Family Permanence |
Casey Family Services is leading the movement to ensure that no child or youth leaves the foster care system without a lifelong connection to a stable and caring family. The agency recognizes that prioritizing family is gaining momentum across the nation in policy and practice. As part of its reform efforts, Casey Family Services brings together social workers, child welfare officials, state lawmakers, policymakers, advocates, judges, and attorneys to explore how children in foster care can achieve better futures through stable and permanent families.
While Casey Family Services promotes permanence for all children in foster care, we bring special focus to older children, who often are considered too old for family and are set on a path of independent living – a risky future for any youngster.
Nationally, more than one-half of the children and youth in foster care are age 12 or older (about 227,000). Although overall rates of adoption have increased in recent years, older youth are far less likely than younger children to exit foster care with a secure connection to a family through adoption, legal guardianship, or reunification. Each year as many as 25,000 adolescents age out of foster care, usually at age 18. Many have no family supports and experience a range of negative outcomes, including early pregnancy, homelessness, unemployment, and involvement with drugs and crime.
In contrast, youth who leave foster care with a legal, permanent connection to a family do much better. A study by the Chapin Hall Center for Children showed that close family ties translated into more youth finishing high school and enrolling in college, and far fewer were on the streets. It’s very simple: Children do best when they’re part of a lifetime family.
The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 offers states more resources to connect children in foster care to lifelong families. Much of Casey Family Services’ reform efforts focus on supporting states and other public systems as they implement this law.
Learn More
• Visit the agency’s technical assistance Web page.
• Visit the Casey Center Web page.