Bouncing from home to home can lead to a fragmented identity, sense of self and education. In my experience as a teacher, I have worked with many students who have moved to me from a different city, state or country. ALL of these students have had skill gaps which are a result of these moves. Now imagine a foster child who is not only making the switch to a different school, but an entirely different life. These children are faced with psychological struggles that most of us cannot even imagine.
According Ledyard King in his USA Today article Study: Foster Children Learn to Struggle, “There are some 400,000 children in foster care at any one time in the United States.” This is 400,000 students moving from school to school, faced with more challenges then most. In my eyes, these are students who should be given additional care based solely off the situation which they had no say in, or control over.
Yet another challenge ahead for foster youth, is the transition to adulthood. Many children in foster care will not graduate high school and even fewer will pursue higher education. The purpose of this blog is to look at the challenges that foster care children face in making this transition from being in the system, to being able to pursue higher education. Many organizations and state programs have begun trying to make this transition more attainable for foster youth. Together we will look at several success stories, policies and programs which have helped to make this possible. We will also discuss the challenges still ahead for foster youth children.
