Financial Aid and Scholarships for Foster Care and Adopted Children

Financial Aid and Scholarships for Foster Care and Adopted Children

I adopted a special needs foster child when he was 11 years old. I

have been told he does not qualify for any aid. I recently learned

that if I would have adopted him at age 13 he would of received a full

scholarship. My son wants to attend a private college at

approximately $43,000 per year. Do you have any information on

grants or scholarship for former special needs foster children?

— J.A.

You are to be commended for adopting a foster child. According to the

US Department of Health and Human Services, more than 100,000 children

in foster care are waiting for adoption, but only about 50,000 are adopted

each year. Visit AdoptUSKids.org

for more information about foster care and adoption.

It is unlikely that a foster child adopted after reaching age 13 would

have qualified for a full scholarship at a private

college. Rather, students who

are in foster care, aged out of foster care or were adopted out of

foster care after reaching age 13 are considered automatically

independent on the Free Application for Federal Student Aid

(FAFSA). Often this means that such children have a zero expected

family contribution (EFC), which qualifies them for a full Pell

Grant. But a full Pell Grant falls short of covering all college

costs, except perhaps at a community college. In most cases a foster

child will graduate from college with significant amounts of student loan

debt.

Independent student status is defined by section 480(d)(1) of the

Higher Education Act of 1965 [20 USC 1087vv(d)(1)]. The College Cost

Reduction and Access Act of 2007 (P.L. 110-84) and Higher Education

Opportunity Act of 2008 (P.L. 110-315) changed the definition of

independent student to include any student who “is an orphan, in

foster care, or a ward of the court, or was an orphan, in foster care,

or a ward of the court at any time when the individual was 13 years of

age or older.”

This is in contrast with the previous statutory language, which did

not mention foster care explicitly, just orphans and wards of the

court. The previous statutory language also required the student to

either currently be an orphan or ward of the court, or to have been

one through age 18. The law was changed to allow teenage foster care

children to be adopted without losing eligibility for federal student

aid.

Foster care students face special challenges and are less likely to

enroll and graduate from college. For example, only 0.6% of

undergraduate students identified themselves as orphans or wards of

the court in 2007-08, based on data from the 2007-08 National

Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS). This suggests that they are

half as likely as other students to enroll in college. Almost a third

(32.7%) of students who were orphans or wards of the court under age

24 in 2003-04 graduated with an undergraduate degree or certificate by

2009, compared with almost half (49.6%) of all other undergraduate

students, based on data from the 2009 follow-up to the 2003-04

Beginning Postsecondary Students (BPS:04/09) longitudinal study.

While foster children face many challenges on their way to a college

education, it is possible to succeed.

Derrius Quarles, who spent 9 years in the foster care system in the

Chicago area, won scholarships from the Horatio Alger Association of

Distinguished American Scholarship Program, Coca-Cola Scholarship

Foundation, Dell Scholars Program and Gates Millennium Scholars, among

others, earning him the title

Million Dollar Scholar.

His success should be an inspiration to all foster care youth.

Most private scholarships for foster care students are restricted to children

who are currently in foster care or who aged out of foster care. There

are some for students who were adopted out of foster care, but these

generally have geographic restrictions or are limited to students who

are enrolled at specific colleges. For example, the

Kansas Foster and Adoptive Children Scholarship Fund

from the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation is limited to

students who are or were foster children in the state of Kansas.

Students should use the free Fastweb scholarship matching service to

find scholarships that match their background situation. Fastweb

enforces the scholarship’s geographic and other restrictions, ensuring

that the student sees only the scholarships for which he or she is

eligible. Be sure to answer the optional questions, some of which

relate to adoption status. Fastweb will also match the student to

other relevant scholarships, such as the

Horatio Alger National Scholarship

for high school seniors who have “faced and overcome great obstacles

in their young lives”.

There are also several national scholarships for former foster

children and adopted children. The

Fostering a Future Scholarship

is restricted to children adopted out of foster care after reaching

age 13.

Foster Care to Success

administers the

Casey Family Scholars Program,

which provides scholarships to former foster youth.

The

National Foster Parent Association

sponsors the NFPA Youth Scholarship.

The Orphan Society of America

provides college scholarships for individuals who were orphaned by violence.

Some states provide student financial aid or other assistance to

children who spent time in the foster care system or who were adopted

out of the foster care system. These scholarships and tuition waivers

are usually restricted to students who enroll in the state’s public

colleges and universities. Funding may be restricted to students whose

families previously received

adoption assistance.

Some programs are limited to students who are in foster care or aged

out of foster care, excluding students who were adopted out of foster

care.

Source: Fastweb

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