Texas Reach to help foster youth achieve dream of college education

Posted by Jayme Blaschke
University News Service
May 20, 2010

The Texas Reach Convening, a conference bringing together community agencies, social workers and institutes of higher education to explore ways of better serving the college needs of foster care youth, will be held May 26-27 at Texas State University-San Marcos.

The Texas Reach Convening will bring together decision makers and program developers from across the state to share information and best practices, in order to increase the number of former foster youth entering and succeeding in college. The goal is to improve interaction between youth service agencies, colleges and universities to increase access to higher education for this group.

According to Casey Family Programs, there were 28,462 Texas children in out-of-home care in 2007 with 15,920 having entered care that year. Nationally, only 2 percent of youth from foster care attain a bachelor’s degree, compared to 24 percent of the general population. Ultimately, the conference aims to incrementally improve degree attainment to rates beyond 2 percent.

Sponsors of Texas Reach Convening include Austin Community College, Austin Community Foundation, Casey Family Programs, Foster Care Alumni of America, Rodenfels Family Foundation, Sam Houston State University, Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, Texas Pioneer Foundation, Texas State Division of Student Affairs and the Texas State School of Social Work.

For more information, contact Sheila Reynolds at (512) 245-2153 or via email at sr35@txstate.edu.