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by Darryl Hamm
Orignally published in Youth Law News, January-March 2004.
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Foster youth can receive $5,000 per year to attend college or vocation training programs.
On Jan. 23, President Bush signed into law the Omnibus Appropriations Bill (Public Law No. 108-199), which included $45 million in renewed funding for the Chafee Education and Training Vouchers (ETV) program for youth transitioning out of foster care.1 Under the ETV program, current and former foster youth can receive up to $5,000 per year to attend higher education institutions or accredited post-secondary training programs. The renewed funding constitutes a slight increase over the $42 million appropriated in the 2003 budget. Congress first established the ETV program in 2001, with the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Amendments (PSSFA).2 In PSSFA, Congress amended the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999, also known as the Chafee Act, by adding ETVs to the independent living services program.3
Foster youth are eligible for the program if they meet the age requirements for their state’s Chafee Independent Living Program. These age requirements vary by state, but typically start between ages 14 and 16. All foster youth over age 16 remain eligible to enroll in the ETV program until their twenty-first birthday.4 In addition, those who enroll before their twenty-first birthday remain eligible for vouchers until their twenty-third birthday, as long as they are already enrolled in a program and are making satisfactory progress.5 Foster youth who are adopted after their sixteenth birthday, and who have not yet turned 21, are also eligible.6
A foster youth may use the ETV funds to attend a post-secondary institution as defined by the federal Higher Education Act of 1965 (HEA).7 Virtually all community colleges, four-year colleges, and universities are eligible institutions. Post-secondary vocational training programs meet HEA standards if they have been accredited by a nationally recognized agency or association; been in existence for at least two years; offer less than 50 percent of all courses by correspondence; and provide a program of training to prepare students for gainful employment in a recognized occupation.8
ETV Participation Just Getting Under Way
Even though Congress enacted the ETV legislation more than two years ago, many foster youth have only recently begun to participate in the program. Part of the problem resulted from Congress’ delay in appropriating funds. Congress did not appropriate funds in fiscal 2002, but waited until fiscal 2003. Further, the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), the federal agency that administers ETV funds, did not issue program criteria to the states until July 2003. Given all the delays, many states have only recently set up program procedures. For example,California just finalized its application procedures in December 2003. Due to this delay, states will need to conduct outreach, so that foster youth may receive the benefit of ETV funds for fiscal 2003. States must spend their fiscal 2003 funding allotments by September.
There should be no shortage of foster youth who qualify for ETV funds. Approximately 20,000 foster youth nationwide leave foster care every year. Most studies have shown that these youth have poor education and employment outcomes. For example, several studies have found that roughly 50 percent of foster youth graduate from high school, compared to 85 percent of youth overall.9 Further, both current and former foster youth typically have far lower reading levels than their peers, and higher levels of special education placement.10 Similarly, foster youth face daunting prospects in employment. Current and former foster youth earn significantly less than their lowincome peers.11 In one recent study, researchers found that emancipated foster youth were earning on average less than $6,000 per year, which is substantially below the federal poverty level of $7,890 for a single individual.12 In the same study, researchers also found that emancipated foster youth were underemployed. Over a three-year period, no more than 45 percent of these foster youth reported earnings in any one quarter.13
Besides having poor educational and employment outcomes, foster youth also face bleak prospects with regard to financial support when they leave foster care. There is typically no family support for these youth, and few resources of their own that they can call upon to pay for college or other training. While there are some sources of financial aid for foster youth, the need far outstrips current levels of aid.
The benefit of college and jobtraining scholarships for foster youth is particularly critical, given the unique difficulties that foster youth face upon leaving the system. The frequent lack of housing,multiple school placements, mental health problems, the dearth of any meaningful family or adult support, and a host of other factors all fall disproportionately on foster youth. Foster youth preparing to strike out on their own clearly need support. One recent study of former foster youth confirmed a successful correlation between college or job-training scholarships, and a positive transition to adulthood.14 Not only will the ETV program address the educational needs of foster youth, but also will improve their futures.
