Essay On Foster Care

In some states in the United States, youth age out of foster care at the age of 18, however in states such as Maryland and the District of Columbia youth age out of foster care at the age of 21. It was the John H. Chafee Foster Care Independence Program, which was a part of the Foster Care Independence act of 1999, which promoted programs to assist youth in the process of making the transition from foster care. The primary goal of these programs were that youth become self sufficient. Such programs as the John H. Chafee Foster Care Impendence Program, assisted youth who have left in care but not yet reached age 21. While extending the age of emancipating from care to the age of 21, was created to form positive outcomes for emancipated youth,

Through previous studies conducted, the findings “reflect both insufficiencies in the foster care system and in insufficiencies in parenting and education youth bring into foster care (Scannapieco et al., 2007, pg 425).” As a result of children being placed in care most of their childhood, the findings of the empirical research must be viewed with caution. Such findings included that teens in fact have “significant difficulties transitioning into independent living and self sufficiency (Scannapieco et al., 2007, pg 425).” When it comes to education, compared to that of their peers, youth in foster care are drastically behind. A small percentage of youth exit foster care having just graduated from high school. Obtaining some form of education such as a high school diploma is required to attain employment. As a result employment is not standard among youth in foster care whereas, adolescents who are not in foster care are mostly likely to be regularly employed. In addition to employment and education, behavior and emotional problems are prevalent and those youth who live with foster

Analysis of the data drew together the data and comparisons were made of similar themes and were examined as to how they related to the variables within the participant groups (Scannapieco et al., 2007, pg 427).” The three major themes that emerged as a result of this study are youth focused practice, collaboration and better communication and unmet needs and permanent connections. In the first theme, youth focused practice; foster youth participating in the focus groups stated that they wanted to be more involved in the decision making of their lives. Youth felt that their case plans were developed by the case workers with no input prior to the case workers meeting the youth. Therefore youth felt that their case plan was not individualized. The second theme collaboration and better communication consisted of the challenges that caseworkers faced when attempting to communicate with the youth’s support team included, social workers and foster parents. From the results lack of communication with the youth’s support team was prevalent in most of the youth in foster care. In addition to the lack of communication, foster youth expressed since they have been in foster care, numerous caseworkers have been in their lives, which also could have an impact on the accuracy of knowledge of supports in services for the youth aging out in foster care