University of Washington study: Transition out of foster care needs support | OregonLive.com

University of Washington study: Transition out of foster care needs support | OregonLive.com

University of Washington study: Transition out of foster care needs support

By The Associated Press

April 06, 2010, 9:01PM

CHICAGO -- Tasha Collett spent most of her teen years shuffling between so many different foster families that she's lost count of just how many there were. By the time she aged out of the Iowa system at age 18, she ended up living in homeless shelters, on and off.

Not exactly a foundation for success. But Collett, now 21, still managed to land an apartment and a part-time job at a drug store. She's also studying to become a registered nurse at a medical college in Des Moines.

"I'm very blessed," Collett says, making a statement that's confirmed when you look at the often grim findings from a long-term study on older youth who've been in foster care.

According to the study, released Wednesday, a quarter of the youth didn't have a high school diploma or GED. Only about half were working, compared with 72 percent of their peers who weren't in foster care.

And almost half reported at least one hardship during the study, such as an