The FAITH scholarship, Mississippi’s main college aid program for youth from foster care, just ran out of money, and nearly 170 students found out weeks before move-in day.
This story is a hard reminder of something Foster Love sees again and again. Youth in foster care often carry the heaviest load with the least safety net. When a program meant to help them falls short, the impact is immediate and personal.
What Happened to the FAITH Scholarship
The Fostering Access and Inspiring True Hope Scholarship, known as FAITH, helps current and former foster youth in Mississippi pay for college. It covers the full cost of attendance after other aid is applied, including tuition, housing, meals, and books. The Mississippi Legislature created the program in 2022.
FAITH runs on a yearly appropriation from the state Legislature, which means the program only has as much money as lawmakers set aside each year. For the 2026-2027 school year, the state financial aid office asked for about 4.6 million dollars to fully fund the program and received 3 million, according to the Mississippi Free Press.
That gap left about 170 new applicants without funding, even though they had already qualified. State rules require the financial aid office to give priority to returning students first, then fund new applicants on a first-come, first-served basis. When the money ran out, new applicants, many of them first-generation college students from foster care, were the ones turned away.
One foster father whose daughter lost her scholarship days before move-in described the moment to the Mississippi Free Press in blunt terms: “It’s soul-crushing.”
Families Found Out Just Weeks Before Fall Classes
For many students, the news arrived only a couple of weeks before they were set to move into their dorms.
One incoming freshman from the Mississippi Gulf Coast had already been accepted, picked her dorm items, and was preparing for a pharmacy program before learning her scholarship would not be awarded this year. She told WLOX, “Is school going to even be a thing now?”
Another student from Diamondhead said she had turned down offers from 20 other colleges because she believed FAITH would cover her costs at an in-state school, according to WXXV News 25. Describing how the loss felt, she told the station simply, “It just hurts.” Her adoptive mother said the state should be careful about what it promises foster youth before the funding is certain.
Why the Funding Fell Short
The shortfall was not limited to FAITH. Mississippi lowered the minimum course load required for several state aid programs and expanded income limits for another grant, while federal financial aid changes made it easier for more students to qualify overall. More students applying for a fixed amount of state money meant less was left over for programs like FAITH, which state officials had ranked as a lower funding priority, according to WLOX.
Jennifer Rogers, executive director of the Mississippi Office of Student Financial Aid, told the Mississippi Free Press that FAITH cannot be temporarily overfunded and repaid later the way some other aid programs can, because state law treats it differently. That means families could not simply wait for a legislative fix. The Legislature will not reconvene until January, long after fall tuition bills are due.
A Partial Fix Is Underway
On August 5, state lawmakers and the Woodward Hines Education Foundation announced a partnership to help cover the gap. The foundation committed 800,000 dollars to support eligible students through the current school year. Senator Nicole Boyd, who chairs the Mississippi Senate Universities and Colleges Committee, called the partnership proof of what happens when the state and private partners work together, telling WLOX, “Mississippians believe in investing in opportunity.” State leaders said colleges are also working directly with affected students to line up other aid while a longer-term budget solution is worked out when the Legislature returns in January.
It is a meaningful step, but it will not reach every student who was denied, and it does not change the underlying funding structure that put these students at risk in the first place.
Why This Goes Beyond The State of Mississippi
This is not just a Mississippi problem. It is a reminder of how fragile the path to college can be for youth in foster care nationwide, even when a program is designed specifically to help them. A scholarship that depends on year-to-year budget decisions can disappear overnight, taking a young person’s plans with it.
Foster Love exists because young people in foster care deserve more certainty than that, not less. Our scholarship program and other supports are built to help fill exactly these kinds of gaps, so a funding shortfall in one state legislature does not become the reason a student never makes it to campus.
HELP US SUPPORT FOSTER YOUTH ON THEIR PATH TO COLLEGE
Sources: Mississippi Free Press, WLOX, WXXV News 25, and the Mississippi Office of State Financial Aid.