Youth Aging Out of Foster Care

The purpose of this policy was to provide funding for children aging out of foster care to provide independent living such as housing and job skills. According to Fernandes{ nilausa.org} (2006) “Around 30% of children who left foster care in 2003 were 12 years or younger when they entered care. This suggests that children who are leaving care without being formally reunified with a parent, adopted, or placed in guardianship are a growing concern of child welfare agencies and policymakers. Recently emancipated foster care youth are particularly vulnerable during the transition to adulthood. While many young people have access to financial and emotional support systems throughout their early adult years, former foster youth often lack assistance in developing independent living skills to ease the transition. Studies indicate that youth who have “aged out” of foster care fare poorly relative to their counterparts in the general population on several outcome measures: employment, education, homelessness, mental health, medical insurance coverage,

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

Program planning is a process to achieve a particular goal and/or mission. Program planning is an organized process through which a set of coordinated activities or interventions is developed to address and facilitate change in some or all of the identified problems. Program evaluation provides useful information for improving the programs and the service delivery systems. Program evaluation is to improve the program planning, effectiveness, design, and efficiency. The two are different processes, but ideally they hold the same goals and/or mission. The evaluation process takes place after the planning of a

year (2014). Most of these youth struggle finding permanent housing that can afford, and some

Approximately 26,000 youth age-out of foster care at 18 each year. They lack a parental safety net and face significant challenges in meeting their needs for health care, education, housing, employment and emotional support. One attempt to mitigate their challenges focuses on raising the end age of foster care and continuing to provide support services. Even most any young adults rely on some parental assistance until 26, the U.S. average age of sustainable independence.

Foster youth has long been thought of as an at-risk population, often failing the educational system. In her dissertation on foster youth and secondary education, Brenda Morton writes, “Foster children are an invisible population. Teachers and administrators often do not know that a student is in foster care” (p. 1). There are just under half a million foster youth currently residing in the United States, many will fail to graduate from high school, and only a few will graduate from college. California has the largest population of foster youth with approximately 56, 138 youth (Children’s Bureau, 2014). It is estimated that foster youth high school graduation rates are near the forty sixth percentile and college graduation rates are near two percent for former foster youth, making this at-risk population is in need of more support (Friends of Foster Families, 2014).

Assessing And Reducing Risk." Child & Adolescent Social Work Journal 31.6 (2014): 521-538. Sociological Collection. Web. 17 Feb. 2016.

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

Although the unique circumstances facing youth aging out of foster care have been discussed by researchers, policy makers, and clinicians for over 30 years, the more than 400,000 youth in US foster care are still not being adequately prepared for the challenges of adult living.1 In addition to educational deficiencies, employment challenges, and a lack of family support, the American Academy of Pediatrics has declared that one area of particular concern among former foster youth is their health.2 Studies have repeatedly found serious health challenges within this population, including increased likelihood of chronic health conditions, behavioral/mental health disorders,2 acute health problems,3 and unmet medical needs.4 Fortunately, steps have been taken to provide greater availability of health resources to these individuals. In addition to state-run Independent Living Programs that prepare foster youth for the challenges of adult

An estimated 1,200 Texas youth are emancipated (or age-out) from foster care each year because they reached the age of majority (Texas Department of Family and Protective Services [TDFPS], 2015). The abrupt discharge from foster care requires youth to assume adult responsibilities and become self-sufficient with limited or no support. This critical developmental period – the transition to adulthood –for former foster youth is characterized by an increased risk for bleak outcomes across key well-being indicators. These young people are more likely than their counterparts in the general population to experience poor physical health, mental health, and substance use outcomes (Brandford & English, 2004; Courtney et al. 2007; McMillen & Raghavan,

Abrams, Laura, and Susanna Curry. "Housing and Social Support for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care: State of the Research Literature and Directions for Future Inquiry. ." EBSCO Academic Search. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal Apr2015, Vol. 32 Issue 2, P143-153. 11p. ., Apr. 2015. Web. 20 June 2016. This article is very informative. The author writes about housing and support for youth who have aged out of foster care. Meaning when a child turns eighteen they are just put out on their own. The author works in the social work field and has firsthand experience in the area. The author wants to focus more on the topic of building programs for these youth. The audience would be anyone who has an interest in the foster system. This source

Research suggests that children who grew up in foster care have a more compromised developmental outcome compared to those who grew up in loving homes (Princeton University). If we take abortion rights away from women, the number of children in foster care would rise above the existing 397,000 children that are in foster care and therefore more children would be put into homes where there could be physical, sexual or emotional abuse. Many people say that abortion is murder and shouldn't be legal, but it should be legal for a woman who has been raped or is too young for the baby and herself to be healthy after the birth, because a child isn't going to thrive in foster care or in a home that doesn't love them.

Youth who age out of the foster care system are faced with several challenges. Aging out of foster care refers to children who are discharged from care, namely care that is no longer provided by the government, usually between the ages of 18 and 21. Many of these young adults are forced into independence, with little to no resources helping them assume adult responsibilities. Youth that age out of the foster care system have a higher likelihood of becoming homeless, lack job training skills, and have a higher risk of substance abuse and health problems. Many youth who aged out of foster care report being homeless at some point in time after discharge. Approximately 14% of males and 10% of females report being homeless at least once since their discharge from foster care services (Baugh 2008). Due to limited work histories and/or lackluster job training, many former foster children will face difficulty finding employment. Those who do obtain employment may be forced to work low-paying jobs, making them susceptible to exploitation, poverty, and increased difficulty establishing their independence. Foster care youth are a vulnerable group with a high risk for substance use and abuse. Within this population of youth illegal drugs are used because of experimentation and peer pressure, self-medication due to lack of health care, and coping mechanisms for stress. Many youth upon leaving foster care face additional issues in relation to their physical and mental health.

Imagine your 18th birthday I bet most of you were excited you're an adult now you're ready to experience the world. Packing your bags for college. Something you have been preparing for a while now imagine what it is like for a foster child. Turning 18 is their worse nightmare. Could you imagine leaving your parents who you have spent your life with and never talking to them again?

To recognize the development of the program a planning cycle must be used. This planning cycle accumulate all aspects of planning into a intangible & integrated process. To generate this program, the features that are included are community assessment, designing the program, developing an action plan, implement the program, process evaluation , re-design & re-implement the program , impact and/outcome evaluation (Talbo&Verrinder,2013). This paper highlights the