Determinants of Staying in Care Beyond Age 18 in Illinois

Purpose: To better serve foster youth and fulfill its role in loco parentis, some states have enacted—or are considering enacting—laws expanding out-of-home care and state-supervision beyond age 18, when foster youth in most states are typically discharged. In addition, recently introduced federal legislation would provide federal reimbursement to states that retain young people in their care until age 21. Research suggests that allowing young people to remain in care until age 21 may have a number of benefits, including higher rates of college enrollment, higher earnings and lower rates of early pregnancy (Courtney, Dworsky & Pollack, 2007). However, state statutes that allow young people to remain in care are no guarantee that they will actually do so. For example, in Illinois, one of the few states where this is already an option (Bussey et al., 2000), the percentage of young people who stay in care beyond age 18 varies considerably by region. This paper seeks to identify the factors explaining geographical variation in retention observed in Illinois.

Method: The study analyzed survey data collected from 474 young people who participated in a longitudinal study of foster youth making the transition to adulthood (i.e., the Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth, or “Midwest Study”) and agency administrative data for 23,022 young people who left foster care between 1991 and 2006 when they were at least 17 years old. Logistic regression was used to estimate the effects of both individual level characteristics (including demographics and placement history) and geographic-level variation (including urbanicity, county size, administrative region, and poverty rate) on the likelihood that young people in these two samples remained in care beyond age 18.

Results: Analysis of the Midwest Study data found considerable regional- and county-level differences in the likelihood of remaining in care beyond 18, even after controlling for individual level characteristics. In fact, the individual-level characteristics explained almost none of the variation. Analysis of the agency administrative data produced similar results. Larger counties tended to have higher rates of retention, and foster youth in smaller counties who stayed in care tended to be receiving support for post-secondary education.

Conclusions and Implications: Results show that region- and county-level factors are responsible for much of the observed variation in the likelihood that young people from Illinois will remain in care beyond age 18. These findings suggest that increasing retention rates may require changes at the county or region level, and particularly in how courts respond to older adolescents in state care.