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Forbes
01-05-2025
- General
- Forbes
Extended Foster Care Works: Why Implementation Makes All The Difference
Written by Thomas Lee, CEO, First Place for Youth Each year, over 20 thousand foster youth age out of care at 18 years old. While testifying before Congress, one former foster youth said, 'When I graduated high school, the adults I relied on vanished...I was unaware of Extended Foster Care and transitional supports, and social workers did not respond to my requests for financial assistance. This led to years of homelessness, domestic violence, and instability.' As we examine recent discourse on extended foster care, a concerning narrative has emerged. After nearly two decades of implementation across 33 states, critics rightfully question whether these programs are fulfilling their transformative promise. The numbers, frankly, are disappointing. According to the 'Fostering Youth Transitions 2023' report by the Annie E. Casey Foundation, only 22% of eligible youth choose to remain in care after turning 18, and an alarming 77% fail to utilize available transition services. The recent Youth Law Center report delivers a sobering assessment: ten years after California extended foster care to age 21, the program 'has not been transformative.' Despite participation, many youth continue to experience homelessness, incarceration, and mental health challenges. Nearly half of California youth report lacking reliable emotional support networks despite program participation. As someone dedicated to improving outcomes for transition-age foster youth, I find these statistics deeply troubling but not surprising. The problem isn't the concept of extended foster care itself—it's the scope of implementation. Extended foster care was never meant to simply delay the inevitable transition to adulthood. It was envisioned as a lifeline—a runway to guide young people toward a successful and fulfilling future. By providing not just a safe place to live but also a network of support, the goal was to offer stability and the chance to heal and grow. Unfortunately, in many cases, the focus has shifted too narrowly to housing, overlooking the deeper, more complex needs these young people face. For youth aging out of foster care, their journey has often been marked by years of uncertainty—nearly eight years in the system, with at least six different foster homes and numerous school changes. The instability they've faced creates deep emotional scars that can't be healed with housing alone. What's missing in many extended foster care programs is the kind of intensive, relationship-driven support that helps these young people process their trauma and develop the skills they need to thrive independently. Without this, the chance for true healing and growth remains out of reach. At First Place for Youth, we've taken a different approach. Our data from fiscal year 2024 reveals what's possible when extended foster care is implemented comprehensively. After 365 days in our My First Place program: These outcomes represent significant improvements from youth's situations when entering the program, where 47% were not stably housed, 51% were not in school, and 43% were not employed. What truly speaks volumes are the life-changing results. Just two years after completing our program, the young people we support are not only earning wages that match those of their peers who never spent time in foster care—they're actually earning 1.5 times more than young people who never enrolled in the program. And they are 1.6 times more likely to be employed. This isn't a small step forward. It's proof that extended foster care isn't just a safety net; it can be a launchpad for success. These outcomes shatter the misconception that the system has failed. Instead, they stand as a testament to the transformative power of investing in these young lives. The question isn't whether extended foster care can work, but how to implement it effectively. Through our experience serving 1,496 youth across multiple states last year, we've identified several critical elements: The mixed results of extended foster care nationally shouldn't prompt us to abandon the model but rather to refine it. Policymakers must recognize that housing-only approaches are insufficient and that comprehensive support services are not optional luxuries but essential components. Current legislation aimed at expanding federal extended foster care programs must include provisions for implementation quality, not just access. Without addressing the how, we risk replicating or reinforcing the status quo. From a fiscal perspective, investing in quality implementation makes economic sense. Research shows that providing effective extended foster care has a return on investment of $4.1 billion per year per cohort of youth aging out of care. The persistent challenges in extended foster care implementation across the country have strengthened our resolve to expand First Place for Youth's proven model nationwide. In the next five years, we plan to double our reach, growing from serving youth in seven states to fourteen. This isn't growth for growth's sake—it's a deliberate strategy to bring high-quality extended foster care services to regions where transition-age foster youth currently have few or no supports. Many young people aging out of foster care in these states face an abrupt end to services, with no runway to build the skills, resources, and networks needed for successful independence. Our expansion focuses particularly on regions with high populations of foster youth and few transitional housing options, ensuring we address the most critical service gaps first. Through strategic partnerships with local organizations, we're adapting our model to meet community-specific needs while maintaining the core elements that make our approach effective. For example, our recent expansion to Mississippi brings our proven model to a state where transition-age foster youth previously had minimal support options. This balance of standardized, evidence-based programming with localized implementation ensures that regardless of geography, every youth in our program receives the comprehensive support they need to thrive. By bringing quality extended foster care implementation to more communities, we're not just serving more youth—we're demonstrating what's possible when extended foster care is done right. If we're serious about changing outcomes for foster youth, we must move beyond debates about whether extended foster care works to focus on how it can work best. Programs like My First Place demonstrate that with the right implementation, the original vision of extended foster care—preparing youth for successful, independent adulthood—is achievable. The evidence is undeniable: when we provide stable housing paired with intensive case management, education and employment support, and a focus on health and wellness, youth don't just survive—they thrive. They don't merely escape negative outcomes; they soar to new heights, achieving employment and educational success that rivals their peers who never experienced foster care. As we engage in the national conversation about how best to support transition-age foster youth, we must stop asking whether extended foster care has failed. Instead, let's ask ourselves how we can make it work better, how we can make it truly transformative. The stakes for the 20,000 youth who age out of the system each year are far too high for us to settle for anything less than real, lasting change. The time to act is now—let's create a future where these young people don't just make it but succeed beyond our wildest expectations.
