Almost 3,000 children have been in the Multnomah County foster care system at least once in the past year, according to the Children First for Oregon’s 2011 Progress Report: Status Of Oregon’s Children. That’s roughly 65 percent of all foster kids in the entire state of Oregon.
There are commercials and posters everywhere of beautiful children asking for a home and for us to be that home. It’s hard not to be drawn to their faces. Rarely do we see photos of older kids, perhaps not so cute—with acne and adolescent scowls—yet there are increasing numbers of teenagers aging out of the system. What’s happening to them?
According to Casey Family Programs, less than 50 percent of youth in the foster care system graduate from high school, only 15 percent enroll in college and a mere 9 percent get a university degree. Without a consistent family support system to help them navigate their way through the often challenging process of getting a college degree, kids in the foster care system are disappearing from classrooms. This can’t be okay.
However, even for those who make it to college, who have beaten the odds, there seems to be very little—if any—support in place to help them be successful. A study conducted by Janine Allen, Portland State professor of educational leadership and policy, revealed that 5 percent of PSU students come from the foster care system. With a school population of around 28,000, that percentage represents 1,400 students—and therefore, 1,400 reasons to do, as Allen insists, a whole lot more for those coming from a “very high risk population.”
Last year, Portland Community College launched a mentoring program called Fostering Success in order to reach out to students who had aged out of the system. In just the first few months, participants completed more credits and were more likely to return the following term than those who opted not to participate, according to Linda Reisser, dean of student development at the PCC Cascade campus, in an interview with The Oregonian.
Reisser makes an interesting comparison of foster youth students to veterans, saying, “There’s a lot of low trust. They need to feel safe in order to support each other.”
That got me thinking about the VetSuccess program we have here at PSU—a program that employs an experienced vocational counselor on campus specifically to give assistance and support to veteran students and their families throughout their time at the university. It’s an immensely successful and important program and says a lot about PSU’s commitment to its veteran students.
Similarly, the administration needs to show equal commitment to those among us who have no reason to trust that anyone has their best interests at heart. Of course the obstacle is always—wait for it—funding. Neither PSU nor Oregon should be comfortable accepting the fact that only 9 percent of foster youth are graduating university.
While the Oregon Department of Human Services claims it’s committed to the success of teens in the system, there needs to be more than just a “see ya and good luck” when they age out.
PSU needs to take a page out of PCC’s book and find the necessary funding, be it public or private. Having an on-campus mentor who understands the complexities of foster youths’ backgrounds and who can provide the support they need is one step toward proving that lip service is not all the administration is prepared to pay for the success of all its students.