Session: Leveraging Child Welfare Records to Inform Policies and Programs Related to Transition-Age Youth in Foster Care (Society for Social Work and Research 29th Annual Conference)

The California Fostering Connections to Success Act was signed into state law over a decade ago and extended foster care to age 21 for eligible youth. This landmark policy compelled the child welfare system to contend with the challenge of expanding the responsibility for providing care to include the supervision of young adults. This change led to more than a three-fold increase in the number of young people in foster care after age 18.

The California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (CalYOUTH) was launched in 2012, coinciding with the implementation of the extension of foster care and evaluated the effect of extended care on outcomes for youth aging out of care in the state. CalYOUTH provided invaluable information to policymakers and practitioners in California and around the nation about the implementation of extended foster care, but extended care remains a new and poorly understood service domain for the child welfare system; it is very much a work in progress.

Thus, coinciding with the conclusion of the CalYOUTH Study, the Transition-Age Youth Research and Evaluation Hub (TAY-Hub) was launched within the California Child Welfare Indicators Project at the UC Berkeley to build upon California's capacity to generate and analyze data on the young people experiencing extended care in California, the services and supports they receive, and the influence of extended care on outcomes for TAY. This symposium involves affiliates of the TAY-Hub and all studies leverage data from California's child welfare services (CWS) records to deepen understanding of TAY populations and experiences.

Study 1 documents differences in the number of young adults, 18-20 years old, served in California in state and federal reports. Findings highlight reporting discrepancies between national and state data and suggest California may serve almost a third of the entire US population of young adults in care.

Study 2 uses population data to examine the relationship between TAY's development of transitional independent living plans (TILP) and the frequency and scope of Independent Living Services (ILS) utilization. The study shows a relationship between TILP development and ILS utilization and demonstrates significant county-level variation in ILS utilization.

Study 3 uses Latent Class Analysis to identify subgroups within California's population of young people with CWS involvement who were affected by commercial sexual exploitation risk/victimization. Results indicate that youth classified as Low Involvement and Relative Care, two-thirds of the study population, may have benefitted from family-based prevention services.

Study 4 explores the documentation of young people's immigration status in CWS records and its relationship with the completion of TILPs. Results show legal status missingness has increased in recent years, and youth with missing immigration statuses were less likely to have TILPs.

Study 5 explores concerns prompting reports of neglect for adolescents, documenting household risk factors, prior maltreatment experiences, and evaluating the frequency of intervention. Findings reveal mental and behavioral health issues as primary concerns and gaps in services were documented.

Insights gleaned from this body of research serve as guides for developing more comprehensive and effective policies and services to support TAY.fied by 12.26.238.4 on 4-15-2024-->