Academic prospects
Educational outcomes of ex-foster children in the Northwest Alumni Study:
56% completed high school compared to 82% of the general population, although an additional 29% of former foster children received a G.E.D. compared to an additional 5% of the general population. 42.7% completed some education beyond high school. 20.6% completed any degree or certificate beyond high school
16.1% completed a vocational degree; 21.9% for those over 25. 1.8% complete a bachelors degree, 2.7% for over 25, the completion rate for the general population in the same age group is 24%, a sizable difference.The study reviewed case records for 659 foster care alumni in Northwest USA, and interviewed 479 of them
between September 2000 and January 2002. Higher Education
Approximately 10% of foster youth make it to college and of those 10%, only about 3% actually graduate and obtain a 4-year degree. Although the number of foster youth who are starting at a 4-year university after high school has increased over the years, the number of youth who graduate from college continues to remain stable. A study of 712 youth in California, the results revealed that foster care youth are fives times less likely to attend college than youth who do not go through foster care. There are different resources that offer both financial and emotional support for foster youth to continue their education. Simultaneously, there are also many barriers that make getting to a college or university difficult. Borton describes some of the barriers youth face in her article, Barriers to Post-Secondary Enrollment for Former Foster Youth.
Children who are eventually adopted by their placement family show greater outcomes, in terms of finding stable housing, employment, finances and education opportunities, than those who aged out of the foster care system without a permanent placement.It has also been reported that former foster youth have a higher chance of ending up in prostitution, and even fall prey to sex trafficking. This has also been called the "foster care to prostitution pipeline". a 2012 study in Los Angeles found that 59% of juveniles arrested for prostitution were or had been in foster care, but the generalizability of these findings has been disputed. See also
References
Further reading
External links
The Mental Health of Children in Out-of-Home Care: Scale and Complexity of Mental Health Problems
Effects of Enhanced Foster Care on the Long-term Physical and Mental Health of Foster Care Alumni
The impact of foster care on development
Effects of early psychosocial deprivation on the development of memory and executive function
Enduring neurobehavioral effects of early life trauma mediated through learning and corticosterone suppression 
Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Boarding-Out System" . Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.