As high school students across Washington settle into the new academic year, foster youth face a particularly difficult transition: navigating school without dedicated support. Recently, the nonprofit Treehouse lost a critical $7 million state grant that funded its Graduation Success program, which provided individual, one-on-one help to students in foster care.
This significant reduction, combined with an additional $500,000 funding cut, represents nearly one-third of Treehouse’s annual operating revenue and has forced a drastic scale-back in services. The nonprofit has had to reduce the number of foster youth it supports in their efforts to graduate by over 40% and has laid off approximately 25% of its full-time staff.
Tana Senn, Secretary of the Department of Children, Youth, and Families, acknowledges Treehouse’s popularity and the relief it brought to foster youth, describing the cutbacks as “a gray cloud” over both students and social workers.
Since its launch in 2013, the Graduation Success program helped raise Washington’s foster youth graduation rates from 31% to 50%. Youth who remained enrolled in the program for at least two years saw their graduation rates climb to 70%.
Treehouse’s educational specialists worked closely with students—monitoring school attendance, behavior, and assignment completion—to intervene quickly when issues arose. Their approach involved proactive support: arranging meetings with teachers, creating catch-up plans, and keeping consistent, personalized contact to guide students through the academic year.
Senn emphasized that no other agency can replicate Treehouse’s role, underscoring its unique importance.
One former foster youth, Ericka Mickelson, credits Treehouse with a dramatic turnaround in her education. After failing classes and frequently skipping school, she received encouragement, incentives like gift cards, and help transitioning to a supportive alternative school. With guidance from her education specialist, she transformed from failing to excelling—earning activist roles, returning to class regularly, and discovering newfound confidence and future aspirations.
Graduation Success staff also helped Ericka access art classes, fostering her creative expression and further boosting her self-esteem. She eventually earned a bachelor’s degree in psychology from Central Washington University and now contributes to her community by supporting veterans facing housing instability.
The broader $138 million in cuts to K-12 educational grants from Washington’s Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction—driven by a projected $16 billion budget shortfall—are the context for Treehouse’s decreased funding.
Governor Bob Ferguson defended the budget reductions as a necessary measure to preserve fiscal resilience, opting to cut, rather than deplete, reserves in anticipation of looming federal social service cuts. Rep. Mia Gregerson, vice chair of the House Appropriations Committee, acknowledged the painful nature of cutting a high-impact program like Treehouse’s, but noted that broader public school and special education priorities influenced the budget decisions.
Before the budget cuts, the Graduation Success program served approximately 140 high school seniors last year.
Still, there is a partial reprieve: the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction has offered $1.4 million in discretionary funds to sustain the program temporarily until the Legislature reconvenes next year.
Treehouse continues non-graduation assistance activities—such as educational advocacy, preventing unnecessary school transfers, ensuring special education assessments, and supporting students dealing with disciplinary challenges—but warns that waitlists for these services may now grow longer.
The Graduation Success program’s presence, once covering all 39 counties in the state, is now limited to King County and parts of Spokane, Clark, and Pierce counties.
Secretary Senn, who assumed office in 2024, expressed hope that legislators will restore funding in the next session. She emphasized the effectiveness of investing in foster youth graduation, calling Treehouse “dollars well spent” and promising to advocate for its reinstatement.