The following article was originally published in the Ohio Capital Journal and published on News5Cleveland.com under a content-sharing agreement.
A bipartisan bill introduced in the Ohio General Assembly seeks to establish a pipeline from foster care to college or careers.
The sponsors of House Bill 25 are targeting a population of Ohioans who struggle to get through high school, and therefore may not have the guidance needed to lead them to a fruitful career in the state after leaving the foster care system.
“They are experiencing some of the worst outcomes of our state and yet the state could and should do more,” said bill co-sponsor state Rep. Dontavius Jarrells, D-Columbus.
The bill is a reintroduction of a similar bill that didn’t get through the last General Assembly before it ended in December. House Bill 164, which Jarrells co-sponsored with former state Rep. Bill Seitz, passed 85-5 in the House in June 2024, before getting tied up in the Ohio Senate Finance Committee.
Also as before, state Sen. Michele Reynolds, R-Canal Winchester, has introduced a companion bill, Senate Bill 13, for consideration in the Senate.
According to the National Foster Youth Institute, just 3-4% of former foster youth across the country obtain a four-year college degree, and between 2% and 6% receive a two-year degree. The NFYI also found that high school dropout rates are higher for foster youth than even other low-income children and more than 40% of foster children in school face “educational difficulties.”
“Aspiring to attend college motivates students to stay in school and keep their grades up,” the Children’s Defense Fund of Ohio said in support of the previous foster-to-college legislative effort. “Reducing financial barriers increases the likelihood that a student will complete their degree.”
H.B. 25 would create a scholarship program for Ohioans who are in foster care after their 13th birthday, funding tuition, fees or other education expenses outside of federal or state financial aid, according to Jarrells.
When word got out that Jarrells was reintroducing the bill, state Rep. Sharon Ray, R-Wadsworth, said she quickly reached out to become a co-sponsor, hoping to help the state and the “strong” foster care system she has in her district.
She compared the scholarship program to the GI Bill that subsidizes educational opportunities for military personnel, saying that in the same way the GI Bill “changed so many lives” by giving them the financial support they needed, this new bill could create change for foster kids.
“These kids, when they’re 18, they just age out of the system, and for these kids that have been working hard, we want to make sure they have the best chance at life,” Ray said.
Under the bill, which would appropriate $7.5 million each over the next two years, “foster care student navigators” would be hired by the state to guide those coming out of foster care with applications, higher education admission processes and things like career tech or post-high school training.
“When we invest in them, they invest back in Ohio,” Jarrells said.
According to the Children’s Defense Fund of Ohio, 35 states, including Texas and Florida, had already voted in favor of legislation like Ohio’s bill at the time it was introduced in the last GA.
The House bill has been referred to the House Workforce & Higher Education Committee, and the Senate bill has been sent to the Senate Finance Committee for consideration.
Jarrells and Ray are hopeful the fact that the bill was introduced early in the GA gives it a better chance of passage, though they also see potential for budget negotiations to include the measures in their bill.
“We want this just to be a win for the future, and hopefully something that gets continued investment so we can reach as many foster kids as we can,” Jarrells said.
