The Effects of Campus-Support Programs for Youth with Foster Care Experience: An Early Look at the Nextup and Eops Programs In California Community Colleges

Background: Most youth with experience in foster care (YEFC) in California who attend college enroll in two-year schools (Okpych et al., 2022), where their graduation rate is three times lower than that of their peers (5% vs. 15%) (Okpych et al., forthcoming). EOPS and NextUp are two promising campus-based programs that aim to improve outcomes for YEFC in California community colleges. Created in the 1970s, EOPS serves economically disadvantaged and underrepresented students, including YEFC. NextUp serves YEFC in foster care on or after their 13th birthday. NextUp launched in 2016 and was expanded to all 116 community colleges by 2023. The purpose of this study is to examine whether participating in EOPS or NextUp improves first-year academic outcomes for YEFC.

Methods: Our study analyzes state child welfare administrative data linked to California Community College Chancellor’s Office data. The sample includes YEFC enrolled in a California community college between 2016 and 2022 (n = 19,319). We used double-robust propensity score (PS) weighting to estimate the effect of participating in EOPS or NextUp on first-year outcomes. First, we estimated each YEFC’s probability of receiving EOPS, NextUp, or neither. Covariates captured characteristics of the youth (e.g., demographics, documented behavioral health issue), foster care characteristics (e.g., age last in care, predominant placement type), and college entry characteristics (e.g., age started college, academic goal, units enrolled). The outcome regression models used the inverse probability of treatment as a sampling weight and controlled for covariates in the PS model as well as additional controls (e.g., dummy variables for the college attended, receipt of various types of financial aid). Logistic regression was used to predict the odds of first-year retention (i.e., enrollment in both fall and spring terms) and OLS regression predicted first-year GPA. Multiple imputation was used to address missing data.

Results: Balance checks indicated that PS weighting removed statistically significant differences between treatment groups in most PS model covariates. Most YEFC received neither program (72.7%) while 15.2% participated in NextUp and 12.2% participated in EOPS. Less than half of YEFC were retained (47.7%) and the average GPA was 1.45. Compared to nonparticipants, YEFC in NextUp had a higher retention rate (odds ratio [OR] = 2.95, p < .001) and GPA (beta = 0.16, p < .001). Similarly, EOPS participation predicted greater odds of retention (OR = 1.89, p < .001) and higher GPA (beta = 0.14, p < .001).

Conclusions and Implications: To our knowledge, this is the first study to use quasi-experimental methods to estimate the effects of campus-support programs on YEFC outcomes in two-year colleges. Previous studies focused on programs in a single college, did not examine GPA, or merely reported descriptive outcomes. Thus, this study makes an important contribution to evidence about campus-based programs for YEFC. NextUp and EOPS predicted higher GPA and retention in the first year, a time when many YEFC drop out of college. While promising, future research should assess longer term outcomes (e.g., graduation) and differential effects (e.g., if program participation benefits some YEFC more than others).