An event in Washington D.C. this week is designed to offer encouragement to young people in Iowa and elsewhere who’ve been orphaned. Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley says he’ll meet with a student at the University of Northern Iowa, who graduated from the state’s foster care system, to assemble a care package for another student in Iowa who’s aged out of the system. Grassley says those young people are beating the odds.
Grassley says “It’s quite an accomplishment for a young person to go to college but it’s especially accomplishing when that person has faced the challenge of growing up without a permanent home. These kids deserve extra recognition and they’re getting it because of their own accomplishment.” Grassley is speaking Thursday at the Orphan Foundation of America’s national care package event.
Last year, Grassley shepherded legislation to increase federal funding for programs aimed at keeping troubled families together, improving child support collection and distribution and boosting direct child support payments.