Ted Talk Reflection Foster Care to College

Carolyn Mask-Oats

The University of Texas at Arlington, United Way of Denton County

29 March 2020
 One of the policy implications regarding foster care is the independence of youth who

remain in the system until they have reached the age of adulthood (usually 18). Dr. Robert Duke

explains the need for a better response system to create pathways to college for these youth. This

includes understanding the problem, being responsive to the needs of these youth, and helping

them to develop. Research suggests that 65% of foster youth will continue to have experiences

with unstable housing, and a quarter of them will experience literal homelessness. As such, other

implications include a higher likelihood of pregnancy during the college-aged years, a higher

likelihood of delinquency, and maladaptive mental health progression. These issues alone

address the criticalness of helping these youth to develop stability, and a college degree has the

potential to alleviate and prevent these situations.

While current policies are in place to assist with the costs of college, the maintenance of

this critical life period requires a single determinant. These children should have people in their

circle of education (including local colleges, guidance counselors, teachers, and mentors or foster

families) to help foster an achievable value for education. Dr. Duke expressed this as a need to

risk some personal comforts to address the needs of a population of people that can be helped.

Doing so would entail a change in the views of the college admission process as it pertains to

college readiness and the overall progression for youth who are likely to age out of the foster

care system as early as the middle school years. The goal of the child welfare system is to

promote the safety, permanence, and well-being of all children to assist in their development as

biologically, psychologically, and socially healthy adults. All of which are essential impetuses of

the core of social work practice, especially considering the adherence to social justice and the

dedication to society at large. I believe that the development of sound pathways to success for
youth aging out of foster care is a reasonably solvable crisis that contributes to the betterment of

individuals and societies as people become higher stakeholders of human and economic capital.
1.
Foster Care to College: A Crisis WE Can Solve, Robert R. Duke, TEDxAzusaPacificUniversity
https://youtu.be/IKI6SDec7Gc