There is no philosophical argument to be made for cutting foster youth off at age 18,” says Carroll Schroeder, executive director of the California Alliance of Child and Family Services, Sacramento, which is a member of the Alliance for Children and Families.
Some states and the federal government have opened doors that allow these youth to receive services until age 19, 20, or 21. Yet, implementation is not widespread.
“Despite some progress, too many children in the United States are aging out of foster care at age 18 without a safety net,” says Patrick Lester, senior vice president for public policy at the Alliance and United Neighborhood Centers of America. “This puts a strain not only on society, but on nonprofit human service organizations that are trying to help these kids establish permanency and increase their chances of success.”
If there isn’t a philosophical argument to be made for cutting kids off at age 18, then why does the problem persist?
“Money. Lack of money is 99 percent of it,” Schroeder says. “Trying to take action in the middle of the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression is not the best timing.”
Youth, Society Pay the Price
Approximately 29,500 foster youth age out of care each year, according to 2009 report from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.1
The policy research center Chapin Hall followed a sample of these youth for five years, tracking indicators such as education, employment and earnings, access to health care, and criminal justice offenses. According to the final report, former foster care children fared significantly worse across the board, when compared to their counterparts who never were in the child welfare system.2
While these and additional statistics command attention on their own, continuing services beyond the age of 18 also is sup-ported by an economic argument.
A 2009 report funded by the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative monetized the cost incurred by society when youth age out of foster care. Included in the final calculation are welfare and Medicaid costs, the cost of incarceration, lost wages, and other significant costs.3
The report states that a conservative estimate of the “cost of bad outcomes” is $5 billion each year. Based on this calculation, the report asserts that it is reasonable to believe a considerable return on investment could be achieved by providing effective support services and cultivating lasting relationships between foster youth and adults.
Federal Government Opens Door
Since the mid-1980s, the federal government has taken measures to soften the arbitrary nature of defining an adult as someone who is 18-years-old.
In 1986, Congress amended Title IV-E of the Social Security Act to create the Independent Living Program, which allocated funds to assist certain youth with the transition to self-sufficient adulthood. Support increased in 1999 with grants created by the John Chafee Foster Care Independence Program.
The most promising legislation came in 2008 as part of package of sweeping child welfare reforms, the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act. It again amended Title IV-E to extend the age of eligibility from 18 to 21. This new law gives states the option to use federal funds to continue services and supports to older youth in foster care if they are pursuing education, receiving training, or working at least 80 hours a month.
“States have the option of using federal funds to extend services, but a number of states have not yet taken the federal government up on that offer,” Lester says. “Clearly, the economic climate is not the most conducive, but by working with other national organizations and our members, the Alliance continues to support efforts aimed at ensuring this legislation is enacted on a state-by-state basis.”
State Efforts Net Results
Indeed, implementation—or non-implementation, as the case may be—has played out differently from one state to the next.
Alliance member the Wisconsin Association of Family and Children’s Agencies (WAFCA), Madison, was part of a coalition that succeeded in gaining approval to extend the state’s health insurance program for foster youth until age 21.
TRIED AND TRUE ADVOACY TACTICSEfforts to extend services for youth aging out of foster care are most successful when they involve four key tactics, say Linda Hall of Wisconsin Association of Family and Children’s Agencies, Madison, and Carroll Schroeder of California Alliance of Child and Family Services, Sacramento. |
Linda Hall, executive director of WAFCA, attributes some of their success to the association’s broad advocacy agenda, which is representative of the interests of foster care providers, but also organizations that work with other young people at risk of losing services once they turn 18, such as mental health and substance abuse counseling.
“Having that broader agenda gave us something more to talk with legislators about,” she says. “We are trying to show them a variety of ways that they could support these youth.”
Despite past successes related to state-funded services, Hall says she’s not overly optimistic that Wisconsin will soon implement the opportunities afforded by the federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act. There has been preliminary legislation, she says, but significant state budget constraints have hindered these efforts.
A state budget crisis also has slowed implementation in California. However, a broad-based coalition that includes the California Alliance of Child and Family Services has achieved success by reminding state legislators that the bill currently being considered, AB 12, would be “cost neutral.” It is cost neutral, Schroeder explains, because Fostering Connections requires the federal government to provide matching funds for several programs, not just the extension of foster care services.
“In addition to requiring the federal government to provide matching funds for extending services through age 21, Fostering Connections calls for federal dollars to subsidize states’ kinship care programs,” he says. “In California, the costs associated with our kinship care program currently are funded entirely with state and county funds. The infusion of federal matching funds for kinship care would help offset the new costs related to increasing foster care services to age 21.”
Schroeder hopes the governor will sign AB 12 into law no later than the end of September. When it does become law, Schroeder says it will provide members of the California Alliance of Child and Family Services more time to develop permanency for foster care youth. “What we have really been focusing on is moving kids to permanency so they don’t age out of foster care,” he says. “The three extra years provides more time to establish permanency.”
ENDNOTES
1. The full report is available online.
2. This study followed a sample of young people from Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois. It can be accessed through Chapin Hall.
3. Download the full report.
4. Additional outcomes data is available from Chapin Hall.
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