When foster care ends: for teens who grew up in foster care, starting life on their own is a jarring, sometimes frightening change. What are states doing to support their transition to adulthood?

• Author: Eilertson, Christine

Texas child welfare workers became involved in Gibby Serna's life when he was only 3 years old. At first he was placed with his grandparents, but they had trouble taking care of him. At 6, he entered the formal foster care system.

For the next 12 years, Gibby lived in some 30 foster homes and attended nine high schools. Today, at 18, he faces life on his own, challenged to cobble together lessons from his fragmented history in order to master the management of his money, health care, housing, employment and education.

Gibby is one of the 24,000 youths who "age out" of or run away from the child welfare system each year. Many have spent their growing up years in a string of foster homes. And of the 581,000 children in foster care in 1999, almost a third had been in foster homes for more than three years.

So what does adult life look like for these "system kids"? How do they turn themselves into productive, self-sufficient adults without the financial, emotional and social support that most young people get from families, friends and communities?

Half of foster youths do not finish high school before they leave the state's care. For many, abuse or neglect has contributed to chronic health problems and mental or behavioral problems. They cannot afford or maintain housing. They have trouble finding work and developing skills. They don't know how to get health care. And, like Gibby, many have no long-term relationships with family or other adults to turn to for support.

INDEPENDENCE 101

To combat these negative trends, over the past 25 years all 50 states have developed programs aimed at arming adolescents with the necessary skills and knowledge to succeed as adults. Funded with state, federal and private money, these "independent living programs" gradually introduce youths to the basic responsibilities of adulthood. They train teens to manage money and bank accounts, maintain and clean an apartment, grocery shop and cook, find employment and keep a job.

These training programs historically have served older teens, those who probably will remain in foster care until they are 18. In recent years, however, wisdom has shifted. Recognizing that even young adolescents and children can begin adopting basic independence skills, many states have amended their programs to include a broader age group.

California's Early Start to Emancipation Program (STEP) in Los Angeles County is a good example. The STEP program provides tutoring, career exposure, outreach and training workshops for 14- and 15-year-old foster youths. The county's program alone has served several thousand middle-school-age foster kids in the past five years.

Senator Dede Alpert learned about the need to start training kids early for life on their own from the kids themselves. She found out about early independence training from the lobbying efforts of the California Youth Connection, a group of foster youths who identify and propose changes to the child welfare system. "The kids have brought a real face to it," says Alpert. "They made clear to me that if you wait until kids are juniors and seniors, it's too late to prepare."

Senator Alpert introduced SB 841 in 2001 to expand the STEP program from Los Angeles to other areas of the state. California has more kids in foster care than any other state, and she wanted to see more of them benefit from early attention. "The transition from middle school to high school is...