Pushed out at 18
A Times EditorialFoster teens who "age out" of the system are expected to make it on their own, even though they haven't received the mandated skills training.
Published November 12, 2005
The budget request recently filed by the Department of Children and Families is only the latest bad news for the state's aging foster youth. DCF Secretary Lucy Hadi asked lawmakers for an extra $1.1-million, just enough to replace nonrecurring money appropriated last year. But that money would do nothing to correct the persistent underfunding that has led many to regard Florida's "Road to Independence" program as more tease than promise.
Under the 2002 law, foster teens are being forced out of foster care at age 18 - even though they may not have received mandated skills training and are unprepared for life on their own. Those in school are eligible for a monthly stipend, a so-called "road to independence scholarship," to help with rent and living expenses. Nonstudents get only modest cash help - if that. Teens who happen to be in an unlicensed foster home when they turn 18 are ineligible for any state help.
While federal funding declines each year, Florida is barely picking up the slack, much less growing the program as needed. Three years into the effort, even those RTI scholarships - billed as the program's central feature - remain an unfulfilled promise for many. Hillsborough is among the counties that expect to run short of state money again this year, leaving even eligible youth adrift.
"I do not have enough money to give scholarships to all who are eligible, based on what we've determined they need and are qualified for," said Diane Zambito, who heads the county's independent living services program under contract with Hillsborough Kids, Inc. "Hillsborough is facing a likely 25 percent shortfall in money for services - and that doesn't begin to reach the hundreds of kids who aged out before we got here."
The state is required by law to provide life-skills training for foster children age 15 through 18. Yet, even DCF itself acknowledged in 2001 that nearly 75 percent of foster youth did not get the training they were due, and significant problems remain, according to the auditor general. The only bright spot may be that some community-based agencies, stepping in for DCF, are taking the training responsibility seriously. Hillsborough's Zambito is commendably bringing the skills classes to the foster child, no longer content to rely on unreimbursed foster parents or group homes to bring the child to the classes.
"Road to independence" can be an especially cruel irony given the realities of foster-care life. To avoid risks and costs, some foster homes bar foster children from working or driving, depriving them of opportunities to gain life skills through day-to-day activities. Yet these same youth are then pushed out the door at age 18 and expected to make it with minimal or no training or cash. Many do through their own perseverance and resilience. Others don't - and it's little wonder why.
Connected by 25Lisa Moss was used to fending for herself.
Having lived in 10 different foster homes growing up, she knew more about surviving than kids her age should have to know. But when she got booted out of foster care by law at age 18 while still in high school, Lisa felt lost, alone and overwhelmed.
Like so many other foster teens left unprepared by the state, she didn't know how to open a bank account, buy a car, or find, much less afford, an apartment. She tried moving in with a former foster sister but was soon swindled out of what money she had saved. She turned to the biological mother she was pulled from as a toddler, but the years apart and other issues made living there impossible. Lisa had no home and little hope.
She was one of the lucky ones.
Thanks to her own grit - and help from an innovative new program called "Connected by 25" - Lisa is now a full-time student and employee just one semester away from graduating from Hillsborough Community College. She dreams of owning her own beauty spa and is working hard to bring that dream to life.
That's the type of success story the leaders of Connected by 25 hope to replicate, many times over. The program's mission is to link Hillsborough County's former foster youth with housing, employment and education by age 25. Like the young adults it serves, the program is a solid investment that deserves the community's active support.
Funded primarily with a $1.3-million grant from the Eckerd Family Foundation, the program is seeking businesses and individuals to become "door openers" by, among other things, offering jobs or internships or donating matching funds for savings accounts or scholarships. There's no doubt such a community safety net is needed - especially since help from the state remains inadequate, and often elusive, for foster children aging out of the system. "There is no extended family support when foster youth turn 18, and yet, there is an unrealistic expectation for them to be self-sufficient," said director Zambito. "We need door openers who will provide this extended support."
Hillsborough currently serves 116 youth who have already "aged out" and expects more than 400 teens to exit foster care within the next five years. With those numbers, the problems are significant, yet hardly insoluble.
Foundation president Joe Clark has the right attitude - and a reasonable request: "We can win this. All it takes is the community pitching in. Just a little bit, from everyone."