Three schools across Oregon will receive funding in the upcoming school year to run a pilot program helping kids placed in foster care graduate from high school.
Oregon started tracking graduation rates for kids in foster care in the 2016-17 school year — and less than 50% of kids in foster care graduate on time. Former foster youth are one-tenth as likely to earn college degrees, according to Youth Rights and Justice, a nonprofit juvenile defense firm.
The Oregon Department of Education will run the pilot programs, which are expected to cost $130,942 in the 2023-25 budget cycle and $255,664 in the 2025-27 budget.
“The poor academic performance of these children affects their lives after foster care and contributes to higher than average rates of homelessness, criminal involvement, drug abuse, and unemployment among foster care ‘graduates,’” Jennifer McGowan, an attorney with Youth Rights and Justice, wrote in testimony to state lawmakers in the most recent legislative session.
People who've been through foster care systems, like those created by the Oregon Department of Human Services, are more likely to suffer from chronic health conditions later in life, according to a new study.
Bradley W. Parks / OPB
Three schools will receive the funding, one in Portland, the second in Albany and the third in Southern Oregon. The goal is to provide more targeted academic support and wrap-around services to the kids while they are in school. Each student will have an educational advocate.
Rep. Shelly Boshart Davis, R-Albany, who supported this measure in the state Legislature said in a press statement, “Virginia’s foster students have a 75% graduation rate. We know we can do better for our foster students, and we know that programs like these can help set them up for their best future.”
The state of Oregon’s Department of Human Services recently settled a class-action lawsuit against it by promising to improve its overall child welfare system. The state has struggled for years to find appropriate placements for kids placed in its care.
It has now promised to improve the quality of placements where kids are placed and lower the rates of mistreatment. Kids have frequently been bounced around to many different placements, including hotels and treatment facilities, making it difficult to attend school or have any sense of stability.