Youth-led Planning
Initiative Policy Goal
Require that young people lead the development of their case planning, including permanency planning and transition planning that addresses education and employment goals, and is finalized during the 90-day period immediately prior to leaving care.
Issue definition
Most young people between the ages of 18-24 still live with their parents. This is not true for older youth in foster care. Older youth are discharged from foster care at age 18 (19, 20, or 21 depending on the state) often without a place to live, a job, or the education needed to get a job, and no plan or supports in place to help them. Part of the states' role is to help youth successfully transition from foster care to adulthood. Just like their counterparts outside the foster care community whose parents help support their transition, these youth need a plan for education, employment, housing, health insurance, and adult connections and other supports to help them succeed.
The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (P.L. 110-351) (Fostering Connections) will help hundreds of thousands of children and youth in foster care by promoting permanent families, improving education and health care and extending federal supports for youth to age 21. As part of the case review system, Fostering Connections requires that, in the 90-day period immediately prior to when a youth turns 18 (or 19, 20 or 21 as the state may elect), a caseworker and any other appropriate representative's work with the youth to develop a youth-led, personalized transition plan that is as detailed as the youth chooses. The plan must include specifics on housing, health insurance, education, local opportunities for adult connections and continuing support services, workforce supports and employment services. This transition plan is required for all youth for whom foster care maintenance payments are being made. States have been required to implement this provision since October 2008.
The Initiative believes that young people should be full partners and leaders in understanding their rights and responsibilities and in making decisions affecting their own lives. Developing these transition plans in partnership with a wide array of adults from various public and private systems is important, but most importantly, young people need to lead the process of making decisions on issues that affect them in order to support their successful transition to adulthood.
States need to provide consistent education, training, and support to young people in care to build their knowledge and skills to be effective partners and leaders in their overall case planning. These skills are critically important to young people as they prepare to transition into adulthood.
States must work with young people to incorporate specifics of transition planning into the required case planning, at least from the age of 15 or 16 or even earlier. It is essential to include supports that the youth identified as being able to help them reach their personal goals, and to live interdependently in the community that they call home. And while it is vital to begin transition planning early, that plan can easily become meaningless as the reality of emancipation nears and life events change. Therefore, as required by Fostering Connections, the transition plans must be finalized within 90 days of emancipation so that they are immediately relevant to the young person's transition needs and to his or her long term goals.
Status
Prior to the passage of Fostering Connections, involving young people in planning for their future in any manner, formal or otherwise, was seen by many as a best practice, but it was not a federal requirement. Many states involve young people in creating and implementing a transition plan, however the degree of the plan's specificity and level of involvement of the young person and others varies greatly across systems. States already working to ensure that young people have meaningful roles in driving their transition plan will find it easier to comply with this provision.
In order to assist states in implementing this provision of Fostering Connections, the University Oklahoma National Child Welfare Resource Center for Youth Development, with the University of Southern Maine, Muskie School of Public Service, has written a paper that reviews the best practices in transition planning across other youth-serving systems and makes a number of recommendations for child welfare systems. See the Resources sections below for a link to the paper.
Examples from Communities
Ohio
Ohio has robust transition plans, policy and practice in place. Local Public Children Services Agencies (PCSA) conduct life-skills assessments for each youth in substitute care who has attained the age of 16 or whom the state feels is ready to receive independent living services. The assessment is based on an objective tool completed by the youth. The state requires documentation of the youth's input, as well as the input of the caregiver and case manager. The assessment must be completed no later than 90 days after the youth turns 16 or 90 days after an older youth has entered custody. This plan outlines the responsibilities of the youth and the agency and is signed by both parties.[1]
Delaware
Delaware requires youth with an Another Planned Permanent Living Arrangement (APPLA) to have their transition plan reviewed by the court every six months, rather than annually. The state is also required to consider family connections throughout the life of the case and the appropriateness of youth having a plan of APPLA. Delaware also has a Youth Advisory Council (YAC) where youth are trained to enhance their leadership skills and interpersonal development. In 2008, YAC implemented a financial literacy program. These efforts will assist Delaware's foster youth to increase their knowledge about opening and managing a savings account, learning about loans and interest rates. These youth can also receive matching funds as they open a savings account and regularly deposit funds. Delaware also passed SB 262 giving caseworkers authority to sign documentation on behalf of youth so they can obtain a license from the Department of Motor Vehicles without the worker or DSCYF assuming liability.[2]
Connecticut
Connecticut offers a multistep planning process that begins when the young person turns 14 years of age. Planning centers around permanence and ensuring that services are in place to achieve permanence. For young people who will transition from foster care without legal permanence the Department policy states:
"According to DCF policy 42-10-3, "A conference shall be held to finalize an Adolescent Discharge Plan for all youth eighteen (18) years of age or older in out-of-home placement at least one hundred and eighty (180) days (six months) prior to the anticipated discharge from Department care. The Adolescent Discharge Plan is documented on Form DCF-2092 and addresses, among other things, "assistance to be provided by the Department...to help the youth fulfill any aspect of the plan as well as assistance in obtaining essential documents and records. The Adolescent Specialist shall schedule a conference prior to the finalization of the Adolescent Discharge Plan (DCF-2092). If the youth is under the age of eighteen (18), the Administrative Case Review (ACR) can take the place of the conference."
Topics of this conference include, among others:
- "identification of at least three adults committed to lifelong family relationships and a definition of their commitment to the youth
- expectations about the youth's continuation with any service program, including responsibilities of the youth, Adolescent Specialist, foster parents, biological parents or relatives, and any community connections"
Connecticut's case planning process places the focus on permanence through all stages.
Indiana
Indiana, effective July 1, 2009, IC 21-12-6-14 requires that each child in the care and custody of the Department of Child Services be provided information about the following programs: Pell grants, Chafee grants, federal supplemental grants, free application for federal student aid (FAFSA) and the state's student assistance commission. Youth and their caregivers should be provided this information beginning at age 17. Youth who enter the foster care system after age 17 should be given the information as soon as possible. Youth and their caregivers must sign a written acknowledgement of receipt of this information, which is placed the child's case file. [3]
Related Resources
The University of Oklahoma National Child Welfare Resource Center for Youth Development (NRCYD)
The NRCYD, in partnership with the University of Southern Maine, Muskie School of Public Service, released a paper entitled "Transition Planning with Adolescents: A Review of Principles and Practices Across Systems." www.nrcyd.ou.edu Click here to view the paper in the Knowledge Center.
Fostering Connections Resource Center
The Resource Center was created with support from Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative along with other foundations and organizations committed to improving lives of vulnerable children and families. It provides nonpartisan, timely, and reliable information to support state and local decision-makers as they move forward with implementing the Fostering Connections Act. The Resource Center is a one-stop-shop for a range of data, online tools, and technical support on all aspects of the Fostering Connections Act. It also provides access to national networks of state-based and local stakeholders organized according to the six major topic areas of the law - education, adoption, kinship, older youth, tribal child welfare, and health. www.fosteringconnections.org
FAQ: Youth and Young Adults Provisions of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008, the National Foster Care Coalition (2009) http://www.nationalfostercare.org/pdfs/NFCC-FAQ-olderyouth-2009.pdf
References
[1] www.fosteringconnections.org/resources/approaches?story_id=0009 (March 7, 2010)
[2] www.fosteringconnections.org/resources/approaches?story_id=0011(March 7, 2010)
[3] www.fosteringconnections.org/resources/approaches?story_id=0020 (March 7, 2010)
