Posted: June 28th, 2015

Teen aging out of foster care

Teen aging out of foster care

Abstract

Intervening for children aging out of the foster care is a critical problem in the contemporary society. This is a common problem associated with the need for the human services. Taking care of the youth aging out of foster care has huge financial implications, hence calling for the involvement of both the government and the private persons. The paper explores the background to this problem while trying to capture what these young people have to endure or go through during the transition. A few figures have been used to indicate the prevalence of the problem and the cost implications. An agency that is trying to alleviate the problem is also brought into spotlight, and thus more attention has been put on the department of social services. Recommendations are provided on how the problem can further be addressed. There has not been a clear framework that should be followed by the youth aging out of foster care. This can be attributed to lack of a variety of options, resources and parties to accommodate them as a way to adjust to the mainstream society and lead a comfortable life.

Background

For most children, turning adult is an important milestone. However, there is a defining difference, particularly for those who age out from the foster care. These are the young people who step through a doorway, to the world that is full of unknowns, and are without the support and connections that the other children normally take for granted. Something has taken place in their lives which makes them different forever. There is no fault of their own, and they were taken from their families and then placed in foster care (Hedin, 2014). They entered a bureaucratic system full of strangers who have complete control over where they have to live, where they have to school and if they will have to see their families again. They are not supported by people who love them, but those who are paid to the roles that they play.

For every year, an estimated 20,000 people age out of the foster system in the United States. Many of them are still only 18 years of age and therefore still need support and services. Studies have indicated that without a lifelong connection to a caring adult, some of these older youth are often left to a host of the adverse situations (Krebs & Pitcoff, 2006). When compared to the other youth in the United States, those kids who age out of foster care are likely to have completed high school or rather received a GED. They often suffer from the mental health problems; nearly 409 percent of them become homeless, and many live in poverty and are unemployed. As these people approach the legal adulthood, they face tremendous obstacles, which include the unrealistic expectations that they will be able to succeed on their own when they turn the age of 18 years. Consequently, too many of them will face challenges immediately they get out of foster care, most of which will not only affect the cohort of these young people, but affect us all. From a broader scope, it is estimated that, for every young person who ages out of foster care, communities and the taxpayers pay $300,000 in social costs such as incarceration, public assistance and the lost wages to a community over that person’s lifetime. Considering this, one can easily estimate that the problem incurs about $8 billion from the taxpayers in terms of social costs per annum (Richards 2014).

Problem Description

Nature has programmed that the youth have to push for independence from the responsible parties. Given that the most effective learning will come with experience, the youth requires many opportunities in order to succeed. Opportunities to fail are required as well. Good judgment develops from learning lessons from mistakes. In this case, the responsible stakeholders will be kept after them, just the same way a protective parent will do. Unfortunately, the youth who leave foster care experience more failures than success. In this regard, the state has not prepared them for independence, the same way parents prepares their children to face the future. They have not acquired the knowledge and skills in order to make it on their own, and the real world is normally not ready to stick with them through the many starts and stops, the way a parent who is protective would do.

The young people who have spent their teen years in foster care normally have mixed feelings when it comes to turning the age of 18 years. They at times fear on how they will survive on their own, but are also anxious to leave a system which they normally associate with feelings of isolation and stigma. They therefore voluntarily choose to remain in foster care beyond the age of 18 years only if the opportunities and services that are available can meet their needs as tend towards adulthood. This implies that as far as extending foster care is concerned, the most important thing is quality and not just quantity. We live in an era in which there is no shortage of the intractable problems (Krebs & Pitcoff, 2006). However, improving the odds for the aging youth in the foster care is different because it is achievable. Teenagers in the foster care deserve continued support, work experiences and access to the positive experiences. They also need an opportunity to make the decisions about their lives.

As a matter of fact, the 18-year youths have not yet developed the strong enough life skills that can enable them to live on their own. In fact, most of the kids who come from the foster care are less prepared for the independent living. The rates of arrest and welfare dependency are higher among this group than those of the entire population. The fact that the government offers little help to the former foster care children who have aged out of the system makes it not a surprise that they often have to end up on the streets or in the jail. A few fortunate ones will eventually find their way to the Covenant House. A third or more of the homeless kids who go to the Covenant House come from the foster care system. When at the Covenant House, they can cross an important bridge to independence and self-sufficiency due to the available Rights of Passage program. They get a chance to acquire the skills and the knowledge which are needed for transition, from being helpless children to independent adults (Krebs & Pitcoff, 2006).