Program Startup Shows Mixed Results
While foster youth are beginning to see benefits from the ETV program, early reports indicate that there are still challenges ahead. The National Resource Center for Youth Development (NRCYD),funded by the federal Administration for Children and Family, monitors state administration of ETV funds. Edi Winkler, a trainer and consultant for NRCYD, reports that “states are struggling to adopt procedures and possibly legislation to run this program.”15 According to Winkler, a key problem is development of an effective design for program administration. In a handful of states, child welfare administrators are allowing the programs to be run at the county level. This design has the potential to be highly inefficient, as counties will have to set up individual systems of accountability for the funds, procedures for awarding the funds, and tracking of program participants. This system could be particularly burdensome on smaller counties.
In addition, some states, such as Florida, are currently revamping their entire child welfare system, and halted all ETV expenditures until the redesigns are complete.16 Finally, Winkler notes that many state child welfare agencies have never before offered post-secondary financial aid for foster youth, and are having difficulties establishing a disbursement system.
One other problem frequently noted in studies of foster youth is the lack of outreach and education regarding financial aid opportunities, and support for completing applications.17 To address this concern, states should create applications that are not unduly complex, so that foster youth can complete them with minimal assistance.
Some states have adopted innovative and efficient approaches for administering the ETV program. For example, California child welfare officials have established a partnership with the California Student Aid Commission (CSAC),18 the state agency most familiar with the post-secondary financial aid process. This eliminated the need for local bureaucracies to administer the program. A few other states are using their State Workforce Investment Board (WIB) system,under the Workforce Investment Act, to assist with administering the ETV program.19 The WIBs are already familiar with their regions’ universities, community colleges, and vocational training programs.
Besides the basic administration of the funds, the ETV program puts pressure on child welfare agencies and independent living coordinators to better track foster youth after they leave the system. ACF allots funds to each state, based on a calculation that includes the total number of foster youth in that state, and requires states to apply for their full funding allotment. If a state cannot locate eligible foster youth, the money goes unspent.20 Should a significant number of states fail to spend their full allotment, this may have an impact on future appropriations. As states refine their procedures, they should look to develop a process that includes extensive outreach.
Advocates and state administrators should work together to ensure that ETV funds are made available to the thousands of foster youth eligible to receive them. Effective implementation of the ETV program offers foster youth one of the best opportunities to overcome the often daunting obstacles to success that they currently face.
Darryl Hamm is a senior attorney with the National Center for Youth Law specializing in Youth Employment, Child Welfare, Education, and Juvenile Justice. He is currently the Supervisor of NCYL’s Foster Youth Employment Project.
ENDNOTES
1H.R. 2673, 108th Cong. (2004) (enacted).
2H.R. 2873, 107th Cong. (2001) (enacted).
342 U.S.C. §677(i) (2001).
442 U.S.C. §677(i) (2001). [Many states are only taking applications for foster youth who are 18 years old or older.]2002, at 5.
542 U.S.C. §677(i)(3) (2001).
642 U.S.C. §677(i)(2) (2001).
742 U.S.C. §677(i)(4) (2001).
820 U.S.C. §§1001, 1002 (1999). In order to confirm that a particular training program is eligible, foster youth need to confirm the program is accredited by an agency or association recognized by the U.S. Dep’t of Education.
9Richard Wertheimer, Youth who ‘Age Out’ of Foster Care: Troubled Lives, Troubling Prospects, Child Trends Research Brief, Dec. 2002, at 5.
10See M.Burley and M.Halpern, Educational Attainment of Foster Youth: Achievement and Graduation Outcomes for Children in State Care, Washington State Institute for Public Policy (2001).
11Robert M. George, Lucy Bilaver, Bong Joo Lee, Employment Outcomes for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care, University of Chicago Chapin Hall Center for Children,Mar. 2002, at 3.
12Id.
13Id.
14Peter J. Pecora et al, Assessing the Effects of Foster Care: Early Results From the Casey National Alumni Study, Casey Family Programs, (2003), at 41.
15Telephone Interview with Edi Winkler, Trainer and Consultant, National Resource Center for Youth Development (NRCYD) (Feb. 2, 2004).
16Id.
17See Pecora, supra note 14, at 47.
18The California Student Aid Commission has the application online. The information is available at http://www.csac.ca.gov . Contact information for other states can be found at http://www.statevoucher.org/ . 19See Telephone Interview, supra note 15.
20States will be able to claim a small amount of funds in those few instances where other states applied for less than their full allotment. According to NRCYD, there is less than $1 million that meets this criteria, so most ETV funds cannot be shifted among states, should some states fail to spend their allotment. See Telephone Interview, supra
note 15.
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