Aging Out of Foster Care: Towards a Universal Safety Net for Former Foster Care Youth

No one expects adulthood to occur overnight, but that is exactly what happens to youths exiting the foster care system. To a youth in foster care, reaching the age of majority, typically set by states at age eighteen, means losing everything. The youth no longer has housing, healthcare, financial assistance, or a social worker to call in emergencies. Overnight, the youth is abandoned, on his or her own without a safety net and with little preparation for adulthood. For former foster care youths, exiting the foster care system is often a distressing time when they find themselves unprepared for the hard realities of adulthood. Youths who “age out”1 are more likely than their peers to suffer from homelessness, be involved in criminal activity, be uneducated, be unemployed, experience poverty, and lack proper healthcare. Youths receive little to no formal preparation from the state. Most troubling is the irreversibility of aging out. Unlike other young adults who have the option of returning home during difficult times, foster care youths in most states do not have the option of reentering the foster care system once they age out. All states have cut-offs, established between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one, after which a foster care youth is no longer eligible for any services or support. By definition, foster care youths have experienced trauma;2 they were removed from the homes of their biological parents due to abuse or neglect