“So I’m Eighteen, Now What?”

1 At the present time, many foster care children exit the system around the age of 18 without the proper preparation for adult living or the necessary survival skills. 2.0 Edelman Children’s Court Located in the bucolic hills of Monterey Park, stands a remarkable building: the Edmund D. Edelman Children’s Court. Completed in 1992, it is a purpose-built facility about five miles east of downtown Los Angeles. It resembles not a courthouse but the campus of some high-tech company in the hills of Silicon Valley. Twenty-five courtrooms provide a warm and friendly place in which juvenile dependency issues are discussed for almost 20,000 individuals each year.3 The Edelman Children’s Court works to ensure that all youth receive permanent homes in a timely fashion, either through reunification with their rehabilitated parents or through adoption, legal guardianship, or long-term foster care. Notwithstanding the efforts of the 2 Website www.fostercaremonth.org. Family Court Chronicles web site, www.familycourtchronicles.com. 2008-2009 Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury Report 279 people involved in the proceedings at the court, examination of the overall foster care system leads one to conclude that the long-term outlook for those youths who, of necessity, become wards of the court is not good.4 3.0 HR6893 Introduced in the U.S. Congress on September 15, 2008, and on October 7, 2008, President Bush signed the “Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act” into law. One of the proponents for and a driving factor in the passage of this bill, HR6893, was California Assembly Speaker Karen Bass. The bill will allow states to receive federal funds to provide foster care, kinship-guardian and adoption assistance benefits to support youths until age twenty-one. HR6893 provides a significant opportunity for states that subsequently enact legislation to accept the financial assistance and the corresponding regulations governing the usage of such funds. Some of the many benefits available to states through their enactment include: 1. An annual grant of $15 million. This grant will be available from 2009-2013 and would require that an extensive search be conducted for suitable relatives with whom a foster child may be placed. These supplemental funds would be used to expand the existing “Family Connections Grant.” These grants are competitively awarded to public welfare agencies and/or eligible private non-profit agencies for residential family treatment centers. 2. It would also mandate that 3% of these funds be used to evaluate and oversee grantee programs such as intensive family-finding efforts and family group decision-making meetings.5 4.0 AB12 Existing law, through the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Payment Program (Kin- GAP), which is a part of the CalWorks program, provides aid on behalf of eligible children who are placed in the homes of relative caretakers. The program is funded by state, county and available federal funds. California Assembly Bill 12 was introduced in the State Legislature on December 1, 2008. If adopted, it would become effective on January 1, 2010, would repeal the Kin- GAP Program and would require the state to exercise its option under specified federal law to establish a new kinship guardianship assistance payment program. Existing law establishes the Aid to Families with Dependent Children-Foster Care (AFDC-FC) Program, under which counties provide payments to foster care providers on behalf of qualified children in foster care. The program is funded by a combination of federal, state and county funds. Under existing law, AFDC-FC benefits are available, with specified exceptions, on behalf of qualified children under 18 years of age. Moneys from the State of California General Fund are continuously appropriated to pay for the state’s share of AFDC-FC costs. Family Court Chronicles web site, www.familycourtchronicles.com. Congressional Research Service, memorandum, Washington, D.C., September 15, 2008. 280 2008-2009 Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury Report AB12 would require the California Department of Social Services (CDSS) to amend its foster care state plan required under specified federal law, to extend AFDC-FC benefits, commencing October 1, 2010, to specified individuals up to 21 years of age, in accordance with a designated provision of federal law. This bill would provide that no appropriation from the general fund would be made for the purposes of implementing these provisions. By increasing duties of counties (including Los Angeles) administering the AFDC-FC program, AB12 also would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. AB12 would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.6 These changes represent what most legislators believe are socially responsible improvements to the current California foster care system. Enactment of AB12 would mean that California “would use federal funds for costs that are currently borne by the state and counties. This would achieve substantial savings from declines in homelessness, teen pregnancy, unemployment, public assistance, and other expensive outcomes for young adults who would otherwise be forced out of foster care at the age of eighteen.”7 Currently, California assumes the responsibility of a parent for children in foster care who have been removed from their homes as a result of abuse or neglect. That responsibility continues until foster children exit the system, either through reunification, adoption or “emancipation” by reaching the age at which foster care benefits and services are no longer provided.8 Information revealed in the AB12 Fact Sheet provided by Assembly Member James T. Beall, Jr., shows that in 1998, California created a new means of permanency for abused and neglected children by enacting `SB1901 (McPherson). SB1901 established the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program (Kin-Gap) to allow children to exit the child welfare system to stable and permanent relative guardianships. The Kin-Gap Program has been extremely successful. In 2007-2008, there were approximately 14,000 former foster children living with relative guardians and supported through Kin- Gap. Unlike foster care or adoption, however, there have been no federal funds available until now for relative guardianship; all Kin-Gap costs have been borne by California. Annually, around 5,000 young people emancipate from California’s foster care system. Research shows that youth who “age-out” of foster care without having had permanent guardians have lower educational achievement and are more likely to experience homelessness, unemployment, unplanned pregnancies, and involvement with the legal system. Although evidence from other states demonstrates that providing an option for 6 Total Capital web site, www.totalcapitol.com, author James T. Beall, Jr., California Assembly Member. Assembly Speaker Karen Bass AB12 Fact Sheet, December 5, 2008. AB12 Fact Sheet. 2008-2009 Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury Report 281 foster care until age 21 dramatically improves these outcomes, federal and California foster care assistance now stop at age 18 or 19.9 The bottom line is clear. By enacting state Assembly Bill 12, the State of California (and the County of Los Angeles) would be required to establish a Kinship Guardianship Assistance Payments Program similar to the one that already exists. However, this new program would extend such services to qualifying children and their families until the child reaches age 21. The State, and subsequently the counties would receive funds from the federal government for extending foster care to age 21.

