Two pieces of bipartisan legislation were thrown into the hopper this month that would amend the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood, which since 1999 has funneled millions to states to help older youth in foster care, especially those set to age out of the system.
The Foster Youth Housing Opportunity Act, introduced by Reps. Darin LaHood (R-Ill.) and Gwen Moore (D-Wis.) would better align Chafee with Foster Youth to Independence, a voucher program at the Department of Housing and Urban Development. Those vouchers are available to youth exiting foster care for up to five years.
This bill would enable states to spend a portion of their Chafee allotment on housing support services, such as financial counseling and covering up-front costs such as a security deposit or utility connection fees. States are already allowed to use 30% of their Chafee funds on “room and board” costs for foster youth; this amendment would allow them to spend on these support services outside of that cap.
The Foster Youth Postsecondary Education Access and Success Act, introduced by Reps. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) and Nathaniel Moran (R-Texas), would make changes to the Education and Training Voucher (ETV) portion of the Chafee program, which provides more than $40 million every year to help foster youth afford higher education.
Chu said in a statement announcing the bill that “the value of these vouchers is too low, and current data shows that only about one-third of eligible youth who attend college even receive an ETV.”
The current maximum annual award under ETV is $5,000; this bill would more than double that to $12,000. It’s the same amount that the award was increased temporarily during the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, as part of the stimulus package signed by President Trump during his first term.
That stimulus boost came alongside a one-time surge in Chafee funds. This bill does not increase the actual dollar amount of the ETV program, which means states raising their maximum individual award could proportionally lower the number of youth getting any award. But as Chu points out, in at least some states, the program is not reaching as many youth as are eligible.
To that end, the legislation inserts a “reasonable efforts” requirement for states to “ensure that eligible youth are aware” of ETV grants. It also instructs the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to simplify the application form, and permits states to offer a grace period for youth if reasonable circumstances have temporarily prevented them from meeting their state’s satisfactory academic progress requirements.
We are likely to see more Chafee-related bills follow these two. The program turned 25 in 2024, the messaging campaign to modernize it both in dollar figures and structure began that year, and it is widely expected that the relevant congressional committees will take up Chafee updates this legislative season.
President Trump also singled out the ETV program in his November executive order on foster care, calling on his HHS to provide flexibility in the ETV program to “expand access for individuals transitioning out of foster care to short-term, career-focused, and credential-awarding programs.” Youth Services Insider would not be surprised to see a bill introduced that might codify that instruction in law.
Expect to see at least some of these derivative bills piled up into a package later in the year, similar to how the reauthorization of Title IV-B proceeded in 2024.
Correction: This article originally described the “grace period” in the ETV bill as applying to student who temporarily leave school. It has been updated to reflect the correct description of the grace period.
