After reading a newspaper article about a formerly undocumented foster child receiving college tuition benefits from the Department of Children and Families (DCF), you asked: (1) does state or federal law or regulation require this, (2) whether these programs are common in the United States, and (3) how many Connecticut children receive this benefit.

Neither state nor federal law or regulations require DCF to pay for college or vocational school for children under its care. But the Chafee Foster Care Independence Program Act of 1999 allocates federal funds to states that can be used for this purpose (PL 106-169). States get an 80% federal match (up to their total allotment) for qualifying programs. Most states have established tuition or college voucher programs using Chafee funding.

Table 1 shows the number of Connecticut students benefiting from this program in SFY 06 and associated costs (through May 31, 2006).

Table 1: DCF Post-Secondary Education Program

Source: DCF

We enclose a copy of DCF's policy guidelines for this program (42-20-20) and OLR Report 2006-R-0423 that describes eligibility criteria.

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