“Aging out” of foster care

Few parents cut ties immediately and irrevocably the moment that their child comes of age. But once a foster child reaches the age of 18, the system is no longer obligated to provide for them. Roughly half of these teens “age out” of the foster system while housed in group facilities, as I did. There just aren't enough individual foster homes to go around.

According to a study from the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, in the first year after leaving foster care, one in four youths will end up homeless for a night. I can testify to that personally, having experienced a brief bout of homeslessness my second year out of foster care, when I was seventeen years old.

Foster alumni don't fare well without adult support. Their homeslessness rate is twenty times the national average. Their incarceration rate is four times the national average. They receive public assistance at three times the national average. Additionally, they have a 60% risk of unwanted pregnancy, which can start the cycle all over again.

My experience

Like many teens who age out of foster care, I entered the adult world without a safety net. After starting college at the age of sixteen, I was legally emancipated. Although legally an adult, I still had an adolescent mindset. Not surprisingly, I experimented with high-risk behavior. I struggled with poverty and even experienced a period of homelessness.

Eventually, I found a surrogate family in my peers at a college dorm. I received a graduate degree from the University of Kentucky in 1998, and became a wife and stepmother on July 1st, 2000. I have finally established a family of my own, but it took me almost thirty years to achieve it.