Out Of Home Care Sociology

Each year, an estimated 20,000 young people "age out" of the U.S. foster care system. Many are only 18 years old and still need support and services (. Several studies show that without a lifelong connection to a caring adult, this older youth are often left vulnerable to a host of adverse situations. Compared to other youth in the United States, kids who age out of foster care are more likely to not have completed high school or received a GED, they often suffer from mental health problems, many are unemployed and live in poverty, and nearly 40% become homeless.

In the John Burton Policy Brief on AB 12 the realities of education for foster youth are highlighted, “The rate at which foster youth complete high school (50 percent) is significantly lower than the rate at which their peers complete high school (70 percent),” (2011, p. 2). This affects chances for higher education including college degrees. This has a significant impact on the community as “aged-out” youth without services have more chance of risk for: homelessness, poverty, unemployment, going to jail, prostitution, substance abuse, early parenthood and untreated health conditions. Samuels and Pryce state that foster care has not always been a positive, developmentally appropriate experience. Youth who are

when they are on their own (Mech, 1994). These are some of the problems faced by 20,000 foster children who age-out of care each year. History In the early 1980's, older adolescents in foster care and young adults who had been discharged from foster care become a source of great

According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, every year close to 25,000 youth age out of the foster care system and are faced with cold hard realities of adulthood. This does not include the youth who leave the system, which is estimated to be another 30,000. Most adolescents anticipate their eighteenth birthday, as it brings on a new found sense of independence and most importantly a time of celebration. However when foster children reach eighteen, they begin facing the challenges of transitioning to adulthood. These children disproportionately join the ranks of the homeless, incarcerated, and unemployed. These youth are unprepared for the independent life they are forced to take on. The average age that young adults who have never experienced foster care leave their family home for good is 24, and 40% return home again at least once afterwards (Margolin, 2008). With these facts being stated, we yet expect youth who has dealt with rejection after rejection to leave “home” of the state custody permanently and fin for themselves. These youth sometimes have fewer than $250 in cash, only one-third have drivers licenses, and fewer than one-quarter have the basic tools to set up a household, let alone the skills to know what to do with the tools (Krinsky, 2010). Youth exit care with no more than a garbage bag of their belongings, finding themselves alone at the age of eighteen, with little reason to celebrate what is supposed to be an exciting milestone

As of today, approximately 415,000 children are in the foster care system within the United States of America, and about 22,000 teenagers age out of the system, without any assistance, or any financial support (AFCARS 2015). Without guidance, it is more than likely for a teenager to turn to selling drugs, prostitution, or other criminal activities to provide for their basic necessities. Research has shown that those who leave foster care without any stability, have a higher probability to face prison time, homelessness, and are not able to maintain a financially stable lifestyle when he or she grows out of the system. At the age of seventeen, children are kicked out of their homes, and are forced to survive by his or her own means of survival. The children are not allowed to contact previous foster families, or anyone within the system to help them transition into adulthood. The transition from foster care, to adulthood can be a difficult one, especially for children who have endured different forms of psychological and physical abuse for the majority of their lives. It is important to reach out to children in need, especially those leaving foster care without any assistance. Many of those who age out of foster care are completing their last years in high school, and on top of school, they are forced to find a job, a home, and some sort of transportation. The youth leave the foster care system with a limited work history, if any at all, and a limited education. The little

One of the most pressing issues facing foster youth in America is employment following emancipation. Former foster youth face many challenges in becoming self-sufficient adults due to the lack of a support system that a traditional family would provide for their children. There is an insufficient safety net for a particularly vulnerable group and the statistics reflect poor care for this demographic. By age 24, roughly half of all former foster youth are unemployed; those who are employed earn a median income of $7,500 annually. In their first four years following their aging out of foster care, more than half will be homeless or in a shelter at some point; up to 70% will be “reliant on government assistance.”

The researcher looked at a combination of qualitative and quantitative studies via an electronic database to find research pertaining to the educational success of foster youth and former foster youth. The researcher further refined the search to view data specifically related to college, resiliency, educational achievement (for foster youth), and factors contributing to college success and readiness, barriers to education, academic supports, motivation, legislation and mentoring. The three research questions that guided this review of the literature included: One, what are the experiences that contributed to academic success of former foster care youth? Two, what role did the foster care system play in the academic success of foster foster care youth? Three, in what ways did former foster care youth cover come obstacles to become academically

Every year, teenagers in foster care are “aging out” of the social system ill prepared for what lies ahead of them. Currently, there are about 400,000 foster youth in the U.S. and 13,461 (3.4 %) of these youth live in Arizona (The AFCARS report, 2012, p. 1 ). In 2012, it was estimated that 23,000 youth emancipated out of the foster system in the United States (The AFCARS report, 2012, p. 3). These foster youth are become legal adults with little or no family support. Overwhelmed by this life transition, they feel defeated and frightened by

for most of the child welfare system’s history, most states did little to prepare the children in their custody for life in the real world. The federal government offered no financial help to the states to assist emancipating youth until 1986, when for the first time, Congress passed a law authorizing limited “independent living” efforts. Over the next fifteen years, about two-thirds of older youth in foster care received some sort of assistance in building independent living skills, ranging from a thirty minute course on resume writing to an eight-week course in household management. The 1986 law was seriously flawed because it only paid for skill-building services to youth between the ages of sixteen and

The article discusses a research which was performed in 1990 to 2011, that found between 11% to 36% of the youths that age out of the foster care become homeless during the transitional to adulthood. The analysis was based on data from the Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth, which was a ten-year study that used a sample of youth from Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois from 2002 to 2012. According to Dworsky and Courtney data collection reflected that transitioning out of foster care in the three Midwestern states, that the odds of becoming homeless by age of nineteen years of age were higher, those who had ran away from a foster care placement, those who was placed in group home settleing, those who had been physically

transitioning out of foster care into the real world. Although every child are entitled to education services under federal, state, and local laws, the specific educational needs of the children and youth in care often go incomplete. There are some differences in the educational achievement of youth in care when compared to youth not in foster care. In result of this it may be because lack of residential stability, non-supportive home life, and lack of ability. This particular population tends to pay for the worse educationally than the general population of youth staying with their families.

The second type of studies used a more conventional variable-oriented approach to describe characteristics of the aging out population or to identify predictors that were associated with outcomes of interest. Through interviews with foster care youth ages 17 through 21, the Midwest Study found perceived unmet needs for independent living services that were compounded by mental health issues and availability of social supports (Courtney, Terao, & Bost, 2004; Katz & Courtney, 2015). The California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study included a series of longitudinal surveys and interviews with youth and showed that the majority of re-surveyed youth opted to leverage extended foster care to help them reach their life goals, remain enrolled

The Australian government is one of the key stakeholders and/or policy actors in the making of educational policies for children in care and foster carers. Children in care are usually considered as being in the care of the state, where their safety and welfare are protected by the government (Townsend, 2012). The NSW Government plan pointed out a shared approach to child wellbeing stating that each preschool and school aged children and youth has their personal education plan within 30 days of entering OOHC, and the plan will be inspected and reviewed annually by the Department of Education and the specific case worker (NSW Department of Education, 2017). The 30 days education plan demonstrates the current intervention to provide youth with adequate education in response to OOHC placement. Current policy acknowledges the need for foster parents/caretakers to work interdependently with social services (Townsend, 2012). It is important for policymakers to understand and empathies with the struggles and needs of children in care because evidently they face the brunt of the situation.

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