Area of Special Focus: Transition Age Foster Youth

With grants from The California Wellness Foundation and others, CAI is working to improve outcomes for youth aging out of foster care by increasing the quality and quantity of programs and services available to that vulnerable population. Each year, 30,000 of the nation’s foster children “age out” of the foster care system and are expected to become independent, self-sufficient and contributing members of society with little or no assistance from others. These are young adults who experienced significant psychological trauma during their formative years — including being neglected and/or abused; being separated from their homes, friends, families and most things familiar to them; and enduring multiple placement in homes and institutions, interrupting (among other things) their educational progress. Particularly those foster youth who live their teen years in group homes do not benefit from normal growing-up experiences that most of us took for granted, but which prepared us for adult life, such as seeing an adult pay bills each month, do the laundry, buy groceries, pay taxes, arrange for car insurance, or undertake the dozens of other mundane tasks required to be a responsible, self-sufficient adult.

The foster care system itself creates huge barriers to the normalcy of a child’s growing-up experience, causing foster youth to miss out on many rites of passage experienced by their peers. Many foster youth lack control over even minor aspects of their lives, giving them little opportunity to make decisions about their lives. Unlike their peers who were not raised by the foster care system, most foster youth alumni do not have a strong familial support system to offer guidance and to which they can go for help if they experience the difficulties that typically face young adults. We essentially abandon our foster youth in the wilderness when they age out, with no resources, no map or compass, and no one to serve as guide.

The consequences of our failure to adequately prepare foster youth for life on their own are woven throughout every aspect of their lives after foster care. They are evident in the bleak outcomes and challenges these youth face in the areas of educational attainment, employment, housing, homelessness, physical and mental health issues, credit issues, and identity theft.

Major law and policy changes are needed at the federal and state levels in order to give these youth -- our youth -- a meaningful opportunity to become financially independent and self-sufficient after leaving foster care. CAI's efforts in this area include impact litigation, legislative and regulatory advocacy, research and publication of special reports, and more.

CAI's work in this area includes the following:

• CAI's Fleecing of Foster Youth report and follow-up participation on FTC/DOJ forum on child identity theft lead to helpful new resource from the Annie E. Casey Foundation: Youth and Credit: Protecting the Credit of Youth in Foster Care (June 11, 2013)
• CAI Joins Amicus Brief Challenging Agency's Misuse of Foster Youth's Survivor Benefits (Mar. 4, 2013)
• CAI Comments on DHHS Proposed Regulations for Ensuring Medicaid to Age 26 for Eligible Former Foster Youth (Feb. 20, 2013)
• CAI-sponsored AB 989 (Mitchell) — Prop. 63 Mental Health Services for Transition Age Foster Youth is enacted (Ch. 640, Statutes of 2011)
• CAI Participates in FTC / DOJ Forum on Child Identity Theft (July 21, 2011)
• The Fleecing of Foster Children — How We Confiscate Their Assets and Undermine Their Financial Security (Mar. 16, 2011)
• Information for Congregations or Community Organizations Interested in Starting a Transition Life Coach Program for Local Foster Youth
• CAI Report Analyzes Counties' Use of Prop. 63 Funds for Transition Age Foster Youth (Jan. 25, 2010)
• Links to Key Reports Addressing Transition Age Foster Youth Issues
• Transition Life Coach (TLC) Plan
• Model TLC Trust Agreement
• Model TLC Petition and Order
• CAI Comments on San Diego County's Mental Health Services Act Innovation Component Plan
• Master Report: Expanding Transitional Services for Emancipated Foster Youth: An Investment in California's Tomorrow (Jan. 2007)
  
  
  • Endnotes (Jan. 2007)
  • Appendix: Cost-Benefit Analysis of the Transition Guardian Plan (Jan. 2007)
  • January 2007 Press Release (Jan. 2007)
  • View January 2007 Press Conference, Other Media Links

Significant Reports Addressing Transition Age Foster Youth Issues

Human Rights Watch:

• My So-Called Emancipation (2010)

Children's Advocacy Institute:

• The Fleecing of Foster Children — How We Confiscate Their Assets and Undermine Their Financial Security (Mar. 16, 2011)
• Proposition 63: Is the Mental Health Services Act Reaching California's Transition Age Foster Youth? (2010)
• Expanding Transitional Services for Emancipated Foster Youth: An Investment in California's Tomorrow (2007)

Chapin Hall, University of Chicago:

• Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth, Outcomes at Ages 23 and 24 (2010)
• Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth Website, with links to several other reports
• Assessing the Impact of Extending Care beyond Age 18 on Homelessness: Emerging Findings from the Midwest Study (2010)
• Does Extending Foster Care beyond Age 18 Promote Postsecondary Educational Attainment? (2010)
• Employment of Former Foster Youth as Young Adults: Evidence from the Midwest Study (2010)

Casey Family Programs:

• Asssessing the Effects of Foster Care: Early Results from the Casey National Alumni Study (2003)
• Assessing the Effects of Foster Care: Mental Health Outcomes (undated)
• Improving Family Foster Care Findings from the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study (2005)
  

California Coalition for Youth and the John Burton Foundation:

• Too Big to Ignore; Youth Homelessness in California (2009)