Supporting Foster Care Alumni on Campus: Recommendations for Student Affairs Practitioners

Despite tremendous odds, foster care alumni do persist and arrive on our campuses – whether we know it or not. If informed, student affairs professionals, in particular, are well-positioned to offer important streams of personal and academic support that significantly impact their likelihood of success. 

As student affairs practitioners continue to evaluate, define, and implement unique equity-minded programs intended to support historically marginalized student populations, we must ask ourselves, who is still left out? Due to a variety of personal, social, and systematic factors, foster care alumni (FCA) continue to be both underrepresented on college campuses and under-supported when present.

This session is intended to highlight the unique experiences of students with a history of time in foster care, the personal and social impacts on their education trajectories, and points of significance for student affairs professionals as they build awareness and competencies around best supporting this population. No matter one’s level of leadership on campus, from executive leaders to campus-based student affairs staff, each has an important role and responsibility in supporting FCA.

Learning Outcomes

By participating in this session, attendees will learn:

• the barriers foster care alumni face, to and through, postsecondary education;
• the campus practices that foster care alumni have identified as beneficial to their success;
• the state-level education policy impacts on the campus experience; and
• considerations and recommendations for Student Affairs Practitioners to better support foster care alumni.