A Grim Future: When Children Age Out

If a child is twelve years old and in foster care, they have a 90% chance of “aging out” of foster care. Children who enter foster care after the age of twelve, or simply grow up in foster care until they are twelve, are never given the chance to have a family. In fact, 25,000 children “age out” of foster care every year. Aging out is what occurs when foster care children turn eighteen or twenty-one, and are no longer eligible for the benefits of the child welfare system. Aging out happens to foster care children who are never adopted, and never know the permanence and love of a single family. When a child ages out of foster care, they are considered an adult and are no longer “property” of the state.

A note to remember is that all states have different policies regarding the benefits “aged-out” foster youth have once they reach eighteen years of age. Some states allow former foster care children to keep health insurance until they are twenty-one, and even provide tuition for state college. Some completely cut off benefits on their eighteenth birthday, and foster children are given no shelter or educational chances. Some cut off benefits when they graduate from high school, under the assumption that somehow they can magically take care of themselves with a high school degree alone.

The amount of post-foster care assistance that an aged-out youth receives also depends on the quality of the social worker. Most foster children go through multiple social workers a year. Most social workers are bogged down by so many cases that they lose the ability to know their foster children personally. Programs also change annually, especially when new budgets are approved in state governments. Social workers often do not have the time to learn about new programs or new guidelines for foster care children. Many social workers also handle different types of cases at once, and cannot focus specifically on foster care children. This leads to thousands of children never receiving the post-foster care living programs and training they are entitled.

The consequence of a child aging out of foster care reaps a grim future indeed. 25% of them end up homeless. Chances are this number is much higher as you examine populations closer to age eighteen, when aged-out foster children are usually “kicked out” by the system. 56% of them are unemployed. Foster children who age out usually have no resources to even find jobs from the beginning; often lacking adequate transportation or even having an appropriate wardrobe. Most foster children also have no references for getting apartments or jobs. Two-thirds of them will never get a college degree either, due to the lack of professional references, proper high school education and lack of financial resources.

Aged-out foster youth also lack basic psychological counseling, which is absolutely mandatory for any child who has lost their entire family, siblings, and has been subject to abuse. The system itself abuses foster children in that it often splits up siblings, so much that some may never see each other again, or see each other only very rarely. To complement this, foster children who have aged-out experience clinical social anxiety, PTSD and personality disorders years into adulthood as their minds try to cope with the trauma they have endured for far too long. For children who age out of foster care, primary mental health, physical health and material needs must be fulfilled well beyond their eighteenth birthdays. The only way we can improve the lives of foster children who have aged-out is to participate in changing the way we practice social work. We also must challenge ourselves to be role-models to these young adults who have been constantly knocked down since birth. We can change the situation only by working together for solutions. The lives of former foster care youth are depending on our success for change.
Jamey and Katrina Madonna are the Founding Directors of “Children of The Son”, a non-profit organization for children who are victims of abuse, neglect, poverty and abandonment who are living in foster care, residential facilities and the inner-city. They currently operate a summer recreation camp for girls on a 1000 acre ranch.

Mr. Madonna is raising the necessary capital to build a permanent place of residence on his beautiful ranch for children ages 13 -21 who have run away, been abandoned or have “aged out” of the foster care system.

Jamey Madonna utilizes the very powerful Reverse Funnel System, a marketing system for Global Resorts Network, to make thousands of dollars per week to support this organization. His team of top income earners will show you a way to live a life of prosperity and happiness. Join him today and see how careful funds investment can result in actionable charity that can change an entire generation.

Jamey Madonna
www.thebeachbiz.com
www.childrenoftheson.org
www.prosperityinaction.com