Yahoo
22-04-2025
- Yahoo
A conversation with Newport News' first community violence prevention manager
For Synethia White, being Newport News' first community violence prevention manager isn't just about crime reduction, it's about working with the community to give as many people as possible opportunities to succeed. Newport News brought White on in the new role in November to oversee community safety efforts in the city. The position is a conduit between organizations and city services to ensure both are aiding each other as efficiently as possible, White said. Part of that process includes hosting events like National Youth Violence Prevention Week. Events for the week include a discussion and open space for young people to share their journeys and create positive relationships. The April 29 event is led by local activist Kaaleah Jones, of the Abu Unity Foundation, a local anti-violence organization named after her father who was killed in 2003. Other events will include discussions with experts from national organizations and local nonprofits about collaboration and how to pay for programs. Representatives from the Annie E. Casey Foundation and Health Resources in Action will discuss strategies to help Newport News and local organizations receive federal funding. 'These are the things you need to continue to grow,' White said. 'There's no time like the present to know you need to have diversified funding streams.' Intervention is also an important aspect of White's approach to the job. While part of violence reduction is prevention and responding to problems when they occur, White said some of the biggest return on investment she's seen in violence reduction is building trust with residents to create opportunities to step in and disrupt violence before it has a chance to become cyclical. White said intervention efforts can take longer to show tangible results. However, addressing root causes of violence works to avoid a 'ping-pong' situation in which cities respond to violence without questioning why it is happening in the first place. 'Violence is a symptom of a larger disease,' White said. 'If you address the root causes, then people have more opportunities to succeed. People have more opportunities to develop empathy with others.' In March 2024, Mayor Phillip Jones announced a pledge to reduce gun violence and homicides in Newport News by 15% over the next 18 months. The city was already making strides before White was hired. In July, Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew reported a 55% decrease in homicides compared to the previous year. White said cities across the country saw a decrease in violent crime last year, but she was excited to step into the role to continue building on that progress in Newport News. Newport News mayor aims to reduce gun violence and homicides by 15%. Here's how. Shots Fired: Nearly 3,000 killed in homicides and suicides in Hampton Roads in past 10 years Shots Fired: How violence intervention groups are part of the solution 'It was very good to hear that there was going to be some targeted positive resources, particularly around how you maintain reductions and continue to improve outcomes for young people and community,' White said. 'The big thing with community is the willingness of local elected and appointed leadership to make sure that they are using resources wisely.' White has roughly 20 years of service on the Peninsula, including serving as the director of strategic initiatives for Cities United and youth violence prevention program manager for Hampton. White added that having already built a foundation with local organizations has helped both sides collaborate better. 'That was something that you hope to walk into in any position, where what you were going to put forward is going to be received,' White said. A lot of people's limited opportunities come down to circumstance, according to White. She grew up in York County with her great-grandmother and grandmother, and knows her circumstance could have been much different if she hadn't had support from her family. That's why White's approach to reimagining public safety in Newport News focuses on filling community deficits toward equitable opportunity, whether it's connecting someone in need to mental health services or helping a young person obtain an identification card to help get them a job. 'It's helping our organization continue to grow and understand there is a difference between prevention and intervention, and the expectation we should have on community to support each of those pockets,' White said. 'Things are still going to happen and go left sometimes, so we still need the resources in place so that if somebody makes a mistake, we've got things in order to get them back on track.' White said it's unlikely all crime will be completely eliminated. However, she has seen many lives turn around throughout her career, and celebrating that progress matters, too. 'The good outweighs the bad, believe it or not, and the small wins count,' White said. 'If you do this work and you have heard a parent cry after losing a child, you don't forget that. But you can turn it around and make sure you know that you're always doing your best to be true to the work that you're doing.' Devlin Epding, 757-510-4037,
Yahoo
19-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Georgia expands tax credit to support youth aging out of foster care
