The Promise of Adolescence Realizing Opportunity for All Youth (2019) / Chapter Skim
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8 Child Welfare System
8 Child Welfare System
Pages 257-294
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From page 257... ...
We then present a brief overview of the child welfare system focused on older youth in care, augmenting the 2014 report, New Directions in Child Abuse and Neglect Research (Insti 1 Youth who are truant or who run away from home or placement may also "cross over" into the juvenile justice system for violations of court orders controlling their behavior so information on status offenses is also relevant for a complete understanding of the relationship between the child welfare and juvenile justice systems.
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From page 258... ...
Likewise, while the term "child protection system" is sometimes used as another name for the full system, we do not use it that way here, since "child protection" has a second, more narrow usage, referring to the front end of the child welfare system -- namely, reporting, investigating, and recordkeeping of allegations of abuse and neglect. Foster Care Foster care is one type of placement, most specifically referring to placement in a family-like setting but also sometimes used more generally to refer to out-of-home placement.
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From page 259... ...
We then review developmental research on the effects of involvement in the child welfare system on youth outcomes, including mental health and educational outcomes and outcomes related to the permanence of placement and aging out of care. Next, the chapter reviews promising programs and program components for youth involved in the child welfare system.
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From page 260... ...
. For example, in young adulthood, retrospective reports of childhood sexual abuse indicated that sexual abuse that occurred at ages 3 to 5 and ages 11 to 13 was associated with reduced hippocampal volume in young adults, while childhood sexual abuse that occurred at ages 9 to 10 was associated with reduced corpus callosum in young adults, and childhood sexual abuse that occurred at ages 14 to 16 was associated with attenuated frontal cortex (Andersen et al., 2008)
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From page 261... ...
This led in 1974 to the first federal law governing the child welfare system, the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act (CAPTA)
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From page 262... ...
In 1980, the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act created title IV-E, an open-ended source of matching funds for foster care and adoption assistance for eligible poor children. However, the same law capped funding for prevention services.
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From page 263... ...
In 1976, the Institute for Judicial Administration -- American Bar Association Juvenile Justice Standards Project emphasized the use of voluntary services to address status offenses rather than court involvement, a practice commonly referred to as "diversion." Many states continue to encourage diver ion rather than court filing. The services utilized to serve children and s families in these cases are often the same services available for older youth in foster care.
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From page 264... ...
. Foster Care and Out-of-Home Services Foster care is the term often used for a broad array of out-of-home services, including placement in a home with strangers, with relatives through kinship care, in congregate care facilities such as group homes, or in larger settings and inclusive of supervised independent living.
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From page 265... ...
. Moreover, a recent analysis of nationally representative data finds that LGBT youth are overrepresented in the child welfare system generally, in foster care, and in other out-of-home placements (Fish et al., 2019)
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From page 266... ...
As noted in Chapters 4 and 9, dual involvement in the child welfare system and the juvenile justice system is common, with the same adolescents disproportionately represented in both systems.5 Some have argued that the disproportionate share of minority adolescents in the child welfare system is one of the main drivers of the disproportionate share of minority adolescents in juvenile detention. Child welfare involvement is an especially important avenue or pathway to the juvenile justice system for female adolescents (Ryan et al., 2007)
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From page 267... ...
The needs of adolescents are associated with the challenge of making a successful transition to adulthood rather than the paramount need for a stable and permanent family placement. Their need for family connections and supportive adults continues even after adults are no longer legally "responsible" for supporting or protecting them.
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From page 268... ...
Four such federal statutory changes are summarized next. Recent Congressional Initiatives Focusing on the Needs of Adolescents Fortunately, recent federal statutory initiatives aimed at addressing the needs, skills, and assets of adolescents in foster care have filled some of the gaps in a system originally designed for younger children.
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From page 269... ...
(2) Older children who continue to be in foster care as adolescents may become eligible for Independent Living programs.
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From page 270... ...
. This change recognizes that adolescents at age 18 or even 21 are not "independent" and is consistent with the large body of developmental research that highlights the growth in autonomy-seeking and decision-making capacities of adolescents, while recognizing that adolescents in foster care need loving and supportive adults and continue to have specific and substantial educational and health/health care needs that the child welfare system can address.
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From page 271... ...
However, because of real and perceived constraints, foster youth are often denied the chance to partake in these activities, which are important for their successful transition to adulthood. Consequently, the social and professional growth of youth as they age out of foster care may in turn be limited, thus leaving them ill-prepared and potentially vulnerable to experiencing negative outcomes, such as homelessness, unemploy ent, m and poverty.
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From page 272... ...
First, the act permits federal reimbursement for supervised independent living placements for youth ages 18 and older, allowing states with extended foster care to continue to offer an array of developmentally appropriate placements. It also exempts group care settings providing "high-quality residential care and supportive services" to youth who have been or are at risk of being victims of sex trafficking.9 Specialized settings for pregnant and parenting youth also retain Title IV-E eligibility beyond the 2-week cutoff.10 In addition to these exceptions, FFPSA created an entirely new placement type -- Qualified Residential Treatment Programs -- not subject to the 2-week cap.11 These programs must be designed to accommodate children with serious emotional or behavioral disorders, use a trauma-informed treatment model, incorporate family members proactively, and provide discharge planning and aftercare, among other requirements.
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From page 273... ...
FFPSA provides states with extended foster care programs the option to extend Chafee supports and services to youth until age 23, and it extends eligibility for education and training vouchers to age 26.13 The education and training vouchers have a 5-year time limit, but this time does not have to be used consecutively. However, only 25 states and the District of olumbia currently offer extended foster care to youth over age 18 C ( ational Conference of State Legislatures, 2017)
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From page 274... ...
