AGING OUT OF FOSTER CARE AND OVER THE SERVICE CLIFF: ANALYSIS OF THE FAMILY FIRST PREVENTION SERVICES ACT AND STATES’ PARENS PATRIAE DUTY TO SUPPORT OLDER YOUTH IN AND AGING OUT OF FOSTER CARE
Author: Kelly Monahan
In the U.S. today there are over 400,000 children and youth in foster care. In 2020, less than half of the children and youth discharged from foster care were reunified with their parents and approximately 20,000 young people “aged out” of foster care. Aging out refers to the transition to adulthood for older youth in foster care “when no legal permanent connection – such as being reunited with family, adopted, or placed under the care of a legal guardian – is available to them” before the age at which foster care is terminated in their state. This results in young people abruptly “los[ing] access to the financial, educational, and social supports provided through the child welfare system.”