Current State
Current State of Long-Term Supports for Youth and Young Adults
The child welfare system has historically had an overdependence on foster care and congregate care settings. This is reinforced by decades of federal funds, Title IV-E of the Social Security Act, restrictions to reimbursing states for foster homes and group homes and underinvestment in prevention funds, and Title IV-B of the Social Security Act. This has led to hundreds of thousands of children and youth languishing in foster care due to the structural racism plaguing the system, resulting in a disproportionate amount of these children being Black, Brown, and Indigenous.
Efforts to identify families for kinship support and/or social connection are greatly lacking across child welfare systems, particularly for older youth. There are limited and unequal financial and supportive services offered to kin (extended family and friends) who support children and youth who cannot live with their biological parents. Kinship supports vary across states and counties and often offer smaller financial payments than those made to foster homes and do not include access to other public benefits and supportive services.
Screening protocols rooted in racist policies often led to many Black, Brown, and Indigenous kin being rejected as a placement option or from receiving assistance from the system. Many family members feel unsupported and even criminalized within the system leading to lower kinship engagement and a lack of family and social connection for many older youth in the system.
Group care is especially harmful to young people in foster care. Many states continue to have an overreliance on congregate care or group homes for older youth, even though many youth in these placements do not have special treatment needs that warrant such placements. Group care placements leave youth without access to the social and emotional support of a family, they are punitive and deny youth of developmentally appropriate experiences and relationship building with their peers, and they often lead to youth running from the system and increased rates of homelessness.
The lack of safe options for young people and the lack of agency in being able to make choices about the types of placements they receive from the current child welfare system leads to some young people running away for their own safety and well-being, greatly increasing their risk of homelessness and exploitation.