Progress in Foster Youth Graduation Rates

FosterEd’s mission is to increase the educational outcomes for students in foster care, and one of the major focus areas over the last few years has been to increase graduation rates.

In 2016, FosterEd formed a subcommittee called College or Bust, comprised of members from the COE and other community partners, such as Cabrillo, UCSC, Encompass Transition Age Youth Programs, Haven of Hope group homes, CASA, and Your Future is Our Business. The goal of this collaboration was to support foster youth in the transition to higher education or postsecondary job training, enrollment, and completion. The first step in that process is for students to graduate high school, ideally in 4-years with their “cohorts” or peers.

We are excited to announce that the 4-year Cohort Graduation Rate for Santa Cruz County foster youth was 80.8% in the 21-22 school year, the highest it has ever been! This is a large jump from the year prior when it was 68% and the years before that when it was closer to 50%. We are so close to closing the Opportunity Gap with non-foster students in Santa Cruz County, whose 4-Year Graduation Rate is 86.9%. For more info on this data, go to DataQuest.