. As a result, society is missing an opportunity to help launch child welfare-involved youth into adulthood with sufficient skills, resources, and the connections to loving and supportive adults that all adolescents need to become productive, healthy, and thriving members of our society.
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From page 275... ...
found that adolescents involved with foster care had a higher rate than other adolescents of past-year psychiatric symptoms. In particular, adolescents involved in foster care had more disruptive behavior disorder symptoms, suicide ideation and suicide attempts, and depression and anxiety symptoms, as well as more past-year substance use disorders, than those never placed in foster care.
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From page 276... ...
A study of differences in mental health service use among Latinx, Black, and White youth ages 17 and older in foster care examined their rates of mental health service use both while in foster care and upon exit from the foster care system, and found that Latinx youth had the lowest rate of service use before and after foster care exit (Villagrana, 2017)
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From page 277... ...
In fact, 88 percent of the studies reported improvements in behavior problems for youth in the intervention condition, whose problems ranged from externalizing behavior to aggression, oppositional behavior, and substance use. For example, the Middle School Success Program, an intervention for girls in foster care delivered across 9 months during the transition to middle school that included youth skill development and parenting support groups, resulted in increases in prosocial behavior, which led to reductions in externalizing and internalizing symptoms, which in turn led to reduced substance use 3 years later (Kim and Leve, 2011)
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From page 278... ...
However, there is hope in the child welfare system's ability to turn these educational trajectories around, including by supporting youth in foster care to attend school and complete homework. For example, Treatment Foster Care Oregon is a program delivered to adolescents with a history of serious juvenile delinquency who are placed in out-of-home care by the juvenile justice system (Chamberlain, 2003)
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From page 279... ...
This section discusses challenges and promising solutions to placement permanency as well as necessary supports for adolescents aging out of care without a permanent placement. Importantly, youth who have been involved in the foster care system emphasize the importance of including system-involved youth in permanency planning as well as the need to identify, initiate, and maintain supportive relationships with adults.
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From page 280... ...
In recounting their experi ences in the foster care system, YFC youth reported: • lost connections with supportive adults who were in our lives before We care. • Constantly moving placements caused us to lose contact or limited our ability to build lasting relationships.
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From page 281... ...
In early childhood, the Multidimensional Treatment Foster Care for Preschoolers Program (TFCO-P) uses a behavior-management approach to train, super vise, and support foster caregivers to provide positive adult support and consistent limit setting through weekly parenting groups, individual therapy, family therapy, and 24/7 on-call support for 6 to 9 months.
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From page 282... ...
The John H Chafee Foster Care program for successful transition to adulthood reports that in fiscal year 2017, 19,000 youth aged out of care.
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From page 283... ...
The data indicate that adolescents who reunited with their families after being placed in out-ofhome care were less likely to experience homelessness, while youth who aged out of care experienced similar rates of homelessness as youth investigated by child welfare but who were never placed outside their homes. Exposure to independent living services and extended foster care was not predictive of homelessness prevention, but reunification with family had a positive effect.
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From page 284... ...
Similarly, housing managers can help adolescents by creating materials that outline resident responsibilities using multiple communication platforms that are easily accessible. A qualitative study that included focus groups with older adolescents in foster care echoed the potential value of connecting youth considering emancipation with supportive, non-parental adults from within the adolescent's existing social system (Greeson et al., 2015)
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From page 285... ...
. The most effective approaches and techniques included cognitive behavioral therapy, home visitation, parent training, family-based/multisystemic interventions, and substance abuse prevention.
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From page 286... ...
Taken together, the recommendations constitute a blueprint for achieving an adolescent-oriented and developmentally appropriate child welfare system. Box 8-3 summarizes this blueprint for an adolescentoriented and developmentally appropriate child welfare system.
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From page 287... ...
C. states should ensure that youth who have experienced foster care are All eligible for Medicaid until age 26. Recommendation 8-3: Provide services to adolescents and their families in the child welfare system that are developmentally informed at the individual, program, and system levels.
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From page 288... ...
This includes insuring proper transfer of credits, appropriate school placement and services, and school transportation services when con tinuation in the original school is desired. C. arrest, court petition, delinquency finding, or other involvement in the An juvenile justice system should not disqualify an otherwise eligible child from remaining in or re-entering foster care for the full period of eligibility.
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From page 289... ...
In addition, all states should ensure that all youth who have experienced foster care are eligible for Medicaid until they reach age 26. Further, all states should ensure that child welfare system-involved youth are eligible for education and training vouchers until they reach age 26 and should facilitate and support youths' application process.
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From page 290... ...
Most studies of adolescents who are involved in the child welfare system contain a heterogeneous set of participants ranging from those entering their first foster care placement to those who are 3 months into their fifth foster care placement, for example. Further, over the course of any given study (or intervention, in the case of intervention studies)
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From page 291... ...
However, an arrest, court petition, delinquency filing or other involvement in the juvenile justice system should not disqualify an otherwise eligible child from remaining in or re-entering foster care for the full period of eligibility.
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From page 292... ...
An arrest, court petition, delinquency finding, or other involvement in the juvenile justice system should not disqualify an otherwise eligible child from remaining in or re-entering foster care for the full period of eligibility. RECOMMENDATION 8-6: Provide developmentally appropriate services for adolescents who engage in noncriminal misconduct without justice system involvement.
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From page 293... ...
Courts should minimize the risk of a child's involvement with the juvenile justice system. Of particular concern is the practice in some states of treating a violation of a court order in a CHINS petition as criminal contempt of court and thus the basis for a juvenile delinquency proceeding.
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