Building a Bridge from Foster Care to Financial Self-Sufficiency

1. Building a Bridge from Foster Care to Financial Self-Sufficiency

2. What it Means to Grow up in Foster Care: • Undersupply of Foster Family Homes • 40% of foster children 14 & older live in group homes or institutional settings • Foster care system focus on safety and liability creates barriers to normalcy for foster youth • Changing faces – several social workers, lawyers, foster parents, teachers… • Foster youth are essentially abandoned when they age out of the system

3. Outcomes • Education: Even with extended care, only about 6% of foster youth graduate from college with an associate’s or bachelor’s degree. (Chapin Hall Study) • Employment: Foster youth experience unemployment at higher rates and earn less than half than their peer with no history of foster care. • Homelessness: By age 24, 37% of foster youth have experienced homelessness or have “couch surfed” (Chapin Hall Study) • Credit Issues: Identity theft is an issue many foster youth face, and many do not learn about this problem until after they have aged out of the system.

4. Facilitating Help Through Advantageous Placement • Foster Family settings provide the best opportunity for a foster child to get adopted • According to a recent study, most states fall far short of paying minimum adequate rates to foster family homes • Consequently, the number of foster family homes has been dropping in many states

5. California State Foster Parent Association v. Wagner • CAI determined that California’s foster family home rates needed to be raised by 40% in order to comply with federal law • Some counties saw a reduction of over 50% in their supply of foster family homes over a period of nine years • Organizations representing individual foster parents in the State of California brought suit against officials of the State of California claiming a violation of their federal right to payments under the CWA and seeking declaratory and injunctive relief.

6. California State Foster Parent Association v. Wagner • The State moved to dismiss on the ground that the CWA does not create rights enforceable under § 1983. • The district court denied the motion and ultimately entered judgment in favor of Foster Parents, finding that the CWA created a federal monetary entitlement and that the State violated the Act by setting rates without considering the CWA’s mandatory cost factors. • The Wagner case was brought as a declaratory relief action, and then successfully enforced in 2011 under the federal Declaratory Relief Enforcement Act

7. Current Assistance Available to Foster Youth • Independent Living Initiative (1986) • Chafee Foster Care Independence Act (1999) • Education and Training Vouchers (2002) • Amended Chafee FCIA • Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (2008) • State Scholarship Help • State Transitional Housing

8. FEDERAL AND STATE POLICIES AND PRACTICES THAT UNDERMINE THE FINANCIAL SECURITY OF FOSTER YOUTH • Diversion of OASDI / SSI Benefits to pay for foster care. • The Congressional Research Service has estimated that 30,000 (or 6%) of the nation’s foster children received Supplemental Security Income (SSI) or other Social Security benefits • The role, obligations, and appointment of a representative payee • Foster care agencies, as representative payees, breaching the fiduciary duty owed to foster children beneficiaries • Conflicting federal policy regarding the use of a child beneficiary’s social security benefits to pay a debt belonging to somebody other than the child.

9. POLICIES AND PRACTICES THAT UNDERMINE THE FINANCIAL SECURITY OF FOSTER YOUTH 2.Failure to notify the child’s attorney/ GAL that an agency has applied to be or was appointed as the child’s representative payee 3. Failure to screen foster children for OASDI/SSI eligibility and to provide assistance in applying for benefits 4. Asset and Resource Caps: Limiting how much money foster youth can save for the future

10. POLICIES AND PRACTICES THAT UNDERMINE THE FINANCIAL SECURITY OF FOSTER YOUTH • Failure to require dedicated accounts to hold benefits for each youth • Reporting requirements of representative payees • Office of the Inspector General: Independent audits of state and local government representative payees • Failure to require states to check into foster youths’ credit records and repair credit where necessary • Failure to pass conserved funds – when they do exist – to youth in a timely manner upon aging out 8. Slashing of state and county social services budgets

11. POLICIES AND PRACTICES THAT UNDERMINE THE FINANCIAL SECURITY OF FOSTER YOUTH • Failure to comply with transition planning requirements • High attorney case loads that inhibit effective attorney assistance to youth preparing to age out. • Kenny A. v. Perdue (Georgia) • E.T. v. George (California)

12. Recommendations for Policy Change at the Federal Level • Pending Federal Legislation • Foster Children Self Support Act • Foster Youth Financial Security Act • Reconnecting Youth to Prevent Homelessness Act • Child Welfare Finance Reform • Federal Mandate to Extend Supervision to Older Foster Youth 4. Budget and Deficit Reduction Considerations

13. Innovation: The Use of Mentors and Trusts The Transition Life Coach Model (TLC) • Youth buy-in: • Youth chooses a “coach” / mentor (who must be a responsible adult and approved by the court) • Youth develops a customized, and alterable plan • Trust: • Created to help the youth meet goals outlined in the youth’s plan • Amount comparable to what private parents spend on their children post-18. • Coach/Trustee: • Acts in a role similar to that of a parent, resource for the youth • Distributes funds to the youth according to the youth’s plan • Juvenile Court: • Monitors the trust : trustee is accountable • Knows the youth, has been the “parent” to the youth and continues to be involved

14. For More Information Contact the Children’s Advocacy Institute: 619-260-4806 www.caichildlaw.org For an updated PowerPoint presentation, contact: Melanie Delgado at: Mdelgado@sandiego.edu