Education and Training Voucher Program

(2023) Education and Training Voucher Program. College Student Aid Commission

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Abstract

Funded by the Federal government and administered by the Iowa College Student Aid Commission (Iowa College Aid), the Education and Training Voucher (ETV) program awards up to $5,000 a year to students who aged out of the state foster care system or were adopted after age 16. Students may receive money for either five academic years or until age 26, whichever is first. Students can use ETV for tuition/fees, room/board, books/supplies, and other personal living expenses. For the following analyses, we use custom data sets from the Free Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA), Iowa College Aid Processing System (ICAPS), and National Student Clearinghouse (NSC). We establish first-time, first-year cohorts by first identifying students who self-report on the FAFSA as first-year students and ICAPS indicates students received their first ETV award in that same year. Additionally, we remove students with a previous credential according to NSC data. In this report, we discuss the demographics of each cohort and then detail how they progress through postsecondary education. Finally, we recommend that students renewing their ETV award no longer file the Iowa Financial Aid Application due to an administrative burden to them.