Crown wards will get free tuition for up to four years at all Ontario universities and one-third of community colleges after they leave care, under a new program to be paid for jointly by the province and the institutions.

It’s a move long called for by child welfare advocates as a way to help those in foster care make the often daunting transition to the adult world.

As well as receiving free tuition of up to $6,000 a year from the government, the 30 colleges and universities and the ministry of child and youth services will provide a $500 grant to help cover the living expenses of Crown wards between 21 and 24 who have enrolled.

“We need to continue to remove barriers to education for Crown wards because we know they’re less likely to graduate from high school and go on to post-secondary education,” MPP Brad Duguid, minister of training, colleges and universities, said at an announcement Tuesday at the University of Toronto.

The program is an extension of a pilot project launched jointly last year by the Ontario government, eight universities and three community colleges, which provided some 250 former Crown wards with free tuition. The increased number of institutions is expected to mean up to 850 former Crown wards be able to afford higher learning.

“When you understand what brought some of them to become Crown wards in the first place, you realize the journey be very unforgiving,” noted Ontario Child Advocate Irwin Elman, who has long championed more supports for Crown wards as they leave care fully at age 21.

Only about 44 per cent of Ontario’s 8,300 Crown wards graduate from high school, compared to about 82 per cent of the population at large, he said, “so for those who manage to find a way to post-secondary education, to then face financial burdens can be such a barrier.”

Former Crown ward Vera Williams, 25, is entering third year at the U of T, where she’s studying English and women’s studies. She said the free tuition this fall “will be of immense aid to people like myself who have had to work multiple jobs to make ends meet and sometimes had to choose between going to class and going to work.”

Williams was in care from the age of 14 to 21, and was part of the Youth Leaving Care Working Group that advised the province on ways to help support Crown wards as they leave care and become adults.

Crown wards must move out of foster care when they turn 18, but they can have a stipend and some social work support until they hit 21, which Williams called “the most difficult of days because we’re separated from support and often the only care we’ve ever known.”

Although she works part-time for the Ontario Association of Children’s Aid Societies, Williams said she had had to take low-wage retailing jobs in the last two years to help with costs not covered by loans and grants.

“Those employers are often very inflexible,” said Williams, who said financial pressures forced her to drop out temporarily in second year. “This announcement will be enormously encouraging to youth who are in care.”

Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading... Loading...

Bonnie Patterson, former president of Trent University and now head of the Council of Ontario Universities, left home at 15 and had many friends in care, she said, “and I have seen how much of a struggle they face; this is a hand’s-up for people who’ve had a tough go all their lives.”

The eight community colleges that have agreed to share the cost of tuition for former crown wards with the province are Humber, Sheridan, Cambrian, Canadore, Collège Boréale, Northern, Sault and Cité.