FREE COLLEGE FOR MN FOSTERS (Village Gathering Info Session 9.9.22)

  School is about to start for students across the state. For many of our Foster leaders, the classroom was a place of refuge, where, unlike their time in foster care, they had agency and connections. Over 80% of high school Fosters want to continue with post-secondary education, but that dream was financially out-of-reach for…

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MN Child Daycare, New Moms & Paid Leave

How we value children in MN. 2/3 of new moms take unpaid leave after childbirth. Minnesota is the 4th most expensive state for infant daycare ($16,087/yr). Nationally, single moms and the working poor are often paying over half their income for infant center care and married parents would  pay over 100% of their household income for center based care (but they don’t because it just doesn’t work).

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Politics & Children – A Zero Sum Game

A recent MN Governor ended subsidized daycare in the state – the waiting list went from 34 families to 7000.

At the time, two percent of MN children were enrolled in high quality early childhood education programs- the national average was 25% and MN had the lowest rate among the 38 states that offer the programs.

Cutting the pie smaller for children is destructive, leads to failing students and schools, troubled communities, and the highest crime rates in the industrialized world.

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Free College Tuition For Fostered – Adopted Children

Minnesota’s Free Foster Care College (starting fall of 2022).

Here are recent positive developments in support of free & low cost college for foster and adopted youth;

Nineteen states have at least one Statewide student aid Promise Program

Federal programs for foster/adopted youth in all states

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The School Safety Net

COVID restrictions have locked many more students into toxic homes and made it much harder for teachers to have the relationships necessary to have meaningful conversations and provide help to end the abuse.For many children being able to attend school physically is their only reprieve from an abusive home life and only chance to confide in an adult that can provide a path to safety.

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