House Committee on Ways and Means
Statement of Everychild Foundation
The Problem: The “Transition Cliff”
- Many children with abuse and
neglect histories never reunite with their families or find alternative
permanent homes; this population of abused children graduate or “emancipate”
from the child welfare system
- Children who emancipate from the
foster care system face disproportiately higher rates of:
- Unemployment
- Lower Educational Attainment
- Incarceration
- Dependence on public assistance
- Substance abuse
- Non-marital childbirth
- Other high-risk behaviors.[1]
- The lack of a
“safety net” for these former foster youth - - now young adults - - means that
they truly struggle to “make ends meet” often ultimately becoming a more
burdensome and larger cost to society than if a much smaller, up-front
investment had simply been made to better prepare and advise them during
transition and the years preceding it.
- One shocking
statistic best explains how the system has failed them: over 70% of all
State Penitentiary inmates have spent time in the foster care system according
to the May 12, 2006 Select Committee Hearing of the California Legislature.
(This includes group homes and informal out of home placements/arrangements.)
- The public knows little or nothing about the
difficulties facing this group of young adults.
- The population of emancipated
foster youth face unique challenges such as:
- Lack of stable or affordable
housing leading to homelessness
- Lack of employment opportunities
- Lack of medical care / coverage
- Mental health problems
- Early or unplanned pregnancies
- When provided with information about
the poor prospects for this population, most people say that the age at which
the average young person is completely on their own is 23; 1/3 of respondents
say it is 25 or older.[2]
This presentation includes a
compilation of recent statistics (by no means exhaustive) to illustrate the
significant ramifications of failing to assist these young adults.
Our
position is that there
are steps that the government and community can take to help ensure that these
youth make a smooth transition and become productive members of the community.
The
direct public expense of not doing so is enormous, according to various experts
the authors queried who work closely with emancipated foster youth. Consider
these typical annual costs they cited:
- Housing an emancipated foster youth in a
program providing support services (mental health, educational and
vocational counseling, job placement, financial literacy and life skills
training, mentoring) such as Hillsides in Pasadena - $20,000 - $25,000.
- Incarceration
for the same young
adult - between $55,000 and $115,000 (depending upon the type of
facility), according to the State’s Safety and Welfare Remedial Plan filed in
April of this year.
- Residence in
a mental health facility - $215,000.
- The Basics:
- Nationally, about 20,000 youth
aged 16 or older make the transition from foster care to legal emancipation
each year.[3]
- From January 1, 2004 to December 31,
2004, 4,255 children emancipated from foster care in California.[4]
- Of these 4,255 emancipating youth
1,402 were located in Los Angeles.
- Children who emancipate from
the child welfare system are unlikely to find safe, affordable housing.
- Within
2-4 years of emancipation, 25% of emancipated youth have been homeless for at
least one night.[5]
- In California, 65% of youth leaving care do so without a place to live.[6]
- Nearly
40% of transitioning youth will be homeless within eighteen months of
discharge.[7]
- In Los Angeles and Alameda counties, 50% of emancipated youth will be homeless within six
months.[8]
- Without
housing, youth are less likely to complete their education, find employment,
and gain access to health care, all of which jeopardize their ability to make a
successful transition to independence.[9]
- Studies
found that between 44 – 77 % of emancipating youth have completed high school
as compared to 93% of non-foster care youth[10]
- Research
shows that only 1% to 5% of foster youth ever graduate from college.[11]
Employment
Problems: Children who emancipate
from
the child welfare system are unlikely to find employment opportunities.
- Studies show that approximately 51%
of youth are unemployed within 2-4 years of emancipation[12]
- According to the California Department of Social Services, as of
December 2001, about 50% of emancipated foster youth were not employed.[13]
- If employed, former foster care
youth earn significantly lower wages than their low-income peers.
- One study found that emancipated
foster youth earned an average of $6000 per year, which is well below the
national poverty line of $7890.
- Over a three-year period, no more
than 45% of these foster youth reported earnings in any one quarter.
The
Impact of Failing Our Emancipated Youth: The Cost of Benefits and Incarceration
- The State
must bear the following significant economic and other costs of youth who end
up incarcerated: [14]
- Criminal
justice costs (i.e., operation of criminal justice system in terms of
police, prosecution, courts, probation, incarceration, parole etc.)