The Brief Georgia lawmakers renewed and expanded the Fostering Success Tax Credit, increasing the cap from $20 million to $30 million to support youth aging out of foster care. Programs like Wellroot's Transitional Living Program provide housing, education, and job support to former foster youth, including Kayla Beasley, who is now pursuing a nursing degree. Supporters can redirect their 2025 Georgia tax payments to help fund these programs by visiting or calling 404-327-5877. ATLANTA - Each year, hundreds of teens in Georgia age out of the foster care system — and many of them leave without any kind of safety a newly renewed tax credit passed by the Georgia Legislature gives residents a way to support these young adults. What we know According to Wellroot, approximately 500 young adults age out of foster care each year in Georgia. The Annie E. Casey Foundation reports that one in six experience homelessness between the ages of 17 and 19, and one in four report being homeless between 19 and 21. Nearly one in five are incarcerated by age 19. "They lack the family support that many of us are privileged to have. They lack consistent education. Sometimes they're moved around a lot, and so they fall behind educationally. They need additional workforce support and help getting ready for the workforce," said Mary Vincent, Wellroot's Senior Vice President of Programs."They need housing, wraparound services, and access to health care and mental health care," she added. This year, the Georgia Legislature passed HB 136, which renews the Fostering Success Tax Credit and raises its cap from $20 million to $30 million. This allows Georgians to receive a dollar-for-dollar state tax credit when donating to organizations that support youth aging out of the foster care system. The funding supports programs like Wellroot's Transitional Living Program, which provides housing, educational, and workforce support for former foster youth. What they're saying This week, Kayla Beasley moved into her newly renovated unit through Wellroot's Transitional Living Program. Having a stable place to stay is a significant change for Beasley, who spent much of her life without one. "I've been in foster care since I was around five years old and I've been in and out of foster homes. I was adopted at one point, but due to personal situations, I was returned to the foster care system. And as a lot of people know, many people do not want to foster older foster youth. So I was in and out of foster homes at that point in time," she said. Kayla recently aged out of the system. Through Wellroot, she and other residents receive safe housing and access to services that help them transition into adulthood. "Working with their educational coordinator, I was allowed the opportunity to get my GED and start college. So it was really good," Beasley said. Now studying to become a nurse, Beasley says her goals felt out of reach before joining the program. She hopes more people will donate to the newly expanded tax credit so that others like her can access the same opportunities. "The money that they're putting towards these programs really does help somebody like me achieve goals, ambitions, and dreams that we never thought we could actually achieve," she said. What you can do Wellroot encourages Georgians to learn how their 2025 tax payments can be redirected to support youth aging out of foster care. Visit or call Wellroot's Development team at 404-327-5877 for more information. The tax credit bill has been sent to Gov. Brian Kemp's desk for signature. His office says they are currently reviewing the legislation and will decide whether to sign it in the coming days.
Yahoo
25-03-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Youth workers updated on Kids Count Data Book
ELKHART — Representatives of organizations that serve youth in Elkhart County are getting the latest data to help them better understand trends and make decisions. The Indiana Youth Institute has published the Indiana Kids Count Data Book for the past 31 years. It serves as an annual profile of youth in Indiana, tracking trends in areas like mental health and poverty and comparing Indiana to neighboring states. 'Our mission is to support kids, and we do that by supporting you,' Chelsea Naylor, senior outreach manager for the Northwest Region, told a gathering Friday. 'We know when youth workers have access to data, resources and trainings, you're better able to serve kids and kids are better off.' The data book is available at More than just a report on kids, the data book is also an indicator of how well adults are meeting their needs, according to Ashley Haynes, vice president of Data and Communications. 'The data book is more than just a collection of numbers and statistics. It's a report card for us as adults,' she said. 'It tells us the challenges our kids are experiencing, it tells us where we're making some great strides and improvements and it helps us generate conversations abut what we can do with that data.' Haynes said almost 60,000 kids in Elkhart County will be growing up in a dramatically different world than their parents did. 'There are over 1.5 million children living in Indiana. Here in Elkhart County, there are 57,167 youth under the age of 18,' she said. 'And across our state, this generation is more diverse than our adult population and we know they are inheriting a world that is very different from the one most of us grew up in.' She said in 2024, Indiana ranked 15th in the country for economic well-being and 17th in education, but was 31st in family and community and 32nd in health, according to data collected by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. Haynes said education was the only area where Indiana improved from 2023. The poor health ranking extends to mental health as well. The percentage of youth who reported depression or suicidal thoughts was lower in 2024 than in recent years but mental health care can be hard to obtain. In 2022, Haynes said, 59.7 percent of caregivers reported difficulty obtaining mental health care for their child and 62 percent of LGBTQ youth who wanted mental health care were unable to receive it. Both numbers put Indiana behind its neighbors. Despite the state consistently ranking low in health, Haynes said, the steady drop in substance use among students in grades 7-12 is encouraging. She said since 2018, alcohol use fell from 17.5 percent to 9 percent, vaping from 16.9 percent to 6.6 percent, marijuana use from 9.7 percent to 5.2 percent and cigarette smoking from 5.7 percent to 1.5 percent. 