When The COVID-19 Pandemic Closed College Campuses Here’s What Former Foster Children Went Through
The big idea
In the first two months of the pandemic, more than half of former foster children lost their jobs and nearly 40% experienced precarious living situations or homelessless, according to a survey of 127 former foster children between the ages of 18 and 26 that we conducted in May and June of 2020.
They were among the estimated 20,000 people in foster care who are “emancipated” each year when they age out of the system, beginning as young as 18. These young adults typically lose most of the support the government provides foster children – such as caseworker support and access to health care and housing.
Most of the people we surveyed were college students. Like most former foster youth going to college in the spring of 2020, they did not have a stable living situation or family...