Fostering College Student Success: An Analysis of the Educational Outcomes of Florida College Students Utilizing Relative Caregiver, Road-to-Independence, and Adoption Tuition Exemptions

This study investigated the educational outcomes of foster care youth utilizing the Road to Independence, Adopted from DCF, and Relative Caregiver tuition exemptions to pursue enrollment in Florida's state college system during the 2012-2013 academic year. An extensive literature review was conducted to examine the history of foster care, examine a contemporary portrait of the American foster care system, and the adult outcomes of former foster care. Federal and state policies impacting the population, campus support initiatives at colleges nationwide and the concept of resilience were also explored. In conjunction with the Florida Department of Education's Division of Accountability, Research and Measurement, the Florida Department of Children and Families provided access to a dataset compiled by the Community College and Technical Center MIS department. This file contained enrollment information for foster care youth utilizing one of three tuition exemptions to fund their education-related expenses. While all personal identifiers were eliminated prior to sharing the file, information within the document included student age, gender, race/ethnicity, academic discipline, and degree being pursued. Results of this study yielded some statistically significant differences across tuition exemption type. After examining relationships between gender and race/ethnicity and tuition exemption type, no statistically significant results were found. However, statistical significance was found after examining the relationships between academic degree being pursued and academic major/discipline and tuition exemption type. Many factors impact the experiences of foster care youth in the college classroom. These should be considered when developing programming, policy, and support services aimed at encouraging their success.

Author dc:creator

• Murray, Lauren

Contributors dc:contributor

• Cox, Thomas

• Aging out
• campus support services
• educational outcomes
• foster care youth
• policies impacting foster care youth
• resilience
• Education
• Higher Education
• Dissertations, Academic -- Education and Human Performance; Education and Human Performance -- Dissertations, Academic

Language dc:language

English

Identifier

CFE0005979

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd-2389