'And while overall usage rates have declined, many of our students still perceive these substances as relatively harmless,' she said. 'This perception gap presents a challenge in preventing future substance misuse and addiction.' The state's overall ranking for youth well-being in 2024 was 27th, which Haynes noted is in the bottom half of the country. Indiana placed second among its immediate neighbors. 'There are positive trends in the data. Teen birth rates are down, poverty is at its lowest in a decade and youth employment is on the rise. But we also see some pressing concerns,' she said. 'Early childhood enrollment remains low, food insecurity is increasing and the pandemic is still impacting our kids and their educational success.'
Yahoo
19-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Schools closed and went remote to fight COVID-19. The impacts linger 5 years later.
American schools and the ways students learn have both changed since the height of the COVID-19 pandemic five years ago. After local and federal health officials ordered schools to closein March 2020, most campuses in the U.S. shuttered and educators pivoted to virtual learning. Many students lost fundamental reading and math skills after learning remotely for months and some teachers left the profession altogether by the time schools returned the next school year, national data from the U.S. Department of Education shows. Educators nationwide have said that their students returned to classrooms after the pandemic with lower academic skills than before and it's been a challenge to catch kids up. Student academic setbacks are proving difficult to reverse. Recent national test scores from the National Center for Education Statistics show a bleak picture of recovery in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic. Reading scores are worsening and math scores haven't recovered on a national average. "The abrupt shift to remote learning challenged student and teacher engagement, dramatically decreased instructional time, and hindered student understanding," reads a report about the effects of COVID-19 pandemic on education from the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a philanthropy focused on ensuring young people have access to opportunity. Michael Petrilli, president of the national education policy think tank Thomas B. Fordham Institute, said the recent test results showing dismal academic recovery lead him to believe American education won't return to pre-pandemic levels until there's "a generation of kids who were not impacted by the pandemic." Many of the kids affected by school closures during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and lost some of the most foundational skills in reading and math, Petrilli said. "The fourth graders now were in kindergarten when they were sent home. Many were doing Zoom school," Petrilli said. "It's absolutely worth noting that this is a precious period – the early grades." While educational impacts linger, supporters of school closures have said it was the right choice. Last year, Rep. Jahana Hayes, D-Conn., a former high school teacher of 15 years, pushed back against Republican criticism and said closing schools was a safety response based on information available at the time. 'We don't need Brookings (Institute) data to tell us that if kids are not in school, they won't learn. That's pretty basic,' Hayes said, referencing the Washington think tank. 'But we also know if kids are dead, they don't learn.' Here are a few ways education has changed in the past five years. What's going on? Kids' reading, math skills are worsening, new test scores reveal. Many internet tools that educators used during pandemic-based remote learning ‒ from math learning platform Zearn to game-based platform Kahoot! ‒ have a lasting presence in American classrooms today. "One of the most immediate and visible changes brought about by the pandemic was the rapid integration of technology into the classroom," reads a recent report called "Rewiring the Classroom: How the COVID-19 Pandemic Transformed K-12 Education" from the Brookings Institution, a nonprofit public policy organization. "Before COVID-19, many schools were easing into the digital age," wrote Brian Jacob and Cristina Stanojevich for the Brookings Institution. "The switch to remote learning in March 2020 forced schools to fully embrace Learning Management Systems (LMS), Zoom, and educational software almost overnight." Teachers now frequently use these digital tools – along with artificial intelligence – in their classrooms. Educators are struggling to teach kids the skills they lost out on during remote learning while managing a surge in post-pandemic misbehavior, recent data from EdWeek shows. More than 70% of 1,000 educators said in an EdWeek Research Center national survey that students were misbehaving more than they did before the pandemic. Several studies show that kids lost out on fundamental socialization skills during pandemic school closures. Student behavioral problems and mental health needs have become a persistent problem for schools since then. A spike in outbursts in America's classrooms coincides with a national youth mental health crisis, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Several educators have also told USA TODAY over the last few years that students misbehave in class more often since the onset of the pandemic. Wendy Gonzalez, a fourth-grade teacher at Downer Elementary School in Richmond, Calif., said that many of the students in her class didn't "know how to talk to each other" during the 2022-2023 school year. 