Report: PA Places Foster Children In Group Homes at Higher Rate Than Rest ff Country

Jenny Pokempner, Child Welfare Policy Director at the Juvenile Law Center in Philadelphia, said counties in Pennsylvania should reduce their use of group homes. Such facilities tend to be relatively unstable, she said.

“You’re talking about settings where you are living with several other young people,” Pokempner explained. “And they could have really great people who are working at the group facility, but they are staff, and many of them are shift workers, and many of they are very young.”

Pokempner said child-welfare specialists generally agree that children in foster care tend to fare better in family-based settings. She noted that Allegheny County places many of its youth with family or family friends, making it a model for the rest of the country.