Young people leaving foster care face challenges such as homelessness, unemployment, and mental illness due to lack of support. Foster care systems vary, but in the US, foster children are wards of the state and receive little personalized care. Programs to support aging youth are left to individual states, with some providing stipends or public assistance benefits, and nonprofits offering help with finding housing, education, and employment.
Young people coming out of foster care are officially released from government sponsored care and discharged on their own recognizance, regardless of any individual level of readiness for independent living. Numerous studies have found that these empowered youth have a higher incidence of homelessness, unemployment, and mental illness, plus a list of other undesirable outcomes, than young adults with parents and other relatives who can continue to support their transition into age. adult. Some jurisdictions have social services programs in place to support young people as they come out of foster care, but these programs are generally considered inconsistent and inadequate.
Foster care systems differ by country, but in a typical foster care system, such as that in effect in the United States, a child is placed in a foster family or group home once the government deems it necessary to remove the child from his home. Adolescents entering the foster care system often have more difficulty maintaining placement with a foster family and may end up living in a group home. Younger children who remain in the foster care system as they age may also find that a group home is the only practical option when they grow up if the child has difficulty adjusting to life with foster families.
Foster children are wards of the state. The government takes responsibility for their basic care, but little else. Whether or not a foster child receives a decent education, learns life skills, or becomes a functioning adult is left to the whims of a situation that typically lacks personalized care. Once the foster child reaches the age of majority, the government washes its hands of the matter. The young adult is classified as a foster elder and must leave the foster home to find a place of her own to live.
In the United States, programs to support aging youth from foster care are left to individual states. Federal funds are occasionally provided, but states control how the money is allocated and distributed and may cut programs at their discretion. Some states provide emancipated youth with a small monthly stipend to help with living expenses. Other states make young people aging out of foster care eligible for public assistance benefits if they remain enrolled in school. Some nonprofits and other social service organizations run programs that help these young adults get back on their feet, find an apartment, enroll in school, or apply for a job.
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