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As we look ahead to the coming semester, uncertainty and fear continue to hang over higher education. While we can hope the new vaccines will help us begin to return to normal, the coronavirus pandemic currently still rages on. Public health demands we maintain our distance and remain as careful and cautious as ever.
In this difficult time, we should be particularly concerned about an often-overlooked population of students at our institutions for whom fear and uncertainty are especially well-known: youth who were formerly in foster care. The assumptions we make about our students having consistent family support, housing, food security, adult mentoring and more may not hold true for these students. And although they are resilient in many ways, such students have already faced substantial systemic barriers to successfully earning a postsecondary credential.