, and\u00a0there’s a lot of variation in them in terms of what supports they provide.\u00a0Many\u00a0provide one-on-one advising and counseling, linking to services. Some provide emergency funds, such as book funds and so forth. But one of the problems is that most of these programs are not funded by public dollars.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n

They’re funded by a cobbling\u00a0together\u00a0of private dollars, maybe some public dollars, so their\u00a0sustainability from year to year is in question. Having a steady stream of stable funding from the federal government that would help to establish these programs at campuses foster youth commonly attend\u00a0would be a huge step\u00a0to help them\u00a0find community\u00a0and\u00a0be linked with resources that could help them\u00a0persist.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\r\nhttps:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/Nate-Okpych-UT.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

“Climbing a Broken Ladder: Contributors of College Success for Youth in Foster Care” author talks better support for foster youth<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":80,"featured_media":170002,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_crdt_document":"","wds_primary_category":0,"wds_primary_series":0,"wds_primary_attribution":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2076,1870,2235],"tags":[],"magazine-issues":[],"coauthors":[1929],"class_list":["post-169999","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-research","category-ssw","category-today-homepage","series-heard-here-uconn-360"],"pp_statuses_selecting_workflow":false,"pp_workflow_action":"current","pp_status_selection":"publish","acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-26 00:25:12","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169999","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/users\/80"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=169999"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169999\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":187395,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/posts\/169999\/revisions\/187395"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media\/170002"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=169999"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=169999"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=169999"},{"taxonomy":"magazine-issue","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/magazine-issues?post=169999"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/today.uconn.edu\/wp-rest\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=169999"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}