About Us

Young people experiencing foster care have the same ability and aspirations as their peers. Yet navigating foster care can create barriers to school success—and those barriers can shape a lifetime. 

For nearly four decades, Treehouse has partnered with young people, caregivers, social workers, schools, communities, and state leaders to change that. We help young people succeed today while working to transform the systems around them so every young person experiencing foster care has the opportunity to thrive through education. 

Our goal is powerful: Young people in foster care will graduate from high school and initiate their post-high school education or career pathway at the same rate as their peers. 

When Treehouse began focusing on high school graduation, Washington’s outcomes for students in foster care were among the worst in the nation. 

Since 2013, the statewide foster care graduation rate has increased from 36% to 51%. 

That progress belongs to young people themselves and to the educators, caregivers, caseworkers, advocates, policymakers, and community organizations working alongside them. Treehouse has been a sustained leader in that effort—providing direct educational support, identifying barriers, developing approaches that work, and advocating for changes across Washington. 

And we aren’t finished. A significant gap remains between students experiencing foster care and their peers. Our measure of success isn’t simply improvement. It’s equity.

Every young person’s path is different. Treehouse meets young people where they are and helps them get where they want to go. Through academic support, educational advocacy, everyday essentials and experiences, and resources for the transition to adulthood, we help remove barriers that can get in the way of school and life. 

The evidence shows it makes a difference: 

• Each year, Treehouse provides education and other essential supports to more than 6,000 young people across Washington state.
• Treehouse removes educational barriers for more than 1,100 students annually. 
• 1,700+ young people have completed high school with support from Graduation Success. 
• Students who participate in Graduation Success for at least two years have 1.75 times greater odds of graduating from high school, and have half the odds of dropping out of high school in the first four years. 
• When young people receive Just-in-Time Funding alongside Graduation Success, their odds of graduating increase by 18% for every $1,000 of assistance they receive. 

But our impact can’t depend solely on whether a young person has access to a Treehouse program. That’s why our work must go further.

Nearly 40 years of working alongside young people has taught us a great deal about what students experiencing foster care need to succeed—and what gets in their way. 

We use that knowledge to change the conditions around them. Treehouse works with young people, schools, child welfare agencies, policymakers, caregivers, and community partners to strengthen laws and policies, improve how those policies are implemented, equip adults with better tools and knowledge, and build more effective practices that can reach young people across Washington. 

Because of our leadership, Washington has some of the strongest educational protections for students in foster care in our nation. Since 2001, Treehouse has led or collaborated on landmark legislation that has impacted the lives of thousands of young people in foster care, including: 

• Establishing a building point of contact in every K–12 public school to coordinate services and resources for every student in foster care 
• Ensuring students have the right to stay in the same school when entering foster care or changing placements 
• Ending the practice of jailing youth for skipping school, running away, or other non-criminal offenses 
• Improving communication and data-sharing between schools and child welfare 
• Minimizing enrollment times and simplifying credit transfer when youth must change schools 
• Making all youth in foster care eligible for Passport to Careers and College Bound programs and other financial aid opportunities 
• Improving education planning requirements for students when discipline takes them out of school 
• Coordinating academic support services for youth in foster care 

But changing policy isn’t enough. The next chapter of our work is ensuring that good policy becomes good practice—in every school, community, and system a young person encounters. 

Because if success depends on a young person getting access to Treehouse, we haven’t solved the real problem.