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Schiavoni, CSB back raising emancipation age for foster kids
YOUNGSTOWN
State Sen. Joseph Schiavoni and Mahoning County Children Services Board officials are urging enactment of state legislation that would raise the age of emancipation from 18 to 21 for those in foster care.
On Dec. 1, the Ohio House of Representatives passed House Bill 50, which would accomplish this goal, by a 91-2 vote.
That bill now moves to the Ohio Senate, where a similar companion bill, Senate Bill 240, also is pending.
The Senate possibly will consider the matter in January, said Schiavoni, of Boardman, D-33rd, the Senate minority leader.
“The goal is to create supportive programs and services to help these youth transition toward greater independence and self-sufficiency” to achieve healthy, safe and successful futures, said Jennifer Kollar, CSB’s public information officer.
Ohio statistics show those who “age out” of foster care face a high risk of homelessness, incarceration, unplanned pregnancy, insufficient education, dependency on public assistance and human trafficking, Kollar said.
About 1,000 Ohio youths age out of foster care each year at 18, with up to 3,000 of the state’s former foster youths potentially eligible for extended support under the Ohio Fostering Connections Act, Kollar added.
The proposal would offer foster youths “more-robust supportive services” such as counseling, college or technical-school tuition assistance and financial assistance for transitional housing, including apartment or campus housing, said Randall Muth, CSB executive director.
He said, however, additional state legislation will be needed to fund the program if it passes the Ohio Senate and Gov. John Kasich signs it.
A 2008 federal law, titled the Fostering Connection to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act, provides federal funds to match state child welfare services money in states that support foster youths through 21.
If the proposal now before the Ohio Senate becomes law, the federal government would pay about 60 percent and the state would pay about 40 percent.
Since 2008, 26 states and the District of Columbia have extended supports to foster youths through age 21, or are in the process of doing so, according to the Junior League of Cleveland, which supports the Ohio legislative proposal.
Ohio has delayed action on the proposal because the 2008 recession prevented the state from funding the program, Muth explained.
The Ohio Association of Child Caring Agencies has said the program will require $9.7 million annually in state funds to match $14.8 million in federal dollars.
“From 18 to 21 is a very delicate time in some of these young people’s lives, where they’re really making progress, but they still need a little bit more time in order to get everything organized to go out there in the world and deal with all the issues that they’re going to have to face,” Schiavoni said.
“I favor it simply because children who have been in foster care often have faced challenges that other kids of their own age haven’t faced, and they need the support. They need, sometimes, assistance in settling and adapting to independent lifestyles,” said Benjamin McGee, a CSB member and former Youngstown schools superintendent.
“It’s challenging to try to deal with the food, clothing and shelter issues while you’re also trying to educate yourself,” McGee added.
“At 18, these are young people who’ve not had advantages at all growing up, and so giving them that additional three years of supportive services, whether it be by way of case management or educational opportunities, it’s going to prepare them for greater independence and greater success as adults,” said Joseph Mosca, dean of Youngstown State University’s Bitonte College of Health and Human Services.
Mosca also is a professor of social work and a CSB member.
Children who age out of foster care tend to have less-positive outcomes than other children because they have not “experienced the benefit of parents that are committed to them, not only to their 18th birthday, but for the rest of their lives,” explained Julie Rudolph, CSB’s quality-improvement supervisor.
The extra three years of assistance helps foster youths “get established with their housing, with their education and with their ability to find and maintain employment, as well as do the day-to-day life activities that they may not have been responsible for as foster youth,” Rudolph said.
“It’s a shame that our children, who are 18 with no family, who’ve lived in anywhere from 10 to 22 homes in their lifetime, are then just told, ‘You’re an adult,’ and they’re just left on their own without any support,” said Judge Theresa Dellick of Mahoning County Juvenile Court.
“These children need more support up to the age of 21,” she added.
“If we do this properly, we’re able to emancipate them at age 21, embolden them with life skills and make them independent and then taxpaying citizens,” the judge said.
She said, however, she’s concerned that the House-passed bill violates the concept of separation of powers among government branches because it has the Ohio Attorney General’s Office or Ohio Judicial Conference setting forth the guidelines to be followed in establishing guardianships for youths between age 18 and 21.
“It is the Legislature’s responsibility to set forth guidelines and mandates. It is the attorney general’s job to prosecute when those guidelines are not followed. The OJC is to make recommendations” to the Legislature, she explained.
“It’s going to hopefully give those 18- to 21-year-olds time to get a safety net in place,” Robert E. Bush Jr., director of the Mahoning County Department of Job and Family Services, said of deferring the emancipation of foster youths.
“Right now, they’re in a void,” Bush said.
“The governor’s new comprehensive case-management plan for 14- to 24-year-olds should pick up some of those folks, and that’s pushing jobs, education and all the skills you need for that; so maybe they’ll dovetail and give that person a real foundation to move on out of foster care and into adulthood,” Bush said.