Youth Aging Out of Foster Care Symposium Highlights Lessons Learned and A Vision for the Future
On April 7, the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative and the Center for the Study of Social Policy hosted an all-day symposium on Improving Outcomes for Youth in Transition: A Vision for the Next Decade. Nearly 200 policymakers, practitioners, researchers, youth formerly in foster care, advocates and foundation leaders reviewed lessons of the past decade and began building a vision for the next one.
Some overarching themes emerged. Perhaps the biggest single change over the last decade is the wide recognition that youth need both permanent relationships with caring adults and support in building needed skills.
Several speakers emphasized that different groups of youth aging out of care need targeted services. Mark Courtney of the University of Washington reported that while youth who age out of foster care continue to struggle, research shows that youth fall into four groups, which he called Accelerated Adults, Struggling Parents, Emerging Adults, and Troubled and Troubling. Bryan Samuels, commissioner of the federal Administration on Children, Youth and Families shared his experiences about providing specialized services based on differences in need. He said there will be a new federal grant opportunity for states to experiment in providing effective services to youth who have long stays in care, with a focus on creating permanent relationships with adults.
Another recurring theme was that state outcomes vary significantly. Courtney said that staying in care until 21 produces different outcomes. For example, youth who remain in foster care until 21 are less likely to be homeless and more likely to earn more by their early 20s. Fred Wulcyzn of University of Chicago said the rising number of youth aging out of care is about to decline and should level off by 2012. He pointed out that the numbers of youth aging out varies significantly by state, and distinctions between urban and rural areas may be very important.
Many speakers shared lessons with exciting early results and identified changes that can be implemented even in difficult budget times. One panel identified promising practices in connecting youth with higher education, the workforce, financial literacy and savings.
Another panel shared innovations in their states that can be replicated at no cost, or even with cost savings. These included moving youth out of group homes into individual foster families, building public/private partnerships, and legally mandated reforms such as educational stability legislation and implementation of the National Youth in Transition Database, NYTD.
Policy makers and youth emphasized the important role for youth, including why plans for youth aging out of care are far more effective when youth are centrally involved. Several young people offered powerful examples of the valuable insights they can share and of their effectiveness as spokespersons to improve policy.
The importance of data also was affirmed from reducing the use of residential care sites to guiding court decisions about youth's cases to building public/private partnerships.
Federal policy makers emphasized that while broad new legislation is unlikely in the near future, opportunities exist to include provisions in other bills before Congress. Medicaid expansion for youth aging out of care was included in health care reform, and educational reforms can be included in the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act, for example.
Frank Farrow of the Center for the Study of Social Policy concluded the symposium by summarizing new resources to help youth in transition. He pointed to: better data to customize policy to youth's needs, an understanding that permanence is about life-long connections, an appreciation for the power of the youth voice, and a recognition that change requires management to be driven by results.
