California Bill That Would Provide Free College for Foster Youth Advances

Students move between classes at the University of California–San Diego, San Diego, Calif., on May 15, 2018. (Yang Jie/The Epoch Times)

A California Senate bill that would provide free college tuition for the state’s 60,000 foster youth advanced in the Senate Education Committee last week.

The Senate Education Committee unanimously approved the bill during a March 29 hearing and referred it for a hearing in the state Senate Committee on Human Services in the coming weeks.

State Senate Bill 307, introduced by state Sen. Angelique Ashby (D-Sacramento) and Senate Majority Leader Mike McGuire (D-North Coast) in February, would establish the Fostering Futures Program as a part of the state’s existing Middle Class Scholarship Program.

The program would cover 100 percent of tuition for foster youth enrolled in associate degree or certificate programs at a community college or in a four-year program at a California State University or University of California campus—including food, textbooks, and housing.

The funds would be available after other state and federal aid—usually the Cal Grant, which covers a portion of tuition for all California residents, and the Chafee Grant, which covers a portion of tuition for foster youth—is applied, according to the bill.

“Every foster youth deserves the opportunity to achieve their college dream, but in too many cases, that dream is out of reach due to financial barriers and extreme challenges that come about in the foster system. This is simply unacceptable,” said McGuire in a Feb. 7 press release.

During the March 29 hearing, Ashby told the committee that the bill is intended to help provide foster youth with the resources they need to support themselves after they age out of the system.

“[This bill] will give foster youth agency to take care of themselves,” Ashby said. “Imagine being able to tell a 14-year-old who’s lost everything, including their parents, that if they can just focus on school, that there’s a way out for them in the future.”

Ashby said that housing instability and homelessness are a top concern among foster youth once they turn 18.

Nationwide, an estimated 20 percent of young adults who are in foster care become homeless the moment they’re emancipated at the age of 18—and additionally, about 50 percent of the homeless population spent time in foster care, according to data from the nonprofit National Institute of Foster Youth.

Ashby also said that the bill would redirect approximately $21 million from the Middle Class Scholarship Program to cover the cost of college attendance for foster youth.

Several youth and education organizations spoke at the meeting to support the bill—including City Youth, California Alliance of Child and Family Services, and California Charter Schools Association.

There were no speakers in opposition to the bill at the hearing.