Restoring Dignity for Foster Youth From the Classroom to Congress

In a school and child welfare database, a child in care is often just an ID number, a string of digits attached to a court date, a medical record, and an average daily attendance per diem. But in the real world, that ‘case’ is a human being named Maya who loves graphic novels, struggles with algebra, and is currently carrying her entire world in a plastic bag.

Our goal this Youth in Foster Care Awareness Month is to look past the file and restore the person. Our systems, while well-meaning, often prioritize safety and logistics, but can forget to treat students with integrity and center their dignity.

Dignity isn’t a single policy; it’s a culture we must foster and build from the classroom to the halls of Congress.

For youth in foster care, dignity is often won or lost in the smallest moments of a school day. For most students, a missed parent signature on a field trip slip is a minor annoyance; for a foster youth, it’s a spotlight on their “otherness.” On average, youth in foster care students move schools seven or more times throughout their K-12 education. Each time a foster youth student enrolls in a new school, they have to explain why their records are missing, why they don’t have a permanent address, or why a biological parent isn’t the one picking them up. Having to explain their life story to a stranger just to get the basic tools they need to learn often can feel like being stripped of their dignity.

To that end, dignity in the classroom starts with removing the burden of bureaucracy from the student by implementing Education Liaisons or dedicated Point-of-Contact systems. These are adults behind the scenes who handle the red tape and the paperwork for the student. When the system handles the “boring stuff” quietly, it gives the student the greatest gift possible: the ability to just be a kid. A student has dignity when their teacher knows their favorite book or their skill in math before they ever see their placement status or make assumptions about their trauma.

But dignity doesn’t stop at the classroom door. While a supportive classroom provides a safe space for the day, dignity must also follow a student when they leave the school grounds.

A Foster Youth’s Journey

School Year Start

Placement 1 of 7

🧒 📦

“Welcome. Where are your official transcripts from your last school?”

On average, foster youth move schools seven or more times throughout their K–12 education.

We see this shift happening at the state level with laws like New York’s “Dignified Transportation” measures. By banning the use of trash bags for moving a child’s belongings and mandating high-quality luggage, the state is sending a simple but powerful message: Your belongings are not trash, and neither are you. But no young person’s dignity should depend on their zip code. For that message to last a lifetime, our federal policies must affirm dignity for students in foster care by ensuring that they are supported not just in the classroom but across every transition and every stage of their lives.

Right now, too many young people in foster care are not getting their health or education needs met; they are asked to survive systems that work in silos and are not currently designed to help them thrive.

Federal laws like the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which ensures educational stability and success for foster youth by requiring school districts and child welfare agencies to collaborate on keeping students in their “school of origin,” ensuring immediate enrollment in new schools, and designating points of contact to prevent academic disruptions, and the Chafee Foster Care Program, which provides funding and services for housing, education, and employment, provide an important foundation. They recognize that students in foster care need

stability, support, and pathways forward. But these laws often operate in silos, while young people they serve need them to work together. If dignity is the goal, Congress must go further to ensure no young person falls through the cracks simply because they were placed in foster care.

True dignity includes the right to imagine a fulfilling future full of education and economic opportunities to thrive. Aging out of the foster care system should never mean dropping out of opportunities.

That starts with modernizing the Education and Training Voucher (ETV) program, which provides young people with vouchers to pursue education opportunities. For many young people, ETVs are a lifeline.

But in 2026, when economic inflation is at an all-time high, Education and Training Vouchers (ETVs) are often stretched too thin to fully meet the needs of youth in foster care. While ETV funds can be used for a range of expenses, including transportation, technology, books, and housing, the limited size of awards often forces students to prioritize tuition, leaving little support for the additional costs that determine whether they can persist and succeed.

Congress should increase ETV funding to reflect the full cost of participation in education and training. When resources are constrained, students are forced into impossible tradeoffs between paying for classes and affording basic needs like reliable internet, a laptop, or transportation. Expanding funding would allow ETVs to function as intended: flexible supports that enable success across multiple pathways, including short-term credentials, apprenticeships, dual enrollment, and work-based learning.

Because dignity is not about limiting young people to one narrow pathway—it is about ensuring they have the resources and real choices to pursue the path that works for them.

For these students, dignity means health care access that meets them where they are. Congress should ensure states allow Medicaid reimbursement for all medically necessary services provided in schools, not just those tied to an Individualized Education Program plan. School-based mental health counseling, primary care, screenings, and behavioral supports should be available just down the hall from the classroom.

When care is accessible, students are more likely to stay engaged, regulated, and ready to learn.

There is no economic dignity without addressing the full needs of a person, which include access to reliable and affordable healthcare and housing stability. Economic dignity is impossible without a safe place to sleep.

Yet, for youth in foster care, housing stability is not a given. Once they age out of the foster youth system and transition into adulthood, many foster youth find themselves at a “cliff” where support suddenly vanishes overnight. To fix this, Congress should pass legislation that extends housing and transitional supports for youth aging out of care, gives states more flexibility to use Chafee funds for housing needs, requires coordination between the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Administration for Children and Families, and tracks real housing outcomes, not just participation numbers.

Because no young person can build a future while wondering where they will sleep tonight.

Dignity is not one program or one budget line item. It is a continuous thread that must run through every stage of a young person’s life. If we truly believe foster youth deserve opportunity, then our federal policies must prove it.