New Federal Funds Prompt ABA Proposal to Aid Transitioning Foster Youth
Homelessness, incarceration and unemployment are the likely scenarios that await a disproportionate number of the nation’s foster youths when they reach adulthood and are thrust into society ill-prepared and alone.
Nearly two-thirds of emancipated foster youths don’t have driver’s license; fewer than four in 10 have at least $250 in cash, and less than 25 percent have the basic tools needed to set up a household, according to a report released today by the American Bar Association Commission on Youth at Risk. Read the executive summary (PDF).
These harsh realities for the more than 29,000 teens and young adults that exit foster care systems every year have prompted some states to allow individuals to remain in foster care until age 21 and prompted new federal legislation which, for the first time, earmarks federal funds to let states support foster youths beyond age 18.
However, the new changes and legal landscape, effective last October, are wrought with challenges. In response, the report, “Charting a Better Future for Transitioning Foster Youth,” proposes more than 55 policy and practice recommendations for states and localities and is the result of an invitation-only national summit last spring of more than 100 childcare professionals, judges, lawyers, advocates and current and former foster youths.
“Many recommendations are cost-neutral and provide guideposts for new approaches to address the plight of older youth in transition,” said summit co-chair professor Theo Liebmann of the Hofstra Law Clinic in a statement (PDF).
Strategies proposed by the report include an increase in active involvement of foster youth and young adults in their own cases, centralized state health care for fostered individuals and redoubled efforts to encourage permanent living arrangements—such as adoption, reunification, and guardianship—for all youths.