For the young people who have been brought up in the best of the circumstances, finding their place in the society is never easy. It is even worse for the youth who are aging out of the child protection system. A move that is successful to self-efficiency tends to be more difficult and requires special preparation and support in order to overcome the obstacles. The young people who are undergoing this transition out of the foster care system are significantly affected by the instability that accompanies the long periods of out of home placement during adolescence and childhood. The experiences of the youth will always place them at a higher risk for poor educational outcomes, early parenthood, and long-term dependence on the public assistance among other issues. They enter into the society with numerous challenges and very few resources.

Department of the social services

One of the agencies dealing with the problem of the aging youth from foster care is the department of social services. The department has put in place the older youth program that incorporates the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999. This is a federal legislation that introduced the foster care independence program at every stage. It encompasses a philosophy appositive youth development and the permanency needs of the youth. Various services are provided through the older youth program. These include the independent living arrangements and the transitional living services that are the housing options, and also being provided through the contracted agencies. In order to safeguard the well-being of the youth making this transition, a continuum of support and preparation has to begin the moment the youth enters the out of home care (Krebs & Pitcoff, 2006). The act enables the division of labor to provide financial assistance and the time-limited services. This is meant to help the young adults and develop the education and skills, which are needed to move successfully into independence and self-sufficiency. The Older Youth Program, which is under the department of social services, provides the services that should not be used as a substitute for the sound permanency planning. Services to do with independent living do not constitute a permanency goal (Dworsky & Courtney, 2009). They only form a set of services that are provided to the older youth in order to assist them in their efforts in attaining self-sufficiency. The enrollments in the program normally occur concurrently with the continued efforts to achieve and locate placement in the adoptive families. The program’s goals entail assisting the youth who are likely to remain in the foster care up to the age of 18 years and prepare for and enter the post-secondary training and the education institutions. They also have put in place the frameworks to aid in the provision of the independent living services to the youth who leave the foster care for guardianship or adoption after the age of 16 years. Most importantly, the program identifies the youth who are likely to remain in the foster care up to the age of 18 years. It also assists these youth to master the transition to self-sufficiency through the provisions of the services. The services consist of the following; vocational training, career exploration, training in the daily living skills, job placement and retention, training in the financial management skills, preventive health activities and the substance abuse preventions (Scannapieco, Connell-Carrick, & Painter, 2007).

Recommendations for the future

The members of the society, which takes guardianship of the children in a crisis, have the challenge of figuring out on how best they can promote the resilience that will allow the children to make the successful transitions to adulthood (Krebs & Pitcoff, 2006). How can the society compensate for the deficits in parenting that these children have endured? How can they be provided with the opportunities to develop social works and constructed families? How can they be provided with the opportunities to learn the skills of everyday life, the skills that are needed to hold a job, manage money and make their way in the modern world?

The case for investing in the youth out of foster care tends to be a powerful one. The major savings are not only possible, but also achievable in the relatively short period of time. The outcomes that are most costly and those which hurt the young people most come as a result of the decisions, events and the behaviors, which occur within a few days of leaving the foster care. These outcomes may include dropping out of school or becoming homeless (Gharabaghi, 2014). For many of these young people, the challenges which begin in their early 20s or teen years, such as unplanned pregnancies or academic failure, continue throughout their lives. The only way to go is prevention. It is important to recognize the fact that the long-term cost of the status quo is very hefty, not only on the public coffers, but also in the lives of the young people who deserve better opportunities in order to succeed in their lives as the productive members of the society. As they confront such odds, they deserve a serious investment in their futures and support. One crucial step in addressing this issue is by extending the foster care services beyond the age of 18 years (Nelson, Fox, & Zeanah, 2013). Again, attempts have to be made to do the right thing by designing the foster care services differently for the teens and young adults than the foster care services, which are currently offered to the young children, for whom security and safety tends to be paramount (Krebs & Pitcoff, 2006).

When individuals think of adoption, they rarely think of the older children. Teenagers are challenging in their right, sometimes sullen, defiant and self-absorbed. The perceptions of the children in the foster care are that, they are normally irredeemably troubled (Scannapieco, Connell-Carrick, & Painter, 2007). However, the children can just be resilient, delightful, and rewarding to the parents just like a younger child. They can fully benefit from the financial and emotional stability that a family offers (Krebs & Pitcoff, 2006). People should consider adopting this group of children, given that they are equally in need of loving homes. This will avoid a situation whereby all the support that they received from their homes goes away. Without the security of a family, many people will end up falling by the wayside. Having a family can change the outcomes of these children (Greeson et al., 2015).

