Caseworker Perceptions of Challenges to Implementing Extended Foster Care

Background and Purpose: The Fostering Connections Act provides federal support for states to allow eligible youth to remain in foster care to their 21^st birthday, in contrast to prior policy that provided support only through age 18.  While several states have adopted this new policy, few jurisdictions have any experience providing care to young adults (Administration on Children and Families, 2013; Courtney, 2009; Buss, 2010).  California is an important early adopter of the policy given the size of its foster care population and its inclusive approach to implementation (Mosley & Courtney, 2012).  This study presents findings of a statewide survey of case managers responsible for supervising extended foster care, focusing on potential challenges to effectively extending foster care to young adults.

Methods: The CalYOUTH Caseworker Survey collected information from caseworkers at the early stages of implementation of California’s Fostering Connections Act (AB 12).  A web-based survey was developed to assess workers’ perceptions of factors relevant to implementation of the policy, including: youths’ characteristics and need for services; youths’ knowledge of and attitudes towards remaining in care; youths’ motivation to remain in care; availability and helpfulness of services; workers’ satisfaction with collaboration with other systems; workers’ attitudes toward extending care; and workers’ views of challenges to AB 12 implementation. Caseworkers were eligible to participate if at least one youth on their caseload had turned 18 in the past six months. A statewide random sample of 262 of the 891 case workers in California who were eligible was invited to complete the survey. The sample was stratified by county size to ensure representation of smaller-population counties. Descriptive analyses reported here are weighted to provide estimates for the statewide population. The survey took a median of 29 minutes to complete and had a final response rate of 89.8% (n = 235), with no significant between-county variation in response rates.        

Results: Workers report that 81% of youth want to remain in care past 18, but over half have at best a “fair” understanding of what that entails. They perceive youth to be more likely to have “high need” for help meeting basic needs (e.g., managing money, 45%; finding a place to live, 46%) than for mental health (36%) or substance abuse (20%) services. Workers were most likely to report “few” or “no” services for interpersonal skill development (63%) and least likely to report a lack of postsecondary education supports (30%). Half of workers report that their county has “few” or “no” housing options for youth over 18. In terms of between-system collaboration, workers were most likely to be dissatisfied with housing services (30%). Service availability varied between counties. The greatest challenges to implementing the law were a lack of placement options (81%) and services (66%) and unclear policies and procedures (59%).

Conclusions and Implications: Study results identify perceived areas of youths’ greatest needs, areas of service inadequacy, and systems that should be targets for better service collaboration. The caseworker survey provides a low-cost strategy for states to monitor their implementation of extended foster care.