Students who have experienced foster care (SEFC) are enrolled at colleges and universities across the country, bringing with them tremendous strengths, aspirations, and resilience. Yet too often, the systems designed to support student success are not built with their experiences in mind. That tension is at the heart of Advancing Advising Practices to Support Students Who Have Experienced Foster Care. The resource moves beyond describing the barriers SEFC may encounter to offer practical ways institutions, and particularly advisors, can respond.
The brief draws on research and policy alongside conversations with academic advisors, SEFC support practitioners, and professionals with lived experience in foster care. These voices were intentionally centered throughout its development. Those closest to the work, especially people who have navigated higher education after experiencing foster care themselves, hold essential knowledge about where systems create barriers, what meaningful support looks like, and where opportunities for change exist.
One contributor with lived experience described a challenge that can be easy for institutions to overlook:
“It’s hard because I didn’t want to be labeled as difficult or needing extra help, but the reality was that I did. I just learned to figure it out myself, but I wish I didn’t feel like I needed to.”
Students cannot benefit from resources they do not know exist, do not know how to access, or do not feel comfortable asking for. Effective support cannot depend on students identifying themselves, navigating complicated systems alone, or knowing the right questions to ask.
The Role of Advising
One message emerged clearly: supporting SEFC does not necessarily require every institution to create a specialized program or expect individual practitioners to become experts in every aspect of foster care. It does require greater intentionality, coordination, and an understanding that students’ educational pathways and support networks may not fit traditional assumptions.
Academic advisors are particularly well positioned to contribute. They often sit at the intersection of students, academic programs, financial aid, student services, and institutional systems. With relevant information, professional development, strong networks, and appropriate resources, advisors can make a meaningful difference without fundamentally changing their roles.
But this work cannot rest with advising alone. Advisors are most effective as part of a broader network of informed practitioners and institutional partners who can connect students to resources and address barriers that extend beyond any one office.
Turning Intentionality into Practice
The brief identifies five interconnected opportunities for strengthening support: better leveraging data; investing in professional development; mapping resources and networks; refining student outreach and communications; and developing proactive strategies for direct support.
The starting point will vary by institution. It might mean asking what SEFC-related data are already available, ensuring advisors understand relevant resources, examining whether communications place too much responsibility on students to find support, or identifying campus champions who can connect efforts across departments.
These recommendations are not intended to become another checklist for already-busy advisors. Sustainable support is more likely when practices are embedded across departments, informed by student voice, supported by thoughtful and ethical use of data, and connected to existing institutional resources. The goal is to build the knowledge, relationships, and infrastructure that allow practitioners to better support students within their existing roles.
The full brief explores each of these areas in greater depth, with specific recommendations, resources, and considerations for putting them into practice.
My hope is that this resource serves as both a practical tool and an invitation to ask bigger questions: Who are the students with foster care experience on our campuses? What do we know about their experiences? Where are our systems helping them—and where might those systems unintentionally create additional barriers? What would it take to build a more intentional, coordinated approach?
Even small steps can begin moving an institution from good intentions toward more intentional practice. But those next steps will, and should, look different depending on institutional context, existing resources, student needs, and the partnerships already in place.
The conversation can also extend beyond campus. Community-based organizations, child welfare partners, state agencies and initiatives, philanthropic organizations, and other local, state, and national networks can bring valuable expertise, relationships, resources, and infrastructure. While building these broader partnerships and state-level strategies is beyond the primary scope of this advising-focused brief, they can be important components of a more connected ecosystem of support for SEFC.
This publication is therefore intended as a starting point, not a prescribed model. Institutions can build from it by listening to SEFC, assessing their current practices and resources, identifying gaps and opportunities, and determining which internal and external partners can help turn commitment into sustained practice.
Read the full report, Advancing Advising Practices to Support Students Who Have Experienced Foster Care, for additional context, resources, and recommendations for strengthening advising and institutional support for SEFC.
About the Author
Molly Sarubbi (she/her) is the author of this blog and the accompanying brief, Advancing Advising Practices to Support Students Who Have Experienced Foster Care.
Sarubbi serves as founder and principal of MRSConsulting, supporting diverse stakeholders to integrate and accelerate transformational change in the fields of higher education, education policy, and philanthropy. Her interdisciplinary expertise intersects with qualitative research, systems-level solutions, and reform across the P20 policy landscape, with particular expertise in equity and postsecondary access and retention.
During her more than 15 years of professional leadership, Sarubbi has led various legislative research and reform efforts and provided technical assistance for multiple national partners, states, systems, and institutions to positively impact equitable outcomes at scale. Her current engagements include ongoing consultative services focusing on equity capacity-building, research, and strategic project management alongside numerous national and institutional partners.
Sarubbi is a co-founder of Foster Scholars, remains active in the youth and family advocacy community, and has previously been recognized for her commitment to inclusive excellence.