Juvenile Law Center uses the law to increase opportunities for older foster youth, while promoting fairness and reducing harm that is often caused by systems that are supposed to help them. A new federal law gives JLC new tools on behalf of these youth, who are determined to succeed in life.

The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoption Act (FCSIA)—HR 6893—was signed into law in October by President Bush. FCSIA brings the most sweeping changes to the child welfare system in at least a decade. In Pennsylvania and with colleagues across the country JLC has worked to increase attention to two important areas addressed by FCSIA: education of foster youth, and issues confronting older foster youth. This e-newsletter will highlight the provisions that relate most directly to our work.

Increased Federal Financial Participation for Foster Youth Over 18

Under FCSIA, states may opt to extend the definition of a "child" up to age 21, thereby opening the possibility of receiving Title IV-E reimbursement for these youth who remain in care past age 18. This can include youth who leave care and enter adoption or kinship guardianship arrangements when they are age 16 or older. The policy in most states is to discharge youth from the system at age 18 regardless of the youth's readiness for adult life.

One of the significant barriers to states extending care for youth past age 18 has been the limitation posed by Title-IV E related to age. Formerly, states could only receive Title IV-E reimbursement for placement and administrative costs for youth up until age 18, or 19 if the youth is still in high school. The result was that states that have taken on the commitment to provide comprehensive placement and support services for older youth have done so through the expenditure of local and state funds. States that are already allowing youth to stay in care past age 18 will now be able to use federal funds to defray the cost. States that now discharge youth at age 18 due to cost, now have a significant incentive to allow youth to stay in care.

Enhanced Planning and Court Review for Youth in Transition

Currently, foster youth can "age out" of the system with no accounting for where they are going to live, whether they are able to live on their own, or whether they have any special needs. Despite the efforts of many states, it is not unusual for an older youth who has grown up in the child welfare system to be discharged to a homeless shelter or to no specific location at all.

FCSIA requires that procedures be put in place so that during the 90-day period immediately prior to the date the child will attain age 18 (or other age, if the state elects to extend care past age 18), the agency must "provide the child with assistance and support in developing a transition plan that is personalized at the direction of the child, includes specific options on housing, health insurance, education, local opportunities for mentors and continuing support services, and work force supports and employment services, and is as detailed as the child may elect." The transition plan must be reviewed by the court. This provision should help ensure that youth are not discharged from the child welfare system before they are ready to make it on their own.

Promotion of Educational Stability

Additionally, FCSIA now requires that a plan for the educational stability for youth in foster care be included in every foster youth's case plan. Specifically, the child welfare agency responsible for the foster youth must provide: 1) assurance that the new placement (such as the new foster home) takes into account the child's proximity to his or her current school; 2) assurances of coordination with the Local Education Agency (LEA) to ensure that the child remains in the school in which he or she was enrolled at the time of placement (for the first time, federal Title IV-E foster care dollars may be used to pay for the cost of "reasonable travel"); or 3) "provide immediate and appropriate enrollment in new school, with all the educational records provided to the school," if remaining in the prior school is not in the child's best interest.

This provision of the law responded to concerns that youth have frequent disruptions and changes in their schooling due to placement instability. These moves result in youth falling behind their peers in school and can add up over time. Allowing youth to remain in the "home" school can be of great value to the youth's sense of stability and permanence as well as to educational achievement. If the child welfare agency cannot place the youth in his or her community, it should strive to keep the youth at the school he or she was in before placement.

School stability has been a focus of JLC's work through the National Working Group on Foster Care and Education and the Legal Center on Foster Care and Education.