Keeping Our Promise to Foster Youth: Holding Systems Accountable while Implementing the Strengthening Families Act

On February 23, 2016, Rochelle Trochtenberg, a former foster youth who grew up in Los Angeles, was named the foster care ombudsman for California, home of the country’s largest child welfare system. The ombudsman receives and investigates complaints about the child welfare system and identifies systemic issues for remediation and improvement. By naming an ombudsman, California has positioned itself to effectively implement groundbreaking new federal child welfare legislation, the Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act of 2014 (SFA). The SFA is our country’s most recent piece of federal legislation impacting child welfare systems, with the potential to touch almost every area of child welfare policy and practice. The law holds particular promise for older foster youth who are often forgotten by the child welfare system. 

For example, the law seeks to prevent foster youth from becoming involved in sex trafficking and address the circumstances – abuse, neglect – behind running way. It also promotes access to everyday extracurricular and community activities as an important priority for foster youth who are often prevented from participating in routine childhood experiences. Finally, and maybe most importantly, the law requires states to redouble their efforts to find families for all youth in care. This is especially important for older youth who, like all kids, need supportive and permanent family connections in order to avoid adverse outcomes – homelessness, dropping out of school – and successfully transition into adulthood.

Without good enforcement mechanisms, however, even the best law has little chance of success. This is especially true of laws that impact vulnerable children. Ensuring strong enforcement and accountability systems as states implement the SFA will be crucial to its success. Luckily, there are many ways to hold systems accountable. States can:

• Name ombudsmen, as California has done, to ensure that the law’s promises become realities. Few states have ombudsmen, despite the widespread acknowledgement that youth and families have limited voice in how the child welfare system works.
• Support Youth Advisory Boards and require that Boards have opportunities to report to policy makers, including legislators, about the status of implementation of laws. 
• Create client feedback loops through regular surveys of youth and accessible grievance procedures that are reported to the legislature and child welfare agency for response.
• Collect and analyze data to track to the progress of implementation initiatives. 
• Require child welfare case plans for youth to include the important aspects of the SFA, such as documenting a youth’s participation in extracurricular activities and the agency’s work to connect youth to family. 
• Support courts in ensuring implementation. Courts, which review child welfare cases at least twice a year, play a pivotal role in making sure the law is being followed and that youth voices are being heard.  

For more tips on how the court can play an important role in implementing the SFA and engaging youth, see Issue Brief: The Role of the Courts in Implementing the Strengthening Families Act.