Closing the Crossover Gap: Amending Fostering Connections to Provide Independent Living Services for Foster Youth Who Crossover to the Justice System

• Published date: 01 April 2014
• Author: Lauren Wylie
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1111/fcre.12092
• Date: 01 April 2014

STUDENT NOTES

CLOSING THE CROSSOVER GAP: AMENDING FOSTERING

CONNECTIONS TO PROVIDE INDEPENDENT LIVING SERVICES FOR

FOSTER YOUTH WHO CROSSOVER TO THE JUSTICE SYSTEM

Lauren Wylie*

In the last three decades, Congress has enacted a series of amendments to the Social Security Act to address the growing number

of youth who “age out” of the foster care system. The most recent and,arguably, the most notable of these programs was The

Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 (“Fostering Connections”). Fostering Connections

provides funding for states to extend federally supported foster care services to youth beyond their eighteenth birthdays.The

Act also requires state agencies to work with each emancipating youth to write a personalized and comprehensive plan for his

or her transition to independent living.While this is a huge achievement for the aging-out population, the language of legislation

excludes many foster youth who are arrested and committed to a detention facility. Current legislation dose not ensure that

independent living services and opportunities for support under Fostering Connections are extended to foster youth who

crossover to the justice system. This Note proposes that the Fostering Connections to Success Act be amended to require that

states provide for continuous and coordinated independent living services when a youthin foster care enters the justice system.

These services must include ongoing access to contact with child welfare professionals, family members, and mentors who may

help the youth to draft a detailed independent living plan.

Key Points for the Family Court Community:

• Foster youth who commit crimes and transition to the justice system are at risk of losing access to independent living

planning opportunities and support services that are available for their peers in foster care.

• A substantial body of research has demonstrated that there is a very strong connection between child maltreatment and

delinquency,yet few jurisdictions have taken the steps to remedy information sharing and communication gaps between

child welfare systems and juvenile delinquency systems.

• The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing AdoptionsAct of 2008 provides many benefits for foster youth

who emancipate from the welfare system, yet older foster youth who crossover to the juvenile justice system may be

excluded from the receipt of these benefits. While Fostering Connections funding is available for foster youth who live

in a variety of settings, the language of the statute excludes youth placed in facilities operated for juvenile delinquents.

This may prohibit many former foster youth from accessing opportunities that are specifically designed to assist them

with the difficult transition to adulthood.

Keywords: Aging Out of Foster Care;Crossover Youth;Dually Involved Youth;Fostering Connections;and Juvenile

Delinquency.

A stable, loving homelife is essential to a child’s physical, emotional and spiritual well-being. It requires

no citation of authority to assert that children who are abused in their youth generally face extraordinary

problems developing into responsible, productive citizens.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist

United States Supreme Court

Santosky v. Kramer, 455 U.S. 790 (1982)

Correspondence: Wylie.lauren@gmail.com

FAMILY COURT REVIEW, Vol. 52 No. 2, April 2014 298–315

© 2014 Association of Familyand Conciliation Cour ts

I. KATIE’S STORY

Katie is an eighteen-year-old female who was just released from a two-year stay in a juvenile

detention facility.1Katie was placed in foster care when she was fourteen years old while her mother,

a methamphetamine addict, served a lengthy prison sentence. Katie struggled during her time in foster

care. She was caught shoplifting and drinking alcohol and was placed on probation after getting into

a serious fistfight with a classmate. After three failed attempts to find a suitable foster home for Katie,

she was moved into a group home for girls with behavioral issues.

When she had originally entered foster care, Katie was identified by her caseworker as a youth who

was unlikely to return home and unlikely to be adopted. Her caseworker began speaking with Katie

about what her life would look like when she turned eighteen and aged out of the foster care system.

She explained that social services might be able to help financially support Katie after her eighteenth

birthday, but only if Katie were working toward educational and transitional goals. Together, she and

Katie began to draft a plan for the future. Katie decided that she wanted to finish high school, look for

a part-time job, and set up a savings account. Her caseworker began to connect her with mentoring

programs, college exploration programs, and a waiting list for housing vouchers available for former

foster youth. Unfortunately, after getting into an argument with another youth in the group home,

Katie had an outburst and threw a chair at a staff member.The chair str uck the staffer in the face and

Katie was charged with assault. Because this was a violation of her probation, she was transferred to

the state’s division of youth corrections for a two-year sentence.

After she was sentenced for the assault, the delinquency system assumed responsibility for Katie’s

care. She was moved out of her community and into a detention facility for youth offenders. She lost

contact with her dependency system caseworker, former foster parents, and counselors from her group

home. The work that her caseworker had done to engage Katie in planning for the future stopped.

While her probation officer told Katie that she could return to foster care after her release, she had no

interest in returning to a group home. Unfortunately, Katie did not havea relationship with an attorney,

foster parent, or caseworker to help her understand her rights and options as a former foster youth.

Katie turned eighteen while she was living in the detention facility. She then paroled to the

community with no money, no marketable skills, and no reliable family. While she had obtained her

GED in the detention facility, she had never considered going to college or vocational school. Even

if school was something she were willing to consider, she would not know how to apply for financial

aid or understand how to budget her time and money to workand go to school simultaneously. She has

never had a job, never completed a job application, and wouldnot know how to behave in an interview.

She does not have a driver’s license, nor does she have a copy of her social security card. While in

detention, Katie was diagnosed with bipolar disorder and prescribed medication. She was then

released with no health insurance, no access to a physician, and no resources for prescription

assistance.

Katie represents a large subcategory of youth who are commonly known as “crossover youth.”

Crossover youthare those children who are dually involved with the child welfare system (dependency

system) and the juvenile justice system (delinquency system).2The ostensible dividing line between

the two systems is that the youth is viewed as a victim of parental abuse or neglect in the dependency

system, but viewed as a young criminal in the delinquency system.3The same youth, however, often

populate each system simultaneously.4Many experts agree that a large number of youth get lost

between these systems, largely because most states fund and operate the systems separately.5This gap

may be particularly devastating for crossover youth, like Katie, who age out of foster care while in the

delinquency system.6

Older youth who are emancipating from the foster care system are some of our nation’s most

vulnerable young adults.7When a child is removed from his or her home because of abuse or neglect,

the ultimate goal is for the child to achieve permanency.8Permanency is defined as a child’s safe and

successful exit from care to one of the following arrangements: a reunification with a parent or

primary caregiver, a permanent living arrangement with a relative or other legal guardian, or a legal

adoption.9Simply stated, permanency means having a safe and long-term family relationship that is

Wylie/CLOSING THE CROSSOVER GAP 299