What Happens to the Forgotten Young Adults Who Age Out of Foster Care
Every year, 20,000 foster children in the United States age out of the system and are left to be adults on their own without anyone to help them.
Gabriel Jackson, a young adult who aged out of foster care, entered into foster care when he was 13.
“I kept changing case workers and changing the agencies which complicated the process,” he said.
His foster care experience was unique because he resided with his aunt who became his caregiver. His contact with his mother has been nonexistent since he aged out of the system due to her mental illness that caused the removal in the first place.
In the summer of 2011, Jackson and his family were homeless. They found a shelter for women and children that did not take boys over a certain age. He was 13 at the time which forced the shelter to turn him away and only accept his sister and mother.
Jackson was placed with his aunt and was changed to “Independent Status” while living with her. He explained this status as a situation where he lived with his aunt, however he was considered a ward of the court. Independent status is defined as a person above the age of 13 who does not have dependent children and is considered a family in of themselves.
He has not seen his biological mother since 2003.
“If I tried to contact her, she would not understand. She is not willing to go to a hospital to get diagnosed because she doesn’t want help. My mom has had mental illness since the beginning,” Jackson said.
Jackson’s sister also faced the foster care system after their time at the homeless shelter finished. She was 14-years-old when she first entered the system and was sexually assaulted, abused physically and skipped around from foster home to foster home until aging out herself.
“At one home, they would lock the fridge so she could not get food for herself. She could not eat,” Jackson said.
Jackson’s sister is not the only story of abuse for young adults in foster care. Sarah Markland and her husband also located in Virginia, are in the process of adopting a 16-year-old boy named Chris.
Chris’ Story
When it comes to adopting a teenager, the likelihood of adoption is very low. This is why nearly 20,000 young adults age out of foster care every year. Each state has differing rules of what age is considered an adult; some are 21 and some are 18.
Markland explained that she had told her husband when they were dating that adoption was what she wanted to do one day, and foster care became a part of that plan when they got married.
There are over 400,000 children in foster care in the US at any given time. Of those, around 115,000 cannot be reunited with their families and are awaiting adoption.
When the couple began wanting to foster, their search began with wanting an elementary aged child at first.
“Our experience and comfortability were around elementary aged kids. Our jobs were around younger children, so we just felt more comfortable starting there,” she said.
Over half of the children in foster care are above the age of 6-years-old. The average age of a child waiting for adoption is eight-years-old.
Fostering Chris started off as just fostering without plans of adoption. In the beginning the case workers explained that adopting Chris was probably not going to happen. However, the official process for adoption began in January and is expected to finish up in May.
“A lot of things behind the scenes happened and had nothing to do with us. However, Chris has been very vocal about not wanting to go back to his mom, so her rights were terminated,” she said.
Chris was the couple’s first foster child when he was 14-years-old. This was Chris’ first placement as a foster child.
“My stepdad was abusive, and my mom would just step back and watch,” he said.
When he was removed from his mom and stepdad, Chris and his step-siblings were placed with his step-grandparents. Preferential treatment played a huge part in the abuse he suffered when he was with them since his step-siblings were blood related and he was not. It was at this time when he spoke out about wanting to leave.
Markland says that Chris had communicated very clearly that he did not want to be with his family anymore, even before they began fostering him.
Chris explained that foster care is harder for older kids because they are less likely to find an actual family and because it is harder to adjust to different lives the older they get. Over 60% of children in foster care spend between two and five years there before adoption takes place and almost 20% spend five or more years in foster care before being adopted. Many never get adopted.
How abuse is handled by CPS
Hannah Wasvary, who is a CPS Investigator with Amherst Social Services, sees a lot of children get removed from their guardians due to abuse.
Wasvary’s job is to investigate situations where there is possible abuse or neglect. She interviews the potential victim and the alleged abuser who is typically an adult in a caretaker role. She goes to schools, homes, hospitals or jails to conduct these interviews.
Wasvary has 60 days to work her case and if the family is in need of further assistance, she sends them to another case worker. If the caretaker needs to go through treatments for substance abuse, she places the child with another family member or close friend that they can live with during that time.
“Foster care is a last resort for children. Before looking at foster care as an option, we always look for any family or friends who the child can be placed with while their guardian receives the necessary treatment,” she said.
There is a 90-day period before a child in foster care turns 18 or is scheduled to leave foster care. During this time the federal law requires that a child welfare agency in the state they reside helps the child discuss next steps. These plans are to address different options in regard to their housing, education, employment opportunities, health care, insurance and mentoring services.
