A new article found here. College is the new high school, let's support AB 12 and give these kids a little support. You don't dump teenagers at bus stops.
Guest View: Don't push foster youths out the door
By Miriam Aroni Krinsky
San Gabriel Valley Tribune
Posted:09/19/2010 07:04:01 AM PDT
`On my 18th birthday, my (foster parent) literally dropped me off at a bus station with my worldly possessions packed in a duffle bag. I felt like a ship lost at sea with no destination, no gas, and no motivation."
The above cry for help is far too common among youth who age out of our foster care system.
Few of us would turn our teenaged child out on the street with no place to sleep, no job, minimal life skills, no savings, and no plan for adulthood. Few of us would abandon our 18 year-old with no adult support and nowhere to turn when the challenges of independent living set in. Yet for our most vulnerable youth - the abused and neglected children we bring into foster care - these scenarios are the norm.
Every year more than 1,000 teenagers age out of Los Angeles County's foster care system and come face to face with the challenges of adulthood completely alone. Without the anchor of a family, former foster youth disproportionately join the ranks of the homeless, incarcerated and unemployed. Indeed, recent studies recount that former foster youth are 10 times more likely to be arrested than similarly situated youth and that one in four who age out of foster care will end up in jail within the first two years after leaving care. This incarceration doesn't come cheap: The average price for a year in prison is $35,587, and this figure doesn't even begin to account for the human toll and loss of potential.
Sitting on the governor's desk is a chance to address this dismal record and chart a better path for teenagers in foster care. AB 12 - legislation that received overwhelming bipartisan support in the Legislature - would permit young Californians in the foster care system to continue receiving support until age 21. This support will stabilize their housing, provide a cushion for higher education and/or beginning a career.
While some may question investing in foster youth in the face of a multi-billion dollar deficit, AB 12 would result in no net cost to the state because it draws down new federal money. As a result of the recently enacted federal Fostering Connections to Success Act, the federal government will for the first time support state efforts to extend foster care services and oversight up to age 21; federal money will match every dollar our state invests in supporting foster youth beyond age 18. Moreover, provisions in AB 12 will result in new savings for our state of $60 million annually by converting a formerly state-funded relative guardianship program into a federally-funded initiative.
A few states have extended foster care support beyond age 18 and their results are conclusive - youth who were allowed to remain in foster care beyond age 18 were twice as likely to be working toward completion of a high school diploma, three times more likely to be enrolled in college, 65 percent less likely to have been arrested and 54 percent less likely to have been incarcerated.
So AB 12 is the humane approach but it's also is a fiscally sound bill. It is a rare glimmer of basic common sense in a legislative year too often marked by chaos and dysfunction.
Not surprisingly, AB 12 has received wide bipartisan support. The 51-member California Child Welfare Council, co-chaired by Supreme Court Justice Carlos Moreno and HHS Secretary Kim Belsh , unanimously recommended expanding support for youth in foster care to age 21.
Let us hope that the governor joins the chorus of bipartisan leaders in our state who have underscored the need to invest in, rather than abandon, our most vulnerable children.The governor should sign the bill before yet another generation of foster youth find themselves ill prepared for adulthood, alone and adrift.
Los Angeles resident Miriam Aroni Krinsky is a member of the California Blue Ribbon Commission on Foster Care and also serves as a lecturer at the UCLA School of Public Affairs.
