Focus on foster youth

This month, I launched a new Senate Caucus on Foster Youth, and I’ll co-chair it with Senator Mary Landrieu of Louisiana. 

Three young Iowans who have been in and out of the foster care system and now are actively involved in helping other kids who’ve “aged out” participated in the announcement in Washington.  There’s nothing like a real-life story to put a face and focus on a project, so I appreciate the help of Iowans Krista Penrod, Tracye Redd and Jacob Baker, and the practical perspective they bring to this effort.

Along with working to dramatically increase adoptions into permanent homes, which is unquestionably the most effective and desired outcome for kids, with the new Senate caucus, I want to help focus attention on the needs of older kids who remain in foster care and the young adults who have just “aged out” of foster care and don’t have the support and stability of a permanent family.  The issues challenging many young people in foster care – school attendance and performance, substance abuse, financial literacy, teen pregnancy, homelessness, and juvenile delinquency – have come to my attention through my efforts on foster care and adoption over the last 12 years.
  
The statistics associated with young people who leave the foster care system without a safe, permanent family are significant.  One study found that 25 percent of foster care alumni who “aged out,” which occurs between ages 18 and 21, depending on the state, don’t have a high school diploma or GED.  Over half of them experience some homelessness.  And, nearly 30 percent of them are incarcerated.  They’re also less likely to be employed.  Since 1998, more than 200,000 young people nationwide have aged out of foster care.  Today, nearly 500,000 children in America are in the foster care system.

The caucus will provide briefings for senators by think-tank experts, foster-care coalitions and other groups close to these kids and familiar with the issues they face.  It will be a clearinghouse for up-to-date research and policy initiatives in this area.  It’s a way to generating ideas for preventing negative outcomes and fostering success.

Last year, Congress passed and the President signed legislation I initiated and Senator Landrieu co-sponsored to make major updates to foster care laws and dramatically increase adoption into permanent, loving homes.  The law – Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 -- also broke new ground by establishing opportunities for states to extend care and help “aged out” kids with education and vocational training.  Monitoring implementation of this new law is another goal of the new Senate caucus.

The following organizations have expressed support for the new Senate caucus:  the FosterClub, the Casey Foundation, the American Public Human Services Association, Voices for America’s Children, the Child Welfare League of America, the National Foster Care Coalition, the Children’s Defense Fund, the Foster Care Alumni of America, First Focus, Court Appointed Special Advocates, the John Burton Foundation, and the National Alliance to End Homelessness.

Last month, I was given a “Legislator of the Year” award from Voice for Adoption, a national organization dedicated to “speaking out for our nation’s waiting children.”

Twelve years ago, I worked to advance the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997.  Since its enactment, adoptions increased to 54,000 per year, and many states have doubled their adoptions from foster care.

The Deficit Reduction Act of 2005 also included funding I sought for grants to train judges, attorneys and legal personnel in child welfare cases, as well as grants to strengthen and improve collaboration between the courts and child welfare agencies.  In 2006, when I chaired the Senate Finance Committee, we held the first hearings on child welfare in over a decade.  The hearings were part of an effort that led to passage of the Child and Family Services Improvement Act of 2006, which I developed and shepherded through Congress.  The legislation improved programs aimed at helping troubled families, provided grants for states and community organizations to combat methamphetamine addiction and other substance abuse, and increased case worker visits for children in foster care.

And, the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoption Act of 2008 that became law last year represented the most significant and far-reaching improvements to child welfare in over a decade.  It provided additional federal incentives for states to move children from foster care to adoptive homes.  It included legislation I introduced in May 2008 to make it easier for foster children to be permanently cared for by their own relatives, including grandparents and aunts and uncles, and to stay in their own home communities.  The Grassley provisions in the law also made all children with special needs eligible for federal adoption assistance.  Previously, that assistance had been limited to children who are removed from very low-income families.  The law gives states the option to extend care for those who have been in foster care by helping those who age-out pursue education or vocational training.

My 2008 legislation was supported by more than 500 organizations across the country, including Iowa organizations like the Iowa Foster and Adoptive Parents Association, Boys and Girls Home and Family Services of Sioux City, Family Resources of Davenport, the Iowa Citizen Action Network and Orchard Place of Des Moines. Other organizations supporting the legislation include the Children’s Defense Fund, the Kids Are Waiting: Fix Foster Care Now campaign sponsored by The Pew Charitable Trusts, the North American Council on Adoptable Children, the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption, and the National Foster Care Coalition.