Adoption in Child Time, Inc.

The following information comes to ACT ONE from board member Mark Bontrager, director of Aldea Children and Family Services in Napa, California. While many of the statistics refer to California youth, the problem exists throughout the nation.

Outcomes of Youth Who Emancipate from Foster Care without Being Adopted

FACT: Every year, over 4000 youth emancipate or “age out” of the foster care system in California without a permanent family. (Source: Report from CDSS Independent Living Policy Unit, Child and Youth Permanency Branch, 2002)

FACT: Sixty-five percent of emancipated youth leave foster care with no place to live. (Source: Report from CDSS Independent Living Policy Unit, Child and Youth Permanency Branch, 2002)

FACT: Forty percent of people living in homeless shelters were former foster youth. (Source: Youth Services Child Welfare League of America)

FACT: Fifty-one percent of former foster care youth are unemployed upon leaving foster care. (Source: California Youth Connection, 2005 Policy Conference Report)

FACT: About two-thirds of emancipating females had at least one birth within five years of leaving care, 20 percent giving birth while still in foster care or within the first year. (Source: Center for Social Services Research, UC Berkeley, Youth Emancipating from Foster Care in California: May 2002)

FACT: Fifty-nine percent of emancipated youth receive Medi-Cal services due to AFDC/TANF, SSI/Disability or Medical Indigence in the first year of emancipation and that rate remains constant for the next five years. Emancipating females are four times as likely to receive welfare as other young females in the California population. (Source: Ibid, CSSR, UC Berkeley)

FACT: Fifty percent of foster youth complete high school, significantly below their peers who complete high school at a rate of 70 percent. (Source: Institute for Higher Education Policy, December, 2005)

FACT: Two percent of foster youth earn an AA degree and two percent transfer to a 4-year college. In comparison, 37 percent of students who attend a community college nationally complete a degree at some institution and 15 percent transfer to a 4-year college. (Source: Center for Social Services Research, UC Berkeley, Youth Emancipating from Foster Care in California: May 2002, Funding provided by CDSS. Study uses a sample of 12,306 youth.)

FACT: Nine percent of African American males, five percent of White males and six percent of Latino males enter the state prison system within seven years of emancipation from foster care. (Source: Ibid, CSSR, UC Berkeley)