'These are kids who spent most of their formative years – kindergarten, first grade, second grade, third grade, when you're supposed to be learning social skills – not learning them. They don't have those social skills,' Gonzalez said. More recently, Brittany Archibald-Swank, a veteran fourth-grade teacher at a public school in Urbana, Illinois, said she has had to pause her lessons almost daily over the last several years to help or comfort a student who is off task. Many students in her class "bring a lot of trauma with them that impacts how they learn and how they react in a school setting," she said late last year. Behavior vs. books: US students are rowdier than ever post-COVID. How's a teacher to teach? Educators who were frustrated by remote learning and other conditions quit teaching and departed from classrooms across the nation, leaving school administrators nationwide with shortages of teachers and substitutes on staff, according to a RAND survey from 2021. About 8% of educators left the teaching profession after the 2020-2021 school year, according to the U.S. Department of Education's National Center for Education Statistics. New teachers have replaced some veteran educators since the pandemic, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality. New research on the lingering effects of the pandemic on teachers from University of California, Santa Cruz Professor of Education Lora Bartlett and her colleagues show that the pandemic-era "hastened a downward spiral in career satisfaction and longevity for teachers." "The biggest declines in satisfaction took place in places where teachers described experiencing a lack of support and respect from school leaders and the public during the pandemic and felt that their expertise was often ignored, including in plans to address post-pandemic learning loss," Bartlett wrote in an email. Some educators shared in the research that "increased political intervention" during the COVID-19 pandemic "that sought to curtail teacher freedom and decision-making around curriculum materials and instruction" also played a factor, Bartlett said. Disadvantaged students were the most likely to enter classrooms with new teachers, substitutes, teachers with the least amount of training, and a shrinking number of the most experienced teachers, based on a USA TODAY analysis. To address teacher shortages, some states have tailored their requirements and funded programs to attract teachers to the profession, according to the National Council on Teacher Quality. Many parents who were upset by school closures opted to move their kids outside of their neighborhood public schools – and have kept them there, according to data from EdChoice, a nonprofit organization which advocates for school vouchers. One set of survey results by the National School Choice Awareness Foundation shows that interest in school choice grew during the pandemic. More than half of the 3,820 parents of school-aged children the group surveyed in 2023 either had considered or were considering a new school at the time. Some families chose to enroll their kids in micro schools or other small learning communities while others moved to charter schools, homeschooling or private schools that were open for in-person learning during the pandemic, according to data from EdChoice. School choice advocates also capitalized on parent dissatisfaction with public schools to create new alternatives to traditional education. Several states have since passed legislation that entitles every child's family to use public funds for other schooling options, according to EdChoice's "School Choice in America" dashboard. President Donald Trump has elevated the modern school choice movement since his first presidential term during the COVID-19 pandemic. Now in his second term, Trump signed an executive order in January directing his newly-appointed Education Secretary Linda McMahon to bolster school choice programs and calling on Congress to pass two related bills: the School Choice Now Act and the Education Freedom Scholarships and Opportunity Act. Trump signs executive order Bolstering school choice New data from the National Center for Education Statistics shows that student attendance dipped during COVID-19 and student attendance rates haven't recovered to pre-pandemic levels. Chronic absenteeism rates among students grew from 15% to 26% between 2018 to 2023, due to the pandemic, according to an analysis from the American Enterprise Institute. Chronic absenteeism refers to when a student misses 10% of more of the school year. Chronic absenteeism Is schools' 'biggest problem.' Five reasons kids are missing school. The organization reports the trend began during the COVID-19 pandemic and continued when schools returned to in-person learning. "The urgent need to recover from pandemic learning loss will be severely hampered by current rates of chronic absenteeism, making it the most pressing post-pandemic problem in public schools," according to the American Enterprise Institute's analysis. Contributing: Savannah Kuchar, USA TODAY Contact Kayla Jimenez at kjimenez@ Follow her on X at @kaylajjimenez. This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: 5 years after schools closed during COVID-19 pandemic, impacts linger
