Youth in foster care, like all adolescents, need the care and support of concerned adults beyond their eighteenth birthday. Few eighteen-year-olds have the maturity, financial capacity, life or social skills necessary to take care of themselves. Foster youth deserve the help of supportive adults to prepare for a successful transition to adulthood.
Unfortunately, too many youth remain in foster care, never returning to their families, and few find themselves in safe, loving and permanent homes. They move from foster home to group home and back repeatedly, rarely living in any one place long enough to develop supportive networks or make lasting connections with peers or adults. When they age out of the foster care system, whether at 18 or 21, they often lack the skills or supports they need to make it on their own.
The consequences of our failure to provide proper support and care for our foster youth can be devastating. Many young adults exiting foster care face substantial difficulty accessing health care, education, housing, and employment.
When the state takes over the care of our children, it has a special obligation to ensure that youth in their care have the same opportunity to lead successful, independent lives as we seek to provide our own children; we work to ensure that the state meets this obligation.