Foster Scholarship

Scholarships for Foster Children

Thousands of children become orphans due to either abandonement by parents or death of parents.   While this is a very sad thing, but due to a great social support system a great majority of these children end up in foster homes.  The child welfare division of the US Department of Health and Human Services is responsible for seeking foster homes with the help from state welfare and social services organizations.  They also like to make sure that just because a child has been adopted into a foster home doesn't mean that that s/he will lose financial aid for getting college education.  To help foster children get college education several scholarships are available:

Orphan Foundation of America Scholarship

OFA scholarships are need and merit based scholarships funded mostly by private organizations.  This scholarship can fund a foster child's education up to graduate schools.  To be eligible the student must:

  • meet one of the following criteria:
    • Have been in foster care for one consecutive year at the time of their 18th birthday
    • Have been adopted or taken into legal guardianship out of foster care after their 16th birthday
    • Have lost both parents to death before the age of 18 and not been subsequently adopted. 
  • Be accepted into or enrolled in an accredited post-secondary program at the undergraduate level (university, college, community college or vocational/technical institute).
  • Be under the age of 25.
  • Applicants must have been in foster care or have grown up in the United States of America and must reside in the U.S. at the time of their application. U.S. citizenship is not required for the OFA Scholarship.

United Friends of the Children Financial Support

UFC offers financial assistance to 30 to 40 LA County graduating seniors and up to five transfer students each year. Students can get $3,000 per year for up to five years for college, rent, books, tuition, supplies, food, transportation, and travel to and from school or other personal needs.

National Foster Parent Association Scholarship

NFPA offers scholarships for foster youth, adopted youth, or biological youth of currently licensed foster parents, who wish to further their education beyond high school, including college or university studies, vocational and job training, and correspondence courses, including the GED. Foster parents must also be members of NFPA.

Horatio Alger Association
Horatio Alger Association offers more than 100 financial need based national scholarships in the amount of $20,000 each.  In addition to that it also offers a number of state scholarships listed below:

  • Ak-Sar-Ben Scholarship Program (Nebraska and Western Iowa)
  • Alabama Scholarship Program
  • Arizona Scholarship Program
  • California Scholarship Program
  • District of Columbia, Maryland, and Virginia Scholarship Program
  • Delaware Scholarship Program
  • Franklin Scholarship Program (Pennsylvania)
  • Georgia Scholarship Program
  • Lola and Duane Hagadone Idaho Scholarship Program (Idaho)
  • Idaho State University Scholarship Program
  • Illinois Scholarship Program
  • Indiana Scholarship Program
  • Kentucky Scholarship Program
  • Louisiana Scholarship Program
  • Minnesota Scholarship Program
  • Mississippi Scholarship Program
  • Missouri Scholarship Program
  • Montana Scholarship Program
  • New Jersey Scholarship Program
  • New York Scholarship Program
  • North Dakota Scholarship Program
  • Oregon Scholarship Program
  • Pennsylvania Scholarship Program
  • South Dakota Scholarship Program
  • Texas Ft. Worth Scholarship Program
  • Utah Scholarship Program
  • Washington Scholarship Program
  • Wyoming Scholarship Program  

Other Organizations Offering Foster Schoalrships