Adoption in Child Time, Inc.

The High Cost of Emancipation

Lori Groves and James Kenny

“Home is the place where, when you have to go there, they have to take you in.” (Robert Frost)

Mike was in seven foster homes before being emancipated. Like all foster children, he had been taught the required skills for “independent living”: how to find a job, rent an apartment, balance his checkbook, cook, and so on. He was happy to say goodbye to his final foster home the day after his 18th birthday, but he left with no place to go. Mike lived in the park for two weeks, and then went to live with his aunt. She helped him find a job. He left again when she was arrested. He lost his job and went back to live in the park. By coincidence, he met up with his second foster family and they took him in. They helped him find another job and a new apartment. Unable to pay the rent on his minimum wage job, he was evicted. Then he lost his job due to erratic attendance. Once again he was adrift and alone in the world.

Mike had a high school degree, with no real job history, with no place to live, and with no family. He tried to get himself arrested at one point so he could get a good meal. By the time he was 24, he had spent all but 18 months dumpster-diving and living in the park and in shelters when there was an empty bed.

Mike’s story is not uncommon. Of the 287,000 US children who exited foster care in 2005, over 25,000 (9%) were “aged out” or emancipated without a permanent home. (AFCARS) Youth emancipated to independent living from foster care are more likely to become….

HOMELESS: Sixty-five percent of emancipated foster youth leave the system with no place to go. Fifty percent will become homeless within the first 18 months. Twenty-seven percent of the homeless populations were former foster children. Fifty-eight percent of all young adults using federally funded youth shelters in 1997 had previously been in foster care. These stats are shocking but should not surprise. By definition a foster child is a transient without a permanent home. Better than any other term or condition, “homeless” describes the state of a child in foster care. (www.childrensrights.org)

MENTALLY ILL: According to the Casey Young Adult Survey from 2005, emancipated foster children were 2.8 times more likely to have psychotic problems, 2.5 times more likely to suffer from paranoia, 2.4 times more likely to have obsessive and/or compulsive symptoms, and 2.1 times more likely to be clinically depressed than the general U.S. population. Another study found that former foster youth were twice as likely as U.S. military veterans to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder. (www.heysf.org)

CRIMINALS: One shocking statistic explains how the system has failed emancipated foster children. Over 70% of all State Penitentiary inmates have spent time in the foster care system according to the California Legislature.

Other studies report that 30 to 40% of foster children have been arrested since they exited foster care. Over one-fourth have spent at least one night in jail and over 15% had been convicted of a crime. (Alexander & Huberty, 1993; Courtney et al, 2005; Barth, 1990). This compares with only 3.2% of the general population who were on probation, in jail, or on parole in 2005. (U.S. Department of Justice, 2005).

UNEMPLOYED AND POOR: Less than half of former foster children are employed 2 ½ to 5 years after leaving foster care. Only 18% have maintained employment for at least one year.

A recent study found that emancipated foster youth earned an average of $6000 per year, well below the national poverty level. Emancipated females are four times more likely than their age-mates to receive public assistance. (www.heysf.org and www.childrensrights.org).

PREGNANT: Females emancipated from foster care are four times more likely to become single parents prematurely than their counterparts. According to a mid-west study, nearly half of the emancipated foster women had been pregnant at least once by the age of 19, compared to only 20% of their peers. (Casey, 2005).

SCHOOL DROPOUTS: Youth in foster care are less likely to graduate form high school. In fact, the national statistic says the only 46% of former foster youth complete high school as compared to the 84% of the general population. (www.heysf.org). Of the youth who have aged out of foster care and are over the age of 25, less than 3% have earned a college degree compared with 28% of the general population. (Casey, 2007).

No wonder that emancipated foster children end up poor and homeless in disproportionately large numbers. Emancipation to independent living without a permanent home frequently leads to disaster.

Children need stability and permanence. A child cannot grow and develop without a firm and unchanging base. Even a less-than-best home is preferable to being shuffled around, never knowing where you belong. Children can adjust to almost any situation. They cannot adjust when they don’t know what will happen next or where they will be tomorrow. One cannot spring forward from a moving base; one can only hang on and hope for stability at some later time.

One year in a child’s life is already a long time. When you are in third grade, it’s a long time until lunch. Federal and state laws require that a termination of parental rights be filed no later than 12-15 months, the maximum interlude allowable for impermanence. According to research, delay beyond that time abuses the child. The choice between reunification with the original legal parents and adoption must be made wisely but within a reasonable time. “Emancipation to independent living” is a fancy phrase to cover up our failure. If we are unable to provide a permanent home, we have failed the child. What a cruel joke!

Yes, we may have taught some adult living skills, but the above statistics show that this is far from enough. It is like baking a cake without the flour, providing all the required ingredients but not the essential item. We have provided the tools without the necessary basic structure. Frills but no grounding.