There is a need to ensure that the youth who are transitioning from the foster care can access a comprehensive array of services and programs that address their health, permanency, economic, life skills and the housing needs. In order to achieve this goal, the states can expand the duration and breadth of some public services for foster youth. For instance, it will be necessary for the state to expand the Medicaid coverage up to the age of 21 years. Opportunities have to be provided for the foster youth to provide through planning and policy bodies, seminar mechanisms, and the youth boards. The opportunities will improve services by proving the useful feedback from those who are most affected by the state policies and programs, and the same time, will give the youth a chance to develop communication skills and leadership. Partnerships and policies that seamlessly connect the child welfare with the other youth-serving systems have to be developed. Utah and North Carolina are examples of the cross system efforts which make it easier for the youth to access and navigate the services and assist the states to realize efficiencies by aligning priorities and resources (Krebs & Pitcoff, 2006).

The social networks can serve important functions as the youth make the transition to independent living and the adulthood. The social ties will give the young adults guidance on matters of empowerment, relationship issues, education, and assistance in the times of emergencies. For the youth aging out of the foster care, strong and stable relationship promotes a sense of security and normalcy (Okpych, 2015). Most the young adults who are raised by their birth families have inbuilt support networks of parents, extended families, siblings and the family friends. As for the youth who have spent time in the foster care system, such relationships are never assured (Krebs & Pitcoff, 2006). In any case, hard work is often required in order to maintain and develop permanent and stable relationships for these vulnerable youth. Case judges, workers and other decision makers are better placed to work with the youth in developing a permanency plan and exploring the viability of the various permanency options, which can be used for intervention for the older youth. This will entail helping the youth to develop relationships with the caring adults such as the members of their church, the teachers, or the mentors who share their interests. Organizations have to leverage the additional resources by engaging the business, philanthropic and volunteer activities. Governors can ask businesses to sponsor summer jobs and internships, urge the volunteers to act as the mentors, and search into the philanthropic sector for the funding support for the asset development programs.

Despite the scope of services provided by the Department of Social services, some critics believe that the system needs to do a lot more, and do it earlier in helping the children who eventually age out (Wildeman & Emanuel, 2014). The number of times which children spend in foster care has to be reduced and also the number of placements that they normally go through. They suggest that there is need to plan for the new ways to assist the children to age out long before reaching this age. They also observe that there is a reluctance to engage with kids in their 13^th and 14^th years. According to them, this is the time to be preparing them. However, they also uphold the fact that nothing suggests the child is ready to reach his or her 18^th birthday and immediately manage being on his or her own. This should change (Krebs & Pitcoff, 2006).

Conclusion

The availability of new research findings and federal funds has prompted the states to improve services and programs for the youth who are transitioning out of foster care. There is need for the emergence of more promising strategies in order to improve the prospects of the foster youth. The department of social services is one of the agencies that have played a crucial role in intervening for the youth aging out of foster care. They have a variety of arrangements that assist these youths to suit their areas of preference. Through the improvement of the state policies, working across the agencies and systems, engaging the foster youth, and improvement of the leveraging resources, the states can change the foster care systems and the other youth who are at risk. Although the government has a crucial role to play when it comes to this, other parties can also assist orienting these youth into the society in a better way. For instance, private persons can adopt these children and assist them to become better members of the society in all aspects.

References

Dworsky, A., & Courtney, M. E. (2009). Homelessness and the Transition from Foster Care to Adulthood. Child Welfare, 88(4), 23-56.

Gharabaghi, K. (2014). Supporting Education in Foster and Group Care. Relational Child & Youth Care Practice, 27(3), 41-45.

Greeson, J. K., Garcia, A. R., Kim, M., Thompson, A. E., & Courtney, M. E. (2015). Development & maintenance of social support among aged out foster youth who received independent living services: Results from the Multi-Site Evaluation of Foster Youth Programs. Children & Youth Services Review, 531-9.

Hedin, L. (2014). A sense of belonging in a changeable everyday life – a follow-up study of young people in kinship, network, and traditional foster families. Child & Family Social Work, 19(2), 165-173.

Krebs, B., & Pitcoff, P. (2006). Beyond the foster care system: The future for teens. NeBrunswick, N.J: Rutgers University Press.

Nelson I. C. A., Fox, N. A., & Zeanah, J. H. (2013). Anguish of the Abandoned Child. Scientific American, 308(4), 62-67.

Okpych, N. J. (2015). Receipt of independent living services among older youth in foster care: An analysis of national data from the U.S. Children & Youth Services Review, 5174-86

Richards, G. (2014). “Aging Out” Gracefully: Housing and Helping Youth Transition Smoothly out of the Foster Care System. Journal Of Housing & Community Development, 71(4), 18-21.

Scannapieco, M., Connell-Carrick, K., & Painter, K. (2007). In their own words: Challenges facing youth aging out of foster care. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 24(5), 423-435.

Wildeman, C., & Emanuel, N. (2014). Cumulative Risks of Foster Care Placement by Age 18 for U.S. Children, 2000–2011. PLoS ONE, 9(3), 1-7.