Aging out is American

popular culture Popular culture (also called mass culture or pop culture) is generally recognized by members of a society as a set of practices, beliefs, artistic output (also known as, popular art or mass art) and objects that are dominant or prevalent in a ...

vernacular A vernacular or vernacular language is in contrast with a "standard language". It refers to the language or dialect that is spoken by people that are inhabiting a particular country or region. The vernacular is typically the native language, n ...

used to describe anytime a

youth Youth is the time of life when one is young. The word, youth, can also mean the time between childhood and adulthood ( maturity), but it can also refer to one's peak, in terms of health or the period of life known as being a young adult. You ...

leaves a formal system of care designed to provide services below a certain age level. There are a variety of applications of the phrase throughout the

youth development Positive youth development (PYD) programs are designed to optimize youth developmental progress. ''Youth.gov'' states that "PYD is an intentional, prosocial approach that engages youth within their communities, schools, organizations, peer groups, ...

field. In respect to

foster care Foster care is a system in which a minor has been placed into a ward, group home (residential child care community, treatment center, etc.), or private home of a state-certified caregiver, referred to as a "foster parent" or with a family mem ...

, aging out is the process of a youth transitioning from the formal control of the foster care system towards

independent living Independent living (IL), as seen by its advocates, is a philosophy, a way of looking at society and disability, and a worldwide movement of disabled people working for equal opportunities, self-determination, and self-respect. In the context o ...

. It is used to describe anytime a foster youth leaves the varying factors of foster care, including home, school and financial systems. The

United States Citizenship and Immigration Services U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) is an agency of the United States Department of Homeland Security (DHS) that administers the country's naturalization and immigration system. It is a successor to the Immigration and Naturalizati ...

defines an "aging out" case as, "a situation referring to a person's petition to become a permanent legal resident as a child, and in the time that passes during the processing of the application, the child turns 18 and ages out.".

Usage

Often used to highlight the problems traditional foster care approaches face, aging out affects foster youth in a variety of ways. An estimated 30,000 adolescents age out of the foster care system each year in the United States. Aging out is also used in reference to Drum Corps International's rules, which state that drum corps' members above the age of 18-to-21 are denied the ability to compete in World Class.

Former Foster Youth in Education

Children who grow up in foster care have lower rates of high school and post-secondary education completion. Using the PRISMA methodology (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses), Gypen et al. (2017) systematically gathered published research articles from electronic databases such as

PsycINFO PsycINFO is a database of abstracts of literature in the field of psychology. It is produced by the American Psychological Association and distributed on the association's APA PsycNET and through third-party vendors. It is the electronic versio ...

, Springer,

Science Direct ScienceDirect is a website which provides access to a large bibliographic database of scientific and medical publications of the Dutch publisher Elsevier. It hosts over 18 million pieces of content from more than 4,000 academic journals and 30,0 ...

, and

Google Scholar Google Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines. Released in beta in November 2004, the Google Scholar index includes p ...

. Their comprehensive review included articles under the terms “Foster care” or “Foster alumni” or “foster children” and “long-term perspectives” or “long-term results.” The studies included participants aged 17 years and older (no age cap) gathering data from family service systems and child protective systems. Dworsky and Courtney (2009) found that in child protective systems, only 64% had completed high school by the age of 19 and Pecora, Williams et al. (2006) found that by the age of 29, 85% had completed high school or completed a

GED The General Educational Development (GED) tests are a group of four subject tests which, when passed, provide certification that the test taker has United States or Canadian high school-level academic skills. It is an alternative to the US high ...

. The family service systems showed that 45% of foster students completed high school. Compared to the general population of 73%, this is considerably low. By the age of 23, that number increased to 73%, which is closer to the 83% of students not in foster care. Jackson and Cameron (2012) found similar findings. By the age of 18 only 33% had a high school diploma and by the age of 24, that number grew to 73%. Gypen et al. (2017) suggests that this means that if given more time, children who grew in foster care, have a higher chance of getting a high school diploma or GED. When it comes to higher education, research shows that the number of students completing a two year, four year, or masters program to be even lower than high school completion rates. They also found that during the first year of college, children who age out of foster care were two times more likely to drop out, although there are indications that women have better outcomes than men (Naccarato et al. 2010). Pecora, Williams et al. (2006) found that 42.7% started education after high school but by the age of 25, only 9.6% were still enrolled. For those in the family service system, only 7.2% completed their bachelor’s and by the age of 23, only 1% had a Master's degree. Naccarato et al. (2010) suggested a buddy system to help foster students through their educational journey, just like families provide similar support systems for those students not in foster care.

