Students in foster care are a resilient group of individuals who often face many obstacles and changes in environment (e.g., home, school, community) from a young age. While the foster care system's goal is to provide a safe and stable environment for children, adolescents, and transitional age youth, there are many challenges students in foster care experience from a lack or loss of resources, familial relationships, and community. Moreso, students in foster care are not graduating high school at the same rates as their peers. Therefore, the purpose of this research was twofold. I attempted to explore challenges and barriers to graduation rates while bridging the gap of foster youth graduating high school and college. I sought to provide educators and individuals that work with foster students with a best practice model in bridging the graduation gap (high school and college), where knowledge and skills can be transferred through an amalgamated use of Maslow's hierarchy of needs and Bloom's revised taxonomy. [The dissertation citations contained here are published with the permission of ProQuest LLC. Further reproduction is prohibited without permission. Copies of dissertations may be obtained by Telephone (800) 1-800-521-0600. Web page: http://www.proquest.com.bibliotheek.ehb.be/en-US/products/dissertations/individuals.shtml.]