- Medical
costs borne by the government
- Property
damage
- Loss of
productivity to society
- Loss of
work time by victims, their families and the offender
- Loss of
property values in areas of high crime
- Pain
and suffering of crime victims and society
The
Impact of Failing Our Emancipated Youth: The Cost of Benefits and Incarceration
- 40% of former foster youth are a
cost to the community.[15]
- The cost to the community occurs
within 2-4 years of emancipation because 40% of emancipated youth have been on
public assistance or incarcerated by that time.[16]
- Several studies reveal that girls
who emancipate from foster care are far more likely (approximately 3X) than
their peers to have a child by 19.[17]
- Approximately 50% of females in the
foster care system receive AFDC/TANF Medi-Cal within one to six years of
emancipation. In contrast, approximately 6% of all females age 19-29 in California received TANF in 1999.[18]
[1] http://www.covdove.org/Inside/Statistics.htm,
Covenant House California Statistics (retrieved February 2006).
[2] http://www.financeproject.org/Publications/foster%20care%20final1.pdf
[3] http://www.casey.org/MediaCXenter/MediaKit/FActSheet.htm,
Child Welfare Fact Sheet published by Casey Family Programs (based on data from
a period ending September 30, 2001).
[4] Child Welfare Service Reports for California (2005).
Retrieved in February 2006 from University of California at Berkeley Center for Social Services Research Website. URL: http://cssr.berkeley.edu/CWSCMSreports/.
See also, http://calwv.org/jjds/chap6.html,
Juvenile Justice in California, Part II: Dependency System, Chap. VI,
Prepared by the League of Women Voters of California, July 1998.
5 April 2003 Press Release from the Office of the
Governor of California, reprinted on http://www.buildingc3.com/item.asp?id=196.
See also Finessa Ferrell, Life After Foster Care, http://www.ncsl.org/programs/pubs/slmag/2004/04OctNov_Fostercare.pdf
(2004).
[6] Issue Brief, Ensuring Access to Healthy Young Adults
Program for Transitioning Youth, citing a California Department of Social
Services 2002 Study: Report of the Housing Needs of Emancipated
Foster/Probation Youth; California
Department of Social Services. (2002) Report on the Survey of the Housing
Needs of Emancipated Foster/Probation Youth. Independent Living Program
Policy Unit, Child and Youth Permanency Branch.
[7]
U.S. General Accounting Office. (1999) Foster Care: Effectiveness of
Independent Living Services Unknown. (GAO/HEHS-00-13). Washington, D.C.: Government Printing Office. See also, Juvenile Justice in California Part II:
Dependency System, 1998, http://calwv.org/jjds/chap6.html.
[8] Covenant House of California statistics available at http://www.covdove.org/Inside/Statistics.htm
(2004).
[9]
Los Angeles County Economy and Efficiency Commission. (2002) A Review of
Emancipation Services. Los Angeles, CA: Author. Available online at
http://eec.co.la.ca.us/pubfiles/cntyops/0202-EmancipationServices.htm.
[10] Id.
[11] Finessa Ferrell, Life After Foster Care, http://www.ncsl.org/programs/pubs/slmag/2004/04OctNov_Fostercare.pdf
(2004).
[12] April 2003 Press Release from the Office of the
Governor of California, reprinted on http://www.buildingc3.com/item.asp?id=196.
One study showed that 23% of California former foster care youth were unemployed within a 13-month period.
[13] http://www.familiesforchildren.org/statistics/htm.
[14] See http://www.lao.ca.gov/1995/050195_juv_crime/kkpart6.html.
[15] Id.
[16] April 2003 Press Release from the Office of the
Governor of California, reprinted on http://www.buildingc3.com/item.asp?id=196.
[17] See http://www.teenpregnancy.org/resources/reading/pdf/Fostering_Hope.pdf.
[18] Youth Emancipating from Foster Care in California: Findings Using Linked Administrative Data, July 31, 2002, Summary of Findings
by the Research and Evaluation Branch, Research and Development Division of the
California Department of Social Services.