Many studies and research reports about foster care
have been published. America is no
stranger to the many issues with the welfare system—the abuses, lack of
support, and challenges faced. A system
designed as a temporary shelter is a permanent home for many children and youth
placed there. The ideal design was to
reunite children with their birth parents or if not conducive to positive
outcomes for the child, place them with family members so that they receive the
love, care and permanence they need.
In many cases, youth living in foster care have been
in the system long enough to “age out” of it when they reach the age of 18, but
some states have allowed youth to remain until they are 21. Children who have not been reunited with
family or adopted out of the system face the daunting experience of having to
make it on their own with limited resources or no resources at all. The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing
Adoptions Act of 2008 was designed in part to help youth
aging out of foster care with guidelines to extend payments—basically support—to
age 21. Program instructions with
comprehensive information to IV-E agencies based on the amendments is provided as
well as “guidance on the option to extend assistance for foster care
maintenance, adoption assistance, and/or kinship guardianship programs to
eligible youth age 18 and older up to age 21.” With extension of payments to
guardians and adoptive parents, this may encourage better outcomes for youth
emerging into adulthood from foster care.
The Act is designed in sections and
each section offers specific information and criteria agencies must meet,
offering the agencies opportunities to participate and implement the new
Act. Sections include information on
provisions specific to extending foster care to youth 18 and older, guidelines
for transition plans emancipating these youth, and information on the
guardianship program, to name a few. Youth
in foster care also must meet certain eligibility criteria to remain in foster
care under the amendment’s provisions.
The statute provides an option that agencies may use
to select an age up to 21 for definition of “child” and encourages agencies to
expand the definition of “child” to age 21.
If the agency selects an age younger than 21, they have to provide a
written description to their Region Office on why they chose an age lower than
21. For education and employment
conditions, agencies may define different criteria. Youth in the program must also meet specific
criteria. They must be in foster care or
part of an adoption assistance agreement and age 16 or older before the
agreement became effective or part of a kinship guardianship agreement and 16
years old before the agreement became effective and 18 or older up to 21 and
meet education or employment conditions.
The statute also provides information on how agencies can use the option
to extend assistance consistent with the law’s requirements and needs of older
youth.
Although the Fostering Connections
and Success Act is detailed and appears to be filled with rules and
regulations, the main theme running through it is the option to give agencies
the opportunity to meet criteria and have success in assisting youth in foster
care and those on the verge of aging out of foster care. The Act offers financial support to adoptive
parents as well as guardians to ensure that youth in foster care are taken care
of. The Act also discusses the needs of
youth in independent living and how the act is designed to support them. With all areas in the law, eligibility
requirements and criteria must be met.
Agencies must provide specific information on designated dates and based
on the date of the document some of those dates have passed. If agencies follow instructions and
guidelines of the Act and implement them, youth in foster care should meet with
more success and less negative outcomes when they outgrow the system and transition
into adulthood.
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