Should Children in Foster Care Receive Help After Turning 18?
Many states are beginning to realize that children from the foster care system "might" need help after they turn 18. The Florida Divorce Law Blog reports that the premise of helping foster kids beyond the day they turn 18 is taking hold in at least 17 states across the nation.
The New York Times reports that many states are expanding efforts to help young adults prepare for life outside the system, offering transitional housing, education, medical care and mentoring as they step out on their own, sometimes to age 21 or even beyond.
The American Bar Association supports a universal option for children to remain in foster care until age 21. A study conducted by the Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago indicates that those who remain in foster care longer are faring better than those who leave at 18.
Those advocating additional services point out that most young adults in our country are not prepared to fend for themselves on their 18th birthdays. They believe that foster kids are even less prepared by virtue of being raised in foster care, and that explains why so many end up in jail, shelters and unrelenting poverty.
Of course, others claim that youths do not benefit from others taking too much care of them, because they are deprived of the opportunities and experiences that come from caring for themselves. You can read more about this complex issue in the New York Times article "Offering Help for Former Foster Care Youths".
Source: Thanks to Janet Langjahr of the Florida Divorce Law Blog for her post "Foster Care: Is the Job Complete on Youths’ 18th Birthdays?" on this subject.