When it comes to young adults aging out of foster care, usually after years of being in it, certain programs can help the young adult get settled and get mentoring or counseling. Not all are successful but many are helpful.
In Virginia, 21 is the age that foster care young adults are considered adults, however they are allowed to have help and utilize services after that age. Independent living services are available to most foster care youth when they begin their transition out of foster care.
Patrick Henry Family Services
At Patrick Henry Family Services, located in Lynchburg, Virginia, they offer a program for young adults called Safe Families Plus which is an extension of their other program, Safe Families for Children.
Safe Families for Children is a program that tries to prevent children from entering foster care. The program takes the child and places them with a “host family” for a short period of time while the guardians of that child seek help and mentoring. The program’s goal is to prevent the children from needing to enter foster care at all.
Jordyn Dorman, a social work intern at Patrick Henry Family Services says that Safe Families for Children is a new way to view foster care.
“It is getting back to the roots of the Bible where Christians are called to take care of orphans,” she said.
Safe Families Plus is an extension of this original program that helps those over the age of 18. Some participants are college students who have no family to help them over breaks or summer times, and others are foster care young adults who aged out of the system.
Most of the time, this program helps young adults who need a temporary home. This could look like students getting on their feet after aging out of foster care or just needing a place to stay for holidays and breaks.
The young adult and the host family reach an agreement on what the rules are and how long it lasts while Patrick Henry Family Services helps the contract process. Because these children are now considered adults, the goal changes from reunification as with Safe Families for Children into helping direct their needs.
Safe Families Plus ends up mostly helping college students with unhealthy families or young adults who have burned bridges with all the members of their own foster family. The program is still being developed at Patrick Henry Family services, but they have helped two young adults this past year.
COVID and foster care
COVID-19 has affected the number host families for Safe Families Plus and Safe Families for Children. Both programs saw a decrease in volunteer host families at the beginning of the pandemic mostly due to the fact that one of the host family members was a frontline worker or one of the family members was in the compromised category. However, as COVID-19 has continued on, an increase in interest has begun again.
When COVID-19 hit last year, Safe Families Plus was able to help two young adults that were struggling when college campuses shut down.
Besides just Patrick Henry’s programs struggling to help during the COVID-19 pandemic, foster care and adoption processes have been affected. Court hearings, paperwork, legal proceedings, and the number of families opening their homes have been struggling.
2020 has marked the highest number of US unemployment applications ever which has resulted in less families ready to adopt and more families dropping out of the processes due to the lack of income.
Less children have entered the system during COVID-19, which deceivingly sounds like a positive thing. However, teachers are the highest reporters of abuse and make up 20% of the calls to social services. Because students were not in class every day, there were less children entering the system and less investigations happening, which has resulted in many children being left in their abusive homes during a time when families were spending long periods of time together.
Older children who aged out during the time of shutdowns and beginning stages of COVID-19, struggled immensely. With their statistics of unemployment already so low, plus the increase of unemployment for everyone, foster care young adults struggled to find any income during COVID-19.
Many young adults were struggling for the basic necessities, and college students from foster care said their educational costs rose during the pandemic. 5% of the college student population is made up of foster care young adults.
The basic needs of adequate food, clothing, transportation, health care and permanent residency have been an ongoing crisis for the young adults.
In response to COVID-19, nine states and Washington D.C. issued a temporary moratorium that related to aging out of foster care during the pandemic and allowed extensions to their programs past the age out number. The young adults in the states where this temporary act was not established have continued suffering and struggling. They are at a severe disadvantage for transitioning into adulthood.
Only 28 states provide extended foster care currently. This means that only 28 states out of 50 give young adults who age out of foster care the chance to be better prepared for adulthood by creating relationships and skills in federal programs.
Successful programs for extended foster care focus on policies that are trauma-informed and utilize the latest developmental research for adolescents. The Juvenile Law Center advocates for all states to adopt an option from the federal law level to provide extended care to all young adults until they reach 21.
Every state has differing policies when it comes to young adults aging out of foster care and none are great options. One of four young adults who age out will be incarcerated within two years of aging out; one of five will be homeless within two years of aging out and less than one of six will graduate high school.
Sources:
https://chsva.org/the-possibilities-project/youth-age-out-of-foster-care-documentary/
https://www.childwelfare.gov/pubPDFs/youth_transition.pdf
https://adoptionnetwork.com/adoption-myths-facts/domestic-us-statistics/
https://depts.washington.edu/fostered/fafsa-faq
https://www.verywellfamily.com/covid-19-affects-foster-and-adoption-rates-5086425
