Fierce Fostering Confidential

Most of us are familiar with 529 plans and other state specific saving options¹. Many parents even enroll in them for their kids as soon as they are born, which MA will actually contribute to for newborns and adoptees within a year of finalization. For the kids who enter in care, or have a guardianship agreement, what resources do they have? In MA, kids who enter foster care and/or are adopted from foster care are eligible for free tuition and to have the fees waived at any MA state school. This is a huge savings for them and their parents/guardians, but there are also additional scholarships people may not be aware of.

If a child ages out of care without permancy, (meaning that they do not reunify, don’t get adopted, and do not enter a guardianship agreement by 18) they are eligible for up to $6,000 a year from the state towards any higher education, private or state school.² For kids who have a guardianship agreement signed after they turn 16, they are eligible for $4,000 a year from the state towards any private or state school. All of the other kids who are adopted or have a guardianship agreement signed prior to turning 16, they are only entitled to the state tuition and fee waiver. These kids have suffered enough, why are they and their families being punished for achieving permancy? DCF pushes foster families to adopt or enter into guardianship agreements when reunification isn’t an option, but then they take away substantial funding for the kids who are in the most need.

One thing we as foster families hear all the time is ‘break the cycle.’ They talk to us about how the next generation needs the tools to not fall into the same habits that caused them to come into care in the first place. The most common reasons we hear about are domestic violence and substance abuse. Higher education can be a tool that helps to break this cycle so we are not eventually fostering their kids. I am not naive in assuming that domestic violence only happens to people who are working blue collar jobs and below the poverty line. I know that things like that can happen to anyone, it’s not something that has a threshold based on social and economic status.

Having a bachelor’s degree or higher will help break the cycle when these kids have the financial resources to leave, have a higher confidence in themselves, have a greater sense of self worth. They are more likely to have friends that will support them in leaving or ending these situations. From a study that was conducted in India, “…our results contradict the conclusion of earlier studies that higher education of women might be a risk factor for DV. Education seems to be an important factor in preventing DV irrespectively of sex.”³ Again, there are plenty of examples within my own circle of friends I can look to showing that having a higher education and financial means does not prevent DV or substance abuse from happening. However, there is data showing that higher education helps prevent and leave.

So why doesn’t DCF/the state adjust these requirements to remove the additional burden from these kids and their supports? $16,000-24,000 isn’t chump change. It can make a huge difference for these kids after they graduate financially, to not saddle them with additional burdens. When someone has a biological child, they can start saving for their higher education from the time their child is born. When a foster family takes in a child, we might have them living with us for years before we know if they are going to be with us until they are ready for college. Years we are not saving for them, not putting the resources aside. We don’t wait because we don’t love these kids, or because we love them less than any of our biological children. We wait because we don’t know if they will be with us for a month, 6 months, a year, or forever. I have an amazing kid who lived with me for 3 years, adoption track twice, and went home. I have an kid who has been here for almost 2 years, guardianship has been the goal twice now, and even with court coming in August I don’t know if they are going to be with us ‘forever’ or the goal will be changed back to reunification again.

The point is, this isn’t cut and dry. This isn’t something that we have 18 years to prepare our kids for. This usually isn’t something that their parents have modeled for them or prepared them for either. In fact, from all of our long term kids, 1 parent out of 9 has any higher education degree, and at least 2 didn’t graduate high school/complete a GED. It’s so important for us to educate ourselves on the grants and scholarships that are out there for our kids, and what makes them eligible. One of my kids is going to be 16 in the fall. I am going to push everyone to hold off on signing the paperwork until then so that they can be entitled to the $4000 a year. I have another who won’t be 16 until next year, and we have talked about delaying signing so that they can also get the additional support. It is incredibly frustrating that we are put in that situation to decide on waiting to give these kids permancy or doing it as soon as possible when they have already been waiting years.

As so many of my posts reiterate, this is a decision you and more importantly, your kid needs to make regarding their post high school education. What I want to make clear from all this is that our kids shouldn’t be punished financially if they are adopted or have a guardian before they turn 16. It’s also important to know that these resources are available for our kids who meet the requirements so that they can take advantage of these funding opportunities to help them pay for their education. How do we make changes so that all of our kids can be supported financially? It starts with talking to your worker and the case worker. Getting those who work with these kids on board and then reaching out to the Massachusetts Office of Student Financial Assistance and the Massachusetts Educational Financing Authority who review eligibility. This is something I am passionate about for our kids and if you know the best way to start and it’s not anything I have listed, this is the perfect time to comment and share so we can get this done for them.

1. https://www.mass.gov/babysteps?_gl=1*199vtrm*_ga*MTM2ODk4NjgzNy4xNjg1MTkxODQ0*_ga_MCLPEGW7WM*MTcxNzAwNjUyOC4yLjAuMTcxNzAwNjUyOC4wLjAuMA.. ↩︎
2. https://www.mass.gov/info-details/foster-child-grant#:~:text=The%20Foster%20Child%20Grant%20Program,throughout%20the%20continental%20United%20States. ↩︎
3. https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1471-2458-12-467#:~:text=Among%20SEG%20couples%2C%20the%20likelihood,%2C%20CI%200.55%E2%80%930.63). ↩︎