Cost of Attendance Adjustments in California Higher Education: Campus Perspectives on Access, Barriers, and Impacts for Students with Experience in Foster Care

California has made significant investments to ensure current and former foster youth can succeed in higher education. The creation of a statewide network of public campus support programs, funded at $68 million annually, is among its most significant achievements. This analysis examines how the Cost of Attendance (COA) adjustment process is functioning across California’s public higher education systems and whether it enables students participating in foster youth campus support programs to access the financial support these programs are designed to provide.