When Ohio University freshman Ben Clay turned 18 last November, the checks he and his foster parents had received from Franklin County Children Services for nearly two years stopped arriving.

“It was just kind of really sudden,” said Clay, who lived with a foster family in Westerville for his junior and senior years of high school.

“It was just like 18, and a couple weeks later, boom, you’re out of the system, you know, like cut-off all services.”

A new congressional bill scheduled to take effect Oct. 1 aims to ease the transition for foster children like Clay as they age out of the system. The Foster Care Continuing Opportunities Act, which was introduced in May by California Sen. Barbara

Boxer and is still being considered in committee, would give states the option to continue foster care beyond age 18 and allow foster children to choose to stay in the system for a few more years.

The legislation, which would amend the Social Security Act, also could give states access to federal funding to match the amount they spend on administrative costs and foster care payments for children between 18 and 21.

Boxer’s bill could provide some financial padding for the 20,000 to 25,000 children who exit the foster system annually, according to the Child Welfare League of America.

In 2006, the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services reported that about 1,380 teenagers in Ohio aged out of the foster care system.

And Clay was one of them. He entered the system in 2005 after moving away from his biological parents at 16 and “house-hopping” to stay with friends for a few months. When he arrived at his foster home, he had a spotted past and the tough-skinned attitude of many children who go through the system, said his foster mother, Robin Hicks, a realtor with a master’s degree in social work.

Hicks said she considered Clay a part of the family, a status that didn’t change even when the state’s financial support stopped flowing. Clay stayed with Hicks until his graduation and received some funding — but no health coverage — through the county’s emancipation program.

Then in June, with a little money saved from his high school restaurant job, a chunk of grants and plenty of loans, Clay headed off to college with more of the same financial uncertainty he’d faced for two years.

“In that system, it’s never told to you — Will you be taken care of? Will you have support?” Hicks said. “There’s never a yes. It’s always a maybe.”

For that reason, Clay and Hicks — who hadn’t heard of the legislation until they were contacted by The Post — say Boxer’s bill has the potential to ease financial concerns for foster children aging out of the system, especially those heading toward college.

“If they didn’t have to worry about that, it would take one huge factor off their plate,” Hicks said.

Clay said he would probably opt to stay in foster care if he could, even enduring home visits from case workers and having his foster care history revealed to friends if it meant he could receive some extra financial help.

“Anything from any other government programs that would help provide students in my situation with additional financial assistance would be really, really beneficial,” Clay said. “It would be a miracle.”