Few of us are able to live alone for long, especially not beginners. So why do we let this happen? While there is no excuse, there are at least three explanations. First, the teen has a say and freedom is what the teen wants. He or she naively believes that a life with no rules will be ideal. What the teen fails to consider is that he will still be a “free” adult at age 18. Being part of a permanent family does not change his adult status.

Financial gain for the agency or institution is a second reason. Long-term foster care is profitable for a private agency. Adoption and reunification are not. Teaching courses in independent living skills attracts grant money for the agency. Letting these skills be taught within a family does not make money.

Finally, foster homes are hard to find for children over age ten. A different approach and the diligence of desperation are required. Knowing what happens to emancipated foster children, we need to change our tactics and go all-out to find them permanent homes before they are set adrift.

Six Recommendations

1. Keep better records. The availability of county and statewide statistics on emancipations would hold us more accountable. By documenting our failures, we might be motivated to work more diligently to find permanent solutions.
2. Classify foster homes into three simple categories: (1) Pre-adoptive homes; (2) Temporary homes; (3) Homes open to both temporary and permanent possibilities. When reunification seems unlikely, the child can be placed from the start in a home which offers a permanency alternative. Moves can be kept to a minimum.
3. Reverse the financial gain for licensed child-placing agencies with children in foster care. After a child turns 10, begin lowering the amount incrementally that the agency receives and offer a bonus for safe and appropriate permanence.
4. Implement concurrent planning, which is nothing more than contingency arrangements for a “rainy day.” If we were to plan a picnic, we would usually have an alternative option in case it rained. We do this for all important matters. We must make fallback plans, a second choice, something else to implement when our primary effort at reunification fails. We ought to do at least that much for our vulnerable children.
5. Legal action has been used. Class action suits have been filed in some cases to obtain “monetary compensation” for damages where the state has allowed foster care to drift interminably and the young adult has suffered specified consequences. Legal action has also been initiated to address the child’s right to “due process” in failing to provide a permanent home.
6. Rethink home-finding for children in care, especially older children. Not simply redouble our efforts, but seek out new ways to search for possible permanent homes. Pat O’Brien in New York ( “You Gotta Believe”) offers one such approach/ His agency finds permanent homes for children 10 and older. Instead of starting with the available pool of approved foster homes, he begins with the young person. “Who do you like? Who likes you?” It might be a grandma, a neighbor, the child’s teacher, probation officer, coach, therapist, or the parent of a friend. That person will get a call. They are told of the young person’s attachment, and are invited to a weekly meeting. If the adult is interested, the process of foster parent licensing might begin. This is a reversal of the usual way homes are found. YGB begins with the interests of the child rather than searching the list of already available foster families.

Conclusion

Independent living is an oxymoron. No one lives independently. We all need one another. If our need for permanence is essential to our constitutional rights, then children have an “inalienable” right to a permanent home. Our systems, welfare and courts, must proceed with diligence and urgency to guarantee this right.

References

AFCARS

Alexander, G., & Huberty, T.J. (1993). Caring for Troubled Childern: The Villages Follow-Up Study. Bloomington, IN: The Villiages of Indiana

Barth, R. P.(1990). On Their Own: The Experience of Youth after Foster Care. Child and Adolescent Social Work Journal, 7(5), 419-446.

Burton, John (2006). Supporting THP+for California’s Emancipating Foster Youth: A Compilation of Statistics. Every Child Foundation.

Casey, Jim (2005). The Casey Young Adult Survey: Findings Over Three Years. Casey Family Programs-Fostering Families, fostering change.

Casey, Jim (2007). Time for Reform: Aging Out and On Their Own-More Teens Leaving Foster Care Without a Permanent Family. Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative.

Chestang, L. and I. Heyman. (1973) “Reducing the length of foster care.” Social Work. Jan.

Courtney, Mark E; Terao, Sherri; & Bost, Noel (2004). Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth: Conditions of Youth Preparing to Leave State Care. Chapin Hall Center for Children at eh University of Chicago.

Frost, R. (2002) “The Death of the Hired Man.” The Poetry of Robert Frost. New York: Holt.

Honoring Emancipated Youth (2005). Barriers Facing Foster Care Youth: National and Local Statistics about Emancipating Foster Youth, www.heysf.org

Kenny, J. (2001) “What happens when bonded relationships are interrupted?” See Legal Resource Center on website: adoptioninchildtime.org.

National Commission on Family Foster Care. (1991) “A blueprint for fostering infants, children, and youths in the 1990’s.” Wash., DC: Child Welfare League of America.

O’Brien, Pat. 1993. “Youth Homelessness and the lack of adoption planning for older children.” Adoptalk. Spring.

Shirk, M. and Stangler, G. (2004) “On Their Own: What happens to kids when they age out of the foster care system.” Basic Books: Cambridge, MA

U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics (2005). Corrections at a Glance: Retrieved November 25, 2008, from www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/correct.htm.

www.childrensrights.org

www.heysf.org