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The Illinois Department of Children and Family
Services has until the end of November to answer questions about changes
the agency wants to make to its scholarship program for children and young
adults who have been under the guardianship of the state. Under the proposal now being
reviewed by the Joint Committee on Administrative Rules, a waiver may be
granted to students in good standing whose academic careers take a little
longer than usual. Rules now
say that scholarship winners receive a tuition waiver plus a monthly
stipend and medical benefits until the age of 21.
“The reality is that college
does not always begin at 17,” says Kendall Marlowe, a spokesman for
the DCFS. Each year the state makes the
awards to 48 current and former wards of the state. Last year a private
company donated $100,000 for 10 additional scholarships. Gov. Rod
Blagojevich allocated $8.4 million to the program in the budget for the
2008 fiscal year. Marlowe says that the department
had been “doing the right thing” up until now by granting the
waivers on an individual basis, but the change would make it official.
Another scholarship program gives money to youths coming out of DCFS
custody and enrolling in the state’s community-college system. “This encourages our best
and brightest to complete their education at Illinois institutions and to
get the education they need to compete in this economy,” Marlowe
says.
This article appears in Oct 18-24, 2007.
