Redefining 'Child' and Redefining Lives: The Possible Beneficial Impact The Fostering Connections to Success Act and Court Involvement Could Have on Older Foster Care Youth

• Author: Christine Diedrick Mochel
• Position: Capital University Law School, J.D. Candidate, May 2012
• Pages: 517-559

REDEFINING “CHILD” AND REDEFINING LIVES: THE

POSSIBLE BENEFICIAL IMPACT THE FOSTERING

CONNECTIONS TO SUCCESS ACT AND COURT

INVOLVEMENT COULD HAVE ON OLDER FOSTER CARE

YOUTH

CHRISTINE DIEDRICK MOCHEL*

I. INTRODUCTION

The statistics surrounding youth in foster care in this nation are

startling to those who have never experienced the system first hand.1

Nearly 450,000 of the nation’s children and youth are cared for in foster

care,2 defined as “24-hour substitute care for children away from their

parents or guardians.”3 A majority of these youth are placed in state care

due to neglect and abuse, removing them from everything they have ever

known.4 Often their family history, along with this type of removal,

traumatizes them in a stage of life when they are most vulnerable.5

According to the United States Department of Health and Human

Services Adoption and Foster Care Analysis Reporting System

(AFCARS), the preliminary estimates for fiscal year 2009 (as of July 2010)

indicate that the average age of children in foster care is 9.6 years.6 The

data indicates that the average age of youth entering the system is 7.9

years.7 Adversely, the average age of a child adopted out of the foster care

Copyright © 2012, Christine Diedrick Mochel.

* Capital University Law School, J.D. Candidate, May 2012. I would like to thank all

of the people who offered me advice and help ed with many of the research aspects along

the way, especially the experts in Capital University Law School’s National Center for

Adoption Law and Policy. I also want to thank my wonderful husband, Robert, for all of

his help and for putting up with me through this process.

1 See generally The AFCARS Report: Preliminary FY 2009 Estimates as of July 2010

(17), U.S. DEP’T HEALTH & HUMAN SERVS. (July 2010), http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/c

b/stats_research/afcars/tar/report17.pdf [hereinafter AFCARS Report].

2 Id. at 1.

3 45 C.F.R. § 1355.20(a) (2002).

4 Children Entering Foster Care: 1995–1997, OR. STATE OFFICE FOR SERVICES TO

CHILD. & FAM., 3 (March 1999), http://www.cwp.pdx.edu/assets/Legislative_Summ

ary.pdf.

5 Id. at 5.

6 AFCARS Report, supra note 1, at 1.

7 Id. at 3.

518 CAPITAL UNIVERSITY LAW REVIEW [40:517

system is 6.3 years.8 Studies have found that once children have reached

the age of nine, their chances of being adopted are greatly diminished.9

About 50% of youth in foster care are between the ages of nine and

twenty,10 but over 70% of the children adopted are under the age of nine.11

The North American Council on Adoptable Children (NACAC) reports

that the chances of a child being adopted from foster care decrease each

day the child remains in care.12

Though the preferred goal for these children is permanency with caring

parental figures,13 6% of foster care youth have the case goal of

emancipation and 8% have the case goal of long term foster care.14

Approximately 11% of foster youth actually emancipate, or age out, from

the system yearly, totaling over twenty thousand young adults who

emancipate yearly from the foster care system.15

Emancipation can only be understood as a failure of the system, a

system designed to provide these children with the permanency they

desperately need. Facing these statistics, the reality for an older youth in

foster care is dismal to say the least.16 Studies have shown that the lack of

caregiver representation adversely affects the choices made by

emancipated youth.17 Children involved in the foster care system,

especially those who age out of the system as teenagers and young adults,

are likely to have adjustment issues and eventually reemerge requiring the

8 Id. at 7.

9 ALICE GROH, N. AM. COUNCIL ON ADOPTABLE CHIL DREN, IT’S TIME TO MAKE OLDER

CHILD ADOPTION A REALITY: BECAUSE EVERY CHILD AND YOUTH DESERVES A FAMILY 3

(2009), available at http://www.nacac.org/adoptalk/MakeOlderChildAdoptionReality.pdf

[hereinafter MAKE OLDER CHILD ADOPTION A REALITY].

10 AFCARS Report, supra note 1, at 1.

11 Id. at 7.

12 MAKE OLDER CHILD ADOPTION A REALITY, supra note 9, at 3.

13 CHILD WELFARE INFO. GATEWAY, U. S. DEP’T HEALTH & HUMAN SERVS., FOSTER

CARE STATISTICS 2009 5 (2010), available at http://www.childwelfare.gov/pubs/factsheets/

foster.cfm [hereinafter CHILD WELFARE INFORMATION GATEWAY].

14 AFCARS Report, supra note 1, at 2.

15 Id. at 4.

16 See generally id. at 1–4.

17 Barriers Facing Foster Care Youth: National and Local Statistics About

Emancipating Foster Youth, HONORING EMANCIPATED YOUTH, 1–2, http://www.heysf.org/

pdfs/HEYFosterYouthStatistics.pdf (last visited Nov. 30, 2011) [hereinafter Barriers

Facing Foster Care Youth] (showing a disparate impact on the decision making abilities of

emancipated youth).

2012] REDEFINING “CHILD” AND REDEFINING LIVES 519

aid of additional governmental systems in the areas of housing, education,

financial stability, employment, incarceration, and health.18

Many foster care youth who emancipated or aged out of the system are

thrown on the streets unsure of where to sleep at night or how to

independently take care of themselves.19 There is a staggering correlation

between being homeless in this country and having a history with the foster

care system.20 Approximately 27% of the homeless population spent time

in foster care.21 Additionally, within two years of leaving foster care,

approximately 24% of emancipated youth will be incarcerated.22

Moreover, foster youth struggle in the areas of education and

employment. Seventy-five percent of children from foster care are behind

grade levels from their non-foster care peers, and only 46% of children

from foster care graduate from high school, compared to 84% of the

general high school age population.23 Further, “[e]mancipated foster youth

earn significantly less than youth in the general population . . . [and]

progress more slowly into the labor market.”24

Health concerns are also present with youth and young adults who

emancipated from foster care. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) in

youth who have been through the foster care system is two times the level

of PTSD in war veterans.25 Nearly 50% of foster youth also suffer from

chronic health conditions, including a high prevalence of mental health and

substance abuse issues.26 Adding to these issues, 42% of foster youth

become parents of their own children within two and one-half to four years

after exiting care.27 Children of emancipated foster care youth are almost

twice as likely to have their own children placed into foster care than those

parents who have never been a part of the foster care system.28 Many of

these individuals are unable to cope with these difficulties and remain

dependent on governmental systems after foster care has ceased.29

18 Id.

19 Id. at 1.

20 Id.

21 Id.

22 Id. at 2.

23 Id. at 1.

24 Id. at 2.

25 Id.

26 Id.

27 Id.

28 Id.

29 Id. at 1.