Session: Lessons From the Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (Society for Social Work and Research 15th Annual Conference: Emerging Horizons for Social Work Research)

The transition to adulthood and self-sufficiency is never easy, but it can be particularly challenging for young people who make the transition to adulthood from foster care each year. Many of these young adults are unable to turn to their parents or other family members for financial and/or emotional support. Nor can they generally count on the state for continuing support once they have been discharged from care, generally at or around their 18th birthday. Consequently, the transition to young adulthood is often very difficult for these young people (Barth, 1990; Collins, 2001; Cook et al, 1991; Courtney, 2009; Festinger, 1983; Pecora et al, 2005; McMillen et al, 2005).

It was not until 1986, when Congress amended the Social Security Act to include the Title IV-E Independent Living Program, that federal policy acknowledged the needs of these young people. Title IV-E has been amended several times since then in efforts to improve support for foster youth making the transition to adulthood. Most recently, in 2008 the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (“Fostering Connections Act”) created a state option to extend foster care past 18 to age 21. In order for youth to be eligible to remain in care they must participate in education, employment, or employment-related activities or be deemed to have a medical condition that keeps them from doing so. Whether and how states will take up the option to extend care are important policy and practice questions.

This symposium presents findings from the ongoing Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (“Midwest Study”) (Courtney et al, 2004; 2007; 2009; 2010), which is following young people in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin as they age out of the child welfare system and transition to adulthood. Baseline interviews were conducted when the young people were 17-18 and were still in out-of-home care (n = 732; 95% response rate) and follow-up interviews have been conducted at 19, 21, and 23-24, with over 80% of the baseline sample being retained at each follow-up. The Midwest Study provides timely evidence regarding the transition to adulthood for foster youth and allows for examination of the potential implications of extending care past 18, since the states involved have widely varying policies regarding when youth must exit care. Thus, the Midwest Study is a vital source of information to help inform implementation of the Fostering Connections Act. Relying on the rich longitudinal data generated by the Midwest Study, the symposium includes presentations that provide information on how foster youth fare during the transition to adulthood in terms of employment and crime, including evidence regarding the potential influence of extended care on those outcomes. It also presents the findings of a latent class analysis that identifies subgroups of former foster youth at age 23-24, groups with arguably very distinct needs. Our findings have implications for social work practice and call into question the adequacy of the Fostering Connections Act as a policy framework for foster youth in transition.