Lois M. Collins Deseret News March 30, 2017

SALT LAKE CITY — States remove abused and neglected children from dangerous or troubling situations every day and place them in foster care, promising to keep them safe. That doesn’t mean the children are promised an especially bright future.

Statistics are disheartening, despite the good intentions and best efforts of policymakers, caseworkers and others. Foster kids move from home to home and change schools on average six times while in care, so most are perpetually behind in school by at least one grade level. They are more likely to drop out or be expelled than students in general.

National data show fewer than half of foster youths even graduate from high school, compared to 82 percent of students overall. While slightly more than half of high school students nationally go to college and 30 percent earn a degree, fewer than 3 percent of foster youths ever enroll in higher education and an abysmal one-third of 1 percent — 0.03 percent — graduate. Utah does a little better than average with high school graduation rates, but mirrors national college statistics, said Crystal Vail, Youth Services Program administrator for the state.  Read More