Oklahoma Children and Family Services Professionals Say Education for Foster Children is Strong Part of Future Success

OKLAHOMA CAPITOL -- Oklahoma’s Higher Learning Access Program can play a strong role in landing a college education for many of the children who have been brought into state custody as a result of abuse and neglect, says Oklahoma Department of Human Services Programs Administrator Kathy Simms.
The Oklahoma Regents for Higher Education recently honored the OKDHS Children and Family Services Division for its active partnership during the previous 14 months in enrolling foster children into the OHLAP.

Through fall 2004, OKDHS had enrolled 657 students in state foster care in the OHLAP, which represented 1 in 20 students in the program statewide. Some 258 students in foster care were enrolled in the first three months of this year alone. With additional mass mailings to foster families scheduled for January and May 2005, several hundred more student applications could be completed before the beginning of the fall 2005 school year.

“We are pleased to be honored for our efforts,” Simms said. “We believe it is the right thing to do for students in foster care. Everything we know about abuse and neglect tells us that the more we afford children a chance to increase their educational levels by receiving a college degree, the less likely they will be to repeat the cycles of abuse or neglect should they have children.

“Clay Zahn and T.J. Sarrington on our staff deserve much of the credit for our success. Among other duties, they are on the front edge of this program effort everyday working with field staff and foster parents to get applications completed and the students registered with the State Regents.”

OKDHS’ successes with the program led the State Regents to develop a special form just for children in OKDHS care.

Zahn, the CFSD Independent Living program coordinator, said, “Getting youth into college is especially important because the lack of education leads to more unemployment and underemployment when they become adults. When people don’t have jobs, they get stressed out due to their financial challenges. That often leads to domestic violence and child abuse. We see this a lot when we look into the family lives that brought children into foster care.”

OHLAP eligibility requires any student in an Oklahoma school system to be enrolled in the program while in the 8th through 10th grades. The foster youth needs to be in OKDHS custody, in an out of home placement-foster care or group home and in grades 8-10.

OHLAP also requires students to take a 17-unit core curriculum and maintain a 2.5 GPA for all course work attempted in grades 9-12. The State Regents waived the income criteria for students in OKDHS custody.

The only real challenge to the program is not having a sufficient number of students enrolled and continued funding to the State Regents by the Oklahoma Legislature.

Simms said Children’s Services would encourage anyone working with 8th to 10th grade students to consider helping them get enrolled in the OHLAP because it can make a personal and financial difference in their educational options and opportunities and may mean a real difference in their future working careers.

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