1 As of April 2009, other states have already enacted bills similar to AB12 that establish their commitment to the principles outlined in HR6893.

0.1 The Los Angeles County Wraparound Program is not widely publicized among those citizens who would be the primary recipients of the services and support that it offers. In addition, those within DCFS who might otherwise raise the awareness of the program are not completely fluent in its operation, function and structure. As a consequence, many children and families that might otherwise benefit from its services are deprived of its availability.

1 If AB12 is enacted by the State of California, in accordance with the conditions enumerated in HR6893, specific educational requirements will need to be met for all children in foster care. Such requirements will certainly have costs associated with the required provisions. However, it is important to note that HR6893 also provides for such services to be reimbursed by the federal government. 7.0 Conclusion “At eighteen, foster care children currently exit the system. Most do so, without any benefits. They have a substandard education. Fifty-one percent who “age-out” of the foster care system are unemployable, and as a result, are homeless within eighteen months. Nearly 70% of those incarcerated, in California, are products of the foster care system, in some manner. The system has forsaken these youths.”16 By almost any standard, the foster care system has failed to provide the nurturing and healthy environment that children need if they are to grow to be mature adults capable of competing in the world of the 21st Century. This is not to say that the agencies involved in servicing these youths lack good intentions. Nor can it be said that the individuals who are charged with providing support in the affected agencies are not interested in helping the children. However, the caseloads of CSWs are too great. The systemic and endemic problems associated with growing up in the second largest city and the largest county in the nation are complex. The financial obligations of the State 15 Congressional Research Service, memorandum, Washington, D.C., September 15, 2008. AB12 Fact Sheet 286 2008-2009 Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury Report and the County to care for those who have the weakest voices, is a heavy burden. It is incumbent upon those engaged in these efforts to seek every available opportunity to offer more, to seek to provide a better long-term outcome and to continue to fight against all odds on behalf of our at-risk youth. In states that currently do provide foster care to children until age 21, the evidence is clear. The long-term outcomes for these children are dramatically improved. Now, the State of California has the opportunity to enact legislation that will do exactly what other states have already chosen to do, specifically, extend the age at which children continue to be able to receive the services and support of the County agencies until they reach 21. This can be accomplished with no increase in costs to the County. With this in mind, it is important for those in the County to continue to advocate on behalf of those who can’t speak for themselves and to strongly support the enactment of state Assembly Bill 12. Passage of AB12 would demonstrate the on-going government commitment to those who cannot advocate for themselves. 2008-2009 Los Angeles County Civil Grand Jury Report 287 EXTENDING FOSTER CARE FROM AGE 18 TO 21 “SO I’M EIGHTEEN, NOW WHAT?” FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS