When a young person celebrates their 18th birthday it marks the beginning of their journey into adulthood. It signifies their ability to vote, obtain certain jobs, prepare to graduate from high school and enter a college or trade school, ability to enlist in the military, watch “R” rated movies in the theater without parental guidance, and in some cases, buy cigarettes on their own legally. Turning 21 years old for a young person becomes more exciting as they are possibly finishing up college, able to drink legally, established a network of social support outside of their families, and working towards their career path. Some of the entitlements previously mentioned are in a sense considered a rite of passage that gradually leads to complete …show more content…
Cunningham and Diversi (2012) states that “ policy prompts emancipation from foster care at age 18 in most states, with limited number of states extending services to 21” (p. 588). According to Lee and Berrick (2014) “youth aging out of care often do not have parental, financial or ancillary support to safely return to upon exiting the system” (p. 78). It doesn’t matter if this time of transition is taken to develop skills to obtain stable employment, establish a strong support system for yourself, or even to secure housing because once your 21st birthday arrives, you will be on your own. There are many children that enter into care on a yearly basis that will potentially remain in care if they are not adopted or reunified with their families. My literature review will explore the concept of transitioning out of foster care. The child welfare system has become a custodial parent to many children that grow into young adults, which should mean that these individuals will have been provided with support and afforded every opportunity
As an intern at Eggleston Family Service I was assigned to overlook children in foster care and their adjustment to their placement. One of my cases was unique from the others because it involved a teenage boy that was close to emancipation. He was 17 years old and eager to leave the foster care system. He told me he was tiered of moving from placement to placement and wanted to be independent. The problem was that he did not have a plan after emancipation. He did not know where to go and had no income. He was determined to never see another social worker in his life. Clients have the right to self-determination no matter what decision they make but seeing this young man with no idea on what to do was alarming. I had to convince him how important it is to have a
The foster system intends to place children in homes where they will remain until they can find permanent residence with an adoptive family. Sadly, this is often not the case with children placed privatized homes and they end up bouncing from home to home until they eventually age out of the system forced to enter into adulthood with no permanent family ties. Over the past decade the number of teenagers aging out of the system without a permanent family has risen from 19,000 to 23,000 per year. These teenages enter into the world without emotional, relational, or financial support and therefore possess a greater risk of poverty as well as low academic achievement. This causes many of these teenagers to rely on government benefits during their adult lives which places a heavier burden on taxpayers. The National Council for Adoption reported that the 29,000 teenagers that aged out of the system in 2007 will cost over one billion dollars per year in public assistance and support. These teenagers who age out are also found to be at greater risk of concerning behaviors, such as: creating disciplinary problems in school, dropping out of school, becoming unemployed and homeless, becoming teenage parents, abusing alcohol and drugs, and committing crimes. The privatized system does not have the best interest of the children in mind and
"Greasy Lake" by T.C. Boyle is a tale of one young man's quest for the "rich scent of possibility on the breeze." It was a time in a man's life when there was an almost palpable sense of destiny, as if something was about to happen, like a rite of passage that will thrust him into adulthood or cement his "badness" forever. The story opens with our narrator on a night of debauchery with his friends drinking, eating, and cruising the streets as he had done so many times in the past. What he found on that night of violence and mayhem would force him to look at himself hard. This is a story of one man's journey from boyhood to maturity.
Okpych, : Nathanael. "Policy Framework Supporting Youth Aging-out of Foster Care through College."Children Youth Service Review (2012): n. pag. Science Direct. Web.
Have you ever wondered what the “rite of passage” means or how would one consider if they had gone through a rite of passage? It could be something big that could change someone’s entire foundation, such as getting married or if that person enters to the next world leaving behind everything from the world that the individual knows of, afterlife. The novella, “The Body” written by Gordie Lachance, elaborates on this one event during his childhood, with his childhood friends, as a rite of passage between himself and his friends. This event is surrounded by the corpse of Ray Brower, a young boy around the same age of Gordie, Teddy, Vern, and Chris. It was an easygoing, playful journey where they believed that at the end of this
For many teenagers, their 18th birthday is an exciting time in their lives. They are finally becoming a legal adult, and are free from the rules and restrictions created under their parents. But not all teens feel the same joy about this coming of age. For the hundreds of thousands of children living in foster care in the United States, this new found freedom brings anxiety and fear. Where will they live after turning 18? How will they get the medications they may need? How will they find a job with little to no experience? How will they put themselves through school? Aging out of foster care is a serious issue among America’s youth. Every year, 20,000 children will age out with nowhere to go, being expected to be able to survive on their own (Reilly 728). Young adults face various obstacles upon aging out of foster care, such as multiple health problems/issues, homelessness, and finding/maintaining a job.
“About two-thirds of children admitted to public care have experienced abuse and neglect, and many have potentially been exposed to domestic violence, parental mental illness and substance abuse” (Dregan and Gulliford). These children are being placed into foster care so that they can get away from home abuse, not so they can move closer towards it. The foster children’s varied outcomes of what their adult lives are is because of the different experiences they grew up with in their foster homes. The one-third of those other foster children usually has a better outcome in adult life than the other two-thirds, which is a big problem considering the high percentage of children being abused in their foster homes. Although, the foster care system has most definitely allowed children to experience the positive home atmosphere that they need there is still an existed kind of abusive system in the foster care program that is unofficial but seems to be very popular. Foster care focuses on helping children in need of a temporary stable environment; however, foster care can have negative impacts to the children and the people around them concerning the foster child going through the transition, the parents of the foster child, a new sibling relationship, and problems that arrive later influencing the foster child long-term.
As of 2014, there were over 415,000 children in the foster care system. Foster care is the raising and supervision of children in a private home, group home, or institution, by individuals engaged and paid by a social service agency (Legal Dictionary, 2016). Care givers can be of kin relationship to the child, or may not know the child at all. Group homes are run by a social worker and can house multiple children at a time. These homes are usually regulated by the state and/or government. Children of all ages go through many emotions when their lives revolve in foster care. This paper will discuss the emotions children deal with regarding separation from birth family, the effects of abuse, and the possibility of having to transition out of
Low educational achievement for foster youth was a pressing concern. A study completed by Ehrle and Geen (2002) using a phone survey of 44,000 foster care providers across the United States found that 55% of voluntary kinship care providers did not have a high school degree, this indicated that may care providers lack the knowledge and understanding to help foster youth be prepared academically. After studying over 1000 foster youth Pecora et al (2006) found, about one third of all foster youth repeated a grade in school. In addition, Vacca (2007) identified reasons that foster youth struggled in the school setting. “Foster youth will typically not have any consistent parent advocacy or representative in the creation and implementation of the educational plan for graduation” (p. 67). With primary and secondary education a struggle for foster youth, it was no surprise that higher education was not something foster youth had been prepared for. In a combination survey and interview study titled “Pathways to College for Former Foster Youth: Understanding Factors That Contribute to Educational Success” Merdinger, Hines, Osterling, and Wyatt (2005) studied more than 200 former foster youth and found that “overall 63.8 percent [of former foster youth] reported that the foster care system did not prepare them very well for college” (p.
Almost 10% of children in foster care have stayed in foster care for five or more years. Most young kids don’t even reach their fifth birthday and die under these circumstances.. Nearly half of all children in foster care have medical problems. 8% of all children in foster care have serious emotional problems, 11% of children exiting foster care aged out of the system, in 2011. When these kids age out they have nothing unless their foster parents help this is why most of them end up homeless or drug addicts because they’re desperate but at this time they’re hopeless. Children in foster care experience high rates of child abuse, emotional deprivation, and physical neglect. A study of foster children in Oregon and Washington State found that nearly one third reported being abused by a foster parent or another adult in a foster
One article about the harms of aging out states, "Each year, about 30,000 foster care youth age out of the system. Many of them exit without finding a stable, affordable, permanent living arrangement" (Richards 2). After aging out, former foster children also face problems going off to post-secondary school and finding jobs. This is because to apply for a job, one must provide proof of a home address. If someone is homeless, that makes getting a job so much harder. Nevertheless, the system does try its hardest to prevent issues like this from arising. There are programs like Section 8 Housing, Family Unification Programs (FUP), and Continuum of Care services, which help foster care children and teenagers after they have aged out. This being said, not many foster care youth know about these programs. It should be the job of the caseworker involved with the child to inform them of these programs. Furthermore, there is a stigma against children in foster care and those who have aged out. This may be a factor in why some do not apply for such programs. Foster care and adopted children are a part of almost every community, so society should try its best to include them and not blame
“Every year more than 25,000 youth age out of the foster care system” (Jansson, 2014, p.62). “As youth in foster care mature into adulthood, they face enormous challenges, including lack of family support; educational deficiencies; employment and income problems; inadequate or inappropriate living arrangements;
In conclusion, child protective intervention services through foster care have been the responsibility of provincial and territorial governments in Canada. These governments provide these services to children deemed to be in need of protection temporarily or permanently. However, the country has been faced with several concerns regarding its foster care system because it contributes to increased homelessness, criminal activity, and inability to achieve higher education for children aging out of foster care. These problems are attributed to the lack of legislative provisions and policies in Canada that promote effective transition from foster care to adulthood. Therefore, the Canadian government needs to identify and implement effective transition programs and supports into current policies to improve outcomes for young people aging out of foster care.
Williams-Mbengue, N. (2018). Ready or Not: Preparing Young People to be on Their Own is Essential as They Transition out of Foster Care. State Legislatures, 44(3),
Becoming an adult, also known as young adulthood, is a very crucial stage in one’s life. This is the climax of physical and health processes. This is the point in life when we make plans of our futures. It is the time when we think of what life will be like as an adult and make plans for the future. Most importantly, it is when we lay the starting point for developmental changes that we will undergo throughout our lives. An adult is a person who is fully grown or developed. Some people believe that you become an adult when you are 18 years old, other believe you are an adult when you can legally buy and consume alcohol, that is, at age 21 in the United States. Others believe that you are an adult when you are supporting yourself