Statistics

The

Child Welfare League of America The Child Welfare League of America (CWLA) is a 501(c)(3) charitable organization that coordinates efforts for child welfare in the United States, and provides direct support to agencies that serve children and families. The organization's visio ...

reports that as many as 36% of foster youth who have aged out of the system become homeless, 56% become unemployed, and 27% of male former foster youth become jailed.(nd
Programs and Resources for Youth Aging Out of Foster Care
. Child Welfare League of America. Retrieved May 8, 2007. The ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and M. H. de Young, Michael H. de ...

'' reports that less than half of emancipated youth who have aged out graduate from

high school A secondary school describes an institution that provides secondary education and also usually includes the building where this takes place. Some secondary schools provide both '' lower secondary education'' (ages 11 to 14) and ''upper seconda ...

, compared to 85% of all 18- to 24-year-olds; fewer than 1 in 8 graduate from a four-year

college A college (Latin: ''collegium'') is an educational institution or a constituent part of one. A college may be a degree-awarding tertiary educational institution, a part of a collegiate or federal university, an institution offering ...

; two-thirds had not maintained employment for a year; fewer than 1 in 5 was completely self-supporting; more than a quarter of the males spent time in jail; and 4 of 10 had become parents as a result of an unplanned pregnancy.

Responses

In 1970,

Title X The Title X Family Planning Program is the only federal grant program dedicated to providing individuals with comprehensive family planning and related preventive health services. It was enacted under President Richard Nixon in 1970 as part of th ...

of the

Public Health Service Act The Public Health Service Act is a United States federal law enacted in 1944. The full act is codified in Title 42 of the United States Code (The Public Health and Welfare), Chapter 6A (Public Health Service). Contents The act clearly establis ...

started providing for the federal

family planning Family planning is the consideration of the number of children a person wishes to have, including the choice to have no children, and the age at which they wish to have them. Things that may play a role on family planning decisions include marita ...

program, designed to provide resources for health services and

counseling Counseling is the professional guidance of the individual by utilizing psychological methods especially in collecting case history data, using various techniques of the personal interview, and testing interests and aptitudes. This is a list of co ...

low-income Poverty is the state of having few material possessions or little

income

or uninsured individuals who may otherwise lack access to

health care Health care or healthcare is the improvement of health via the prevention, diagnosis, treatment, amelioration or cure of disease, illness, injury, and other physical and mental impairments in people. Health care is delivered by health profe ...

, including young people aging out of foster care. The

United States Department of Housing and Urban Development The United States Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government. It administers federal housing and urban development laws. It is headed by the Secretary of Housing and Urb ...

's Family Unification Program provides Housing Choice Vouchers to young people aging out of the foster care system. The

Administration for Children's Services The New York City Administration for Children's Services (ACS) is a New York City government agency that protects and promotes safety and the well-being of New York City's children and families by providing child welfare, juvenile justice, and ea ...

, and the federal Office of Housing Policy and Development, in cooperation with the

New York City Housing Authority The New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA) is a public development corporation which provides public housing in New York City, and is the largest public housing authority in North America. Created in 1934 as the first agency of its kind in the U ...

, has a Section 8 Priority Code for young people aging out of the foster care system. In 1999,

President Clinton William Jefferson Clinton ( né Blythe III; born August 19, 1946) is an American politician who served as the 42nd president of the United States from 1993 to 2001. He previously served as governor of Arkansas from 1979 to 1981 and again ...

signed the

Foster Care Independence Act The Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 () aims to assist youth aging out of foster care in the United States in obtaining and maintaining independent living skills. Youth aging out of foster care, or transitioning out of the formal foster care sy ...

, which doubled federal funding for

programs and provides funding for

drug abuse prevention Substance abuse prevention, also known as drug abuse prevention, is a process that attempts to prevent the onset of substance use or limit the development of problems associated with using psychoactive substances. Prevention efforts may focus on ...

and

health insurance Health insurance or medical insurance (also known as medical aid in South Africa) is a type of insurance that covers the whole or a part of the risk of a person incurring medical expenses. As with other types of insurance, risk is shared among ma ...

for former foster care youth until age 21. Now programs and laws, such as the Chafee Foster Care Independence Program, are starting to make headway into ways to compensate foster children who have become adults. $140 million is to be funded for this program, including states matching 20%.

References

External links

''Aging Out'' – 2004 PBS Documentary

IMDB Page for Aging Out Documentary

"The Original Foster Care Survival Guide" website. Presents the wisdom and knowledge needed to successfully transition from foster care to adulthood. Written by an attorney that was in foster care. {{DEFAULTSORT:Aging Out Foster care Youth Family English phrases Ageism