Do Education and Training Vouchers Make a Difference for Youth in Foster Care?

Each year, approximately 20,000 youth in foster care transition to adulthood and independent living. A majority of these young people want to pursue postsecondary education, but they are less likely to enroll in postsecondary institutions than their peers who have not interacted with the child welfare system. To address this gap, federal and state programs have been implemented to address barriers and provide supports to pursue a college degree including the Education and Training Voucher (ETV) Program, which provides up to $5,000 per year to youth to attend college or training program. This study is the first multi-state evaluation of the ETV program using administrative data to examine ETV use and educational outcomes on the full population of eligible youth. This study used child welfare administrative data on the foster care histories of all youth who were age 16 or older in foster care from ten states matched with ETV program data and National Student Clearinghouse data on college enrollment and attainment. Among all youth who were in foster care after age 16, only 29% enrolled in college by the time they turned 21. Of all ETV-eligible youth who enrolled in college, only 37% received an ETV. We found through regression analysis controlling for youth demographics and child welfare histories that youth who enrolled with an ETV were more likely to graduate. Findings from the study can help inform ETV policy and practices.