For Jennifer Stanley, college has been a lifeline. Having grown up in the foster care system, she said that higher education has changed her perspective.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cKids like me who grew up in foster care, sometimes it\u2019s hard for us to wrap our mindset around it, but we are human, just like everyone else,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd we deserve a chance to shine and be who we are and use our intellectual abilities.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stanley is a part of a program called Providing Resources And Opportunities For Future Standouts, or PROFS, at Kutztown University.\u00a0 The program is one of 15 to 20 in the state that focus on providing support for foster care youth in college.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cIt helps me to be surrounded by people who have been in the same situation or have the same type of struggles as me,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Stanley entered the foster care system at 13 after her adoptive mother got sick. She said that, while she experienced difficulties during this time, school was a bright spot. It was what motivated her to pursue a higher education.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cI always enjoyed school,\u201d she said. \u201cSchool was a different environment for me. It was a chance for me to interact with other people, have a bigger support system and allow me to be myself outside of my home.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n
While Stanley has been able to thrive at Kutztown, her experience is not that of all foster care youth. Children who have gone through the foster care system may experience financial hardship, need to hold full-time positions, or may be parents themselves, which can impact their ability to pursue a higher education<\/a>.<\/p>\n Because of this, it can be hard to determine how to \u201cmove the needle\u201d on attending college from dream to reality, said Sarah Wasch, the associate director of the Field Center for Children\u2019s Policy, Practice and Research at the University of Pennsylvania.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cNational data has always told us that youth in foster care have aspirations of going to college, much like the general public and their peers, but youth in foster care do not attend college and do not complete college at the same rates as the general public,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The Field Center has been supporting the Foster Care to College Initiative for 10 years now. Wasch explained that this plan focuses on increasing the number of youth in foster care who attend college through research and advocacy work.\u00a0<\/p>\n As of 2025, Wasch said there is still a significant gap between foster care youth and the general public in rates of accessing higher education.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201c[A systematic audit in 2025] reviewed nearly 20 years of data from around the nation about this population, and we can now say that about 11% of young people with foster care experience obtain some sort of higher education degree,\u201d she said. \u201cThis is still less than the general public, because in the general public, about 24% of Americans have a bachelor\u2019s degree.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The Field Center has helped to launch and support campus-based support programs like PROFS at about 19 public or private universities or community colleges.\u00a0<\/p>\n And, this program isn\u2019t the only one of its kind for Pennsylvania youth.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u2018A lot of pieces\u2019 to gather<\/p>\n There are several resources that exist for students to navigate the application process and to stay in school once they are enrolled, Wasch said.\u00a0<\/p>\n One of the biggest hurdles for foster youth pursuing higher education is gathering all the necessary materials to apply for and start at universities, said Cynda Clyde, the program director for Fostering College Attachment at I-LEAD, Inc.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s a lot of pieces that can fall by the wayside,\u201d she said. \u201cIt could be getting a transcript from your high school. Folks have often been in different high schools, some of which may have closed, or they could have gone to a charter school, which takes a different kind of navigation.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a lot to put on a young person. That whole process, court documents and records needed to prove eligibility and time and care, just so helping someone kind of be aware of and then get through all those steps is a lot, along with applying to the school itself, and scholarships.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Clyde\u2019s work began with connecting underrepresented adult learners to degree programs. Through work with a foster care agency, she said the organization recognized there was a similar need to help guide foster care youth to college resources.<\/p>\n Her program<\/a> now helps bridge the gap for students in foster care who want to obtain a degree.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019ve learned that it\u2019s less about information dumping, and more about either staying on youth to submit all their paperwork or outlining options that can be real, like explaining that you can work and go to school at the same time,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Clyde said her work varies \u2013 it can be anything from discussing support programs to going over tuition waivers for schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cI help out with some aspect of the whole process, from discussing college to all the way through to a warm handoff to a support program on a particular campus, and also the college and financial aid application,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wasch emphasized that awareness of the barriers that foster care youth may face is important. She said the Field Center has done trainings to pass information about higher education to those who work directly with foster care youth.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve done training for foster parents, we\u2019ve done training for caseworkers, we\u2019ve done training for financial aid officers, we\u2019ve done training for high school guidance counselors, and we\u2019ve done training for the general public,\u201d she said. \u201cI\u2019m proud to say that hundreds of people have attended our training over the years.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Another piece of the puzzle is state resources<\/a>,\u00a0 Wasch said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWhile a majority of states have some sort of tuition assistance provided for students with foster care experience, very few states do what we do in Pennsylvania, which is including a mandate in the state law that every higher education institution must have a point of contact for students with foster care experience,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n The state also offers a FosterEd tuition waiver<\/a>, which provides tuition and fee waivers for eligible foster care youth.\u00a0<\/p>\n This is intended to make college more accessible, she said, with both financial opportunities and more resources for students.<\/p>\n The Field Center also has a resource library <\/a>for foster youth to learn more and receive further guidance for higher education, Wasch added.\u00a0<\/p>\n Stanley said many of her resources also came from her high school years at C.B. Community Schools.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat is a school based on kids of the foster care system,\u201d she said. \u201cThere, they allowed us to thrive and go through some colleges around the state to see what would best fit us.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n The schools, which also provide support for children in the juvenile justice system, focuses on \u201chealing-centered supports\u201d that \u201cempower young people.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Stanley said it was important to have this support.\u00a0<\/p>\n Challenges remain<\/p>\n Despite these resources, there are still challenges that persist for foster care youth in higher education. One challenge is the transition from high school into higher education, said Madeline Birkner, the senior manager of Persistence & College Partnerships at the Philadelphia Education Fund.\u00a0<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cOut of all these populations, like homeless students, or English language learners, the foster youth category has the lowest graduation rate,\u201d she said. \u201cAnd that\u2019s not super scientific, but these stats are alarming and concerning.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n In her work, she said, she meets foster care youth from many different backgrounds \u2013 ranging from those who have \u201cgreat academic preparedness\u201d to those who may not graduate high school.\u00a0<\/p>\n Wasch emphasized that foster care youth may also feel deterred from applying to college due to barriers and lack of knowledge.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe do know that these [foster care] students are typically less resourced and less insulated to be successful through that trajectory,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Clyde said getting students from high school into college is the first step, and an important one, in continuing education.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThat bridge from high school graduation or diploma attainment to actually enrolling in a school is a long bridge,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just with a lot of loose boards, where someone can just fall in.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n Research shows<\/a> that foster care children are three times more likely to become high school dropouts than their peers. And, Clyde said, retention rates drop as college continues, which can present more barriers for degree attainment.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s a lot of assumed information for those who may be familiar with college matriculation and the process that can\u2019t be assumed at all with first-gen students,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n Despite the cautions, Birkner said there is still an appetite for higher education and that many foster care youth still see success.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cThere isn\u2019t one kind of young person in foster care, and so I would say their motivations are also just all over the map, but one uniting factor is just the desire to build a life for themselves,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n She said this can manifest as \u201cscared motivation\u201d \u2013 or students feeling like they \u201cneed\u201d to attend school. But, she explained, it can also be positive and liberating for students, as they get to choose where they live on campus, what to study, and what activities to be a part of.\u00a0<\/p>\n Worth the effort<\/p>\n There are some obvious benefits to receiving a higher education, Wasch said.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cUnrelated to foster care, research shows that individuals with a college education across the board earn more annually and in lifetime earnings than individuals without [a college education],\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n While it is possible to earn a living without a college degree, studies show<\/a> that the median annual earnings for men and women between 25 and 34 working full-time are significantly higher for those with a bachelor\u2019s degree or more.\u00a0<\/p>\n