Promoting education, training, and career success for youth in foster care.

OHIOEducation & Training Voucher

(ETV) & OFA Scholarship Programs

What is the Education and Training Voucher (ETV) Program?

* The ETV Program, is a federally funded, state administered program, that provides grants up to $5000 per year to help former foster youth attend college and vocational training institutions.

* ETV funding is a separate allocation from the state’s Chafee Independent Living Program award.  

Eligibility for OH ETV Funds:ETV Student Applicants must be a current, or former foster youth

who: ◦ Was in foster care on their 18th birthday and aged out at that time;

OR◦ Was adopted from foster care with the adoption finalized AFTER

his/her 16th birthday; OR◦ Will have his/her foster care case closed between the ages of 18 and

21. Be a U.S. citizen or qualified non-citizen. Be at least 18, but younger than 21, to apply for the first time. Have been accepted into or be enrolled in a degree, certificate

or other accredited program at a college, university, technical, vocational school.

To remain eligible for ETV funding, students must show progress toward a degree or certificate.

Please Take Note… OFA does not determine ETV eligibility. Eligibility is determined by

the Ohio State Independent Living Coordinator.

Completing the online ETV application is step one of a multi-step process. An application is not complete until the student’s ETV forms have been received by ETV.

The student is responsible for completing his/her own ETV application once a year. Social workers and foster parents should not complete the ETV application for students, nor use their own email addresses for students to receive ETV communications.

Students must provide their own contact information in the Student Contact section of the ETV application, as well as contact information for their Social Worker & Independent Living Worker (if applicable.)

Students remain eligible for ETV up to age 23 if they received ETV funding prior to their 21st birthday.

Students complete an online application

once a year at www.statevoucher.org ETV Home Page

Ohio ETV Program Home Page

What forms are required for OH ETV?

1. Financial Aid Release Form: Student should take the ETV to the financial aid office, where it is completed and faxed to OH ETV.

2. Cashier’s Statement: Student should take the ETV to the cashier/bursar’s office, where it is completed and faxed along With dated copy of the student’s ITEMIZED BILL for that term.

Students cannot be funded without completed ETV forms and a current school bill.

Financial Aid Release Form & Cashier’s Statement

Because the number of eligible applicants increases each year, there are more students sharing fewer ETV funds.

Awarding funds is based upon each student’s unmet financial need as described by The Higher Education Act.

Unmet need is calculated by reviewing the school’s published Cost of Attendance, less other financial aid the student will receive, such as a Pell grant, Ohio College Opportunity Grant, work study and scholarships.

For more information on this topic, see Sec. 201 of P.L. 107-133.

How are ETV Awards determined?

What Can ETV pay for?

* ETV funds pay for college and vocational school related costs.

* However, With fewer funds to award, ETV’s first priority is to award funds to remaining tuition, books. An effort is ALWAYS made to supersede loans when possible.

* Then, if not paid by other stipends, ETV attempts to pay requests for rent, living expenses, and computers. Almost every student’s situation is different.

For more information on the federal definition of “cost of attendance,” visit www.ed.gov/policy.

Foster Youth CAN graduate without incurring debt

ETV helps the student strategize how to achieve more with less funding. Can they achieve the basics at a community college for the first two years?

Student should meet with the financial aid officer BEFORE STARTING SCHOOL. Help the youth consider the pros & cons of attending a private college and caution them about assuming considerable debt for an undergraduate degree

Students attending Community College and remain in care, and pay no rent or health care premiums, should NOT take out student loans.

The combined Pell & ETV grants total $10,350 per school year for full time students. These funds are sufficient to cover $4000 in community college tuition, books, and fees. Any remaining funds should be used for approved living expenses such as transportation, food, computers.

Students attending a private college should receive grant funding in lieu of student loans.

Students Can Manage Their Application

• Students are provided permanent user names and passwords when they apply online. They should be keep private, and in a secure place.

• They can see what checks have been issued for them, or to them, term by term.

• Students can update their personal information 24/7, virtually guaranteeing that they will get their checks at the right place, and we can write and call them monthly.

• They can also watch their STATUS Page, which shows them term by term, what forms and transcripts are received or missing.

• If we lose touch with a student after 5 attempts by phone and email, their application is “made inactive” until we hear from them.

Students can view check disbursements made to them or a third party.

Students can check on the status of their paperwork.

The GOAL is to have students attend, succeed, and graduate, ready to enter the work force with as little debt as possible.

Ohio specific grant & scholarship opportunities include:o Ohio Academic Scholarship o Ohio College Opportunity Grant  o Ohio Student Choice Grant o Ohio War Orphans Scholarship o Ohio Glory Scholarship

Foster youth should apply for multiple grants and scholarships:

OFA awards $1 million in private scholarships to some 400 young people annually.

In the last 10 years, retention rate for OFA scholars is 75% and graduation rate is 60% -significantly higher than what current research has found among youth and alumni of foster care.

For more information: http://orphan.org/what-we-do/scholarships-and-grants/

OFA Scholarship Programs

* MENTORING - It’s human nature. People try harder and succeed more often when they have people cheering them on. To that end, OFA mentors connect online with students to provide advice, support and encouragement to stay in school.

ACADEMIC COACHING - OFA’s Academic Success Program (ASP) helps keep students at risk of failing or dropping out on track through structured one-on-one online and telephone coaching, and a facebook community. ASP mentors teach students how to manage their time, study, and use campus resources.

CARE PACKAGES - Letters and goody boxes from home are important morale boosters for college students. Sadly, most foster youth rarely receive them, so OFA and FedEx stepped in with the care package program. Volunteers compile and mail thousands of boxes filled with basic necessities and small gifts three times a year to OFA students as a tangible reminder that people care about them.

RED SCARF PROJECT - Volunteers across the country knit and crochet red scarves, which are traditionally included in OFA’s Valentine’s Day Care Package along with chocolate, cookies and handmade cards. The Red Scarf Fund was started by knitter Norma Miller as an emergency fund to help students pay for urgent expenses such as medical bills, transportation or housing.

INTERNSHIPS - The competitive InternAmerica Program places OFA students in corporations, nongovernmental agencies and Congressional offices each summer. Interns receive travel and housing allowances as well as a stipend. Our interns have worked at the White House, the Smithsonian Institution, the Children’s Defense Fund, the Metropolitan Council of Governments, the Siemens Corporation, the United Nations High Commission on Refugees and in the Capitol Hill offices of senators and representatives from both sides of the aisle. OFA also develops and facilitates internship opportunities for foster youth with local businesses, agencies and government offices across the country.

For more information: http://orphan.org/what-we-do/scholarships-and-grants/

Additional OFA Support Services

OH ETV is here to help!

If you have questions or need more information, please contact:

Laura Adkinsoh@statevoucher.org

(800) 585 – 7115 ext. 1www.statevoucher.org