February 22, 2006

By JIM THEOFELIS
Advisory Board

You’re 17 and half years old and it’s six months before your high school graduation. You have the perspective of a senior in high school which means you’re absolutely convinced no one understands what you have gone through during your years of adolescent angst. No one in the adult world appreciates how hard you have worked to make it to this point, certainly not your parents. The daily struggle in third period Spanish class, the nagging reminder of completing those college applications and of course wondering if your sweetheart responded to your midnight email all conspire to ensure the graduation celebration barely hits your radar screen — besides, it’s a whole six months away.

However, if you happen to be among the 300 to 400 youth in foster care who “age out” of the Washington state foster care system each year, you have a lot more on your mind than senior parties and graduation presents. Of those 300-400 youth, an estimated 30-35 percent do so with a high school diploma or GED. The graduation present given to the majority of these young people is having all of their worldly belongings placed in a large black plastic bag and being sent on their way. The craziest irony of this morally bankrupt situation is that if these youth had not found a way to prevail over the physical and sexual abuse, the neglect, the multiple and unpredictable changes in foster homes, the separation from their siblings and countless nights of loneliness and despair — if they had turned age 18 but not yet achieved a high school diploma or GED — they could remain in foster care.

That’s the problem! Current policy requires that as soon as youth in Washington’s foster care system turn age 18 and secure a high school diploma or GED, they immediately become ineligible to remain in care. They lose their housing, their health insurance, and perhaps the emotional and other support provided by their foster parents.

Research from across the county is demonstrating what most of us instinctively know: the vast majority of these kids are not prepared to be self-sufficient and this type of short-sighted public policy results in homelessness, dependency on public assistance, incarceration, early parenting, and health problems.

The Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study, conducted by the premier foster care organization, Casey Family Program, revealed that within six to 12 months after exiting the foster care system, one third of former foster kids were on some form of public assistance. A startling 25.2 percent of the youth in the study suffered from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, which is nearly twice the rate of war veterans.

Beginning Jan. 9, state lawmakers will gather in Olympia for the 2006 legislative session. It is estimated that as many as 5,000 pieces of new legislation will compete for votes and tax dollars. Representative Mary Lou Dickerson will sponsor House Bill 2002, the Foster Youth Achievement Act, which would allow those youth who achieve their high school diploma or GED and turn 18 to remain in foster care if they enroll in a higher education or a vocational-technical program. Simply put: if they go to school, they get to keep their housing and health care coverage. The leadership of Rep. Dickerson is matched by Senator Debbie Regale, who will sponsor a companion bill in the Senate.

It is difficult to predict how many of the estimated 100-140 eligible youth would choose to remain in their current foster home and attend college; 50 to 100 is a good estimate. But even if the entire 140 all participated and remained in foster care, the 2007 cost would be approximately $2.3 million. Most advocates agree that it is highly unlikely that all eligible youth would voluntarily remain in foster care in order to receive the benefits of the Foster Youth Achievement Act.

However, I am one advocate and taxpayer who believes that the return on this $2.3 million expenditure would far outweigh the costs of youth being dumped on our city and county streets, utilizing hospital emergency rooms for basic health care, engaging in survival-based activity, getting jailed, and making babies while they’re still babies themselves.

The Foster Youth Achievement Act would serve as an incentive for youth in foster care to earn their high school diploma or GED and continue on the path of achievement and true self-sufficiency while ensuring our most vulnerable youth receive more than a black plastic garbage bag as a graduation present. 

Jim Theofelis is the founder and executive director of the Mockingbird Society (www.mockingbirdsociety.org), whose monthly paper appears this week and every month in Real Change. To contact your state representative about the Foster Youth Achievement Act, call 1-800-562-6000.