Foster kids need a wider safety net
Commitment to foster care creates instability for any child, but adolescents in state custody can face a difficult path to a permanent home at a time of great stress and change in their lives.
A recent KIDS COUNT data report from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, Fostering Youth Transitions, highlights the particular challenges for adolescents in foster care as they transition to adulthood.
Fostering Youth Transitions reports 41 percent of Tennessee’s foster care population, or 5,745 youth, are age 14 or older, compared to one in four foster youth nationally in 2016.
Nationally, adolescents in foster care are about evenly split between boys and girls, but in Tennessee almost six in 10 foster care youth are boys. The national foster care population is more heavily minority than the population as a whole, but in Tennessee these differences are far less pronounced.
Tennessee youth engaged with the foster care system have about the same likelihood of having multiple foster care episodes as do youth nationally, but Tennessee foster care youth are more likely to have multiple placements in each episode.
More than half of Tennessee adolescents in foster care had three or more placements in their most recent episode. This creates instability for youth who are likely already experiencing some trauma.
By age 21, according to the KIDS COUNT report, young adults exiting foster care are less likely to be employed or to have obtained a high school credential. They are more likely to be parents.
The Youth Transitions Advisory Council (YTAC) also released a report recently on Tennessee adolescents exiting foster care. Bright spots in Tennessee reported by YTAC include:
❚ Funding by the Tennessee Housing Development Agency to address housing needs of youth aging out of foster care, including dedicated housing units in Davidson, Cumberland, Sullivan and Williamson counties.
❚ Intensive case management services provided by Youth Villages’ YVLifeSet program, which has served nearly 10,000 young people in Tennessee since its inception in 1999.
The YTAC Report, submitted to the Tennessee Legislature annually as required by law, includes recommendations. Some of the recommendations include:
❚ DCS should expand eligibility for extension of foster care services to additional categories of youth available under federal legislation law, including those youth working for 80 hours per month or engaging in activities that lead to employment but need assistance.
❚ Tennessee law should be amended to implement the 2018 federal Families First Prevention Services Act expanding eligibility for Extension of Foster Care Services to age 23.
Transitioning to adulthood is challenging in any situation, with new responsibilities and big decisions to make. Adolescents rely on parents far more than they realize during this exciting but sometimes frightening time.
We have long known that those without a safe and stable home need extra support, and the national and state-level data from the KIDS COUNT report emphasize this important need.
Steve Petty is the Youth Policy Advocate for the Tennessee Commission on Children and Youth.