Foster-care cuts will be costly to kids, society

Op Ed: Foster-care cuts will be costly to kids, society
Columbus Dispatch, Sept. 5, 2009.

At a time when the needs of foster-care youths transitioning to adulthood are being recognized on the federal level through the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, Ohio has chosen to cut the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families-Independent Living Allocation by 100 percent.

The Independent Living Initiative was the only state program that provides transitional-living services to foster-care youths. These services include drivers' education, life-skills training, job-readiness preparation and food and housing assistance.

Gov. Ted Strickland eliminated this allocation, saying that it constrained county agencies' ability to use the allocated funds in a flexible manner that meets each county's needs to support children.

Approximately 1,300 Ohio teenagers emancipate from the foster-care system each year. Because they have no families to rely upon, these young people are at greater risk of poverty, homelessness, unwed pregnancies and incarceration.

Foster-care youths transitioning to adulthood are not a "line item." They are children who rely on the state to be their parents. They are teenagers entering into adulthood during a recession.

Ohio taxpayers will pay for their needs, whether now or later. Research by the Children's Advocacy Institute has shown that early investment leads to foster-care youths being three times more likely to enroll in college, 65 percent less likely to be arrested and 33 percent less likely to become pregnant.

According to Dr. Mark Courtney of the Chapin Hall Center for Children, every dollar invested in continued foster care supports and services results in a return of $2.40.

It makes better economic sense to intervene during their late teens and early 20s, a time when young people have open minds, high levels of energy and are actively engaged in the process of directing their future lives.

Lack of investment in independent-living preparation will lead more foster-care youths into situations of chronic homelessness, unwed pregnancies, unemployment and incarceration.

Left unchecked, the cycle will continue: One in four homeless adults is a former foster child.

Ohio's foster youths are "aging out" of care in the midst of a recession. They deserve far better than this.

LISA DICKSON
Founder, Communications chairman Ohio chapter of Foster Care Alumni of America Westerville