Foster Care

The few studies that have tracked the 20,000 youths who leave foster care each year expecting to live on their own have found that many face homelessness, employment instability, incarceration, and pregnancy. A substantial portion have not completed high school and depend on public assistance. The Department of Health and Human Services' (HHS) Independent Living Program is intended to help foster care youths make the transition to living independently. State Independent Living Programs offer education and employment assistance; training in managing money, housekeeping, and personal hygiene; and supervised practice living. However, program administrators report that developing appropriate employment opportunities, providing supervised transitional housing, and providing opportunities to practice skills or enhance self-esteem have been difficult. Few evaluations link program objectives to outcomes, leaving questions about the effectiveness of current independent living services. Programs in California and Maryland have been designed to capture this information. GAO plans to explore these issues, including innovative strategies in the states and HHS' role in ensuring that performance measures are identified and implemented.

GAO noted that: (1) the few available studies that track youths who have exited foster care reveal that many have a difficult time making the transition to living on their own; (2) the studies found that a substantial portion of these youths have not attained basic education goals, such as completing high school, and are dependent on public assistance; (3) in addition, many experience periods of homelessness after leaving care and have other difficulties that impede their progress toward self-sufficiency, such as being unemployed; (4) in an effort to help foster care youths become self-sufficient, state ILPs offer a wide array of independent living services, including education and employment assistance; training in daily living skills, such as managing money, housekeeping, and personal hygiene; and additional transitional services, such as supervised practice living; (5) however, program administrators acknowledge that independent living services fall short in key areas; (6) these administrators report that developing appropriate employment opportunities for foster care youths, providing supervised transitional housing arrangements, and developing program activities that provide opportunities to practice the skills learned or enhance youths' self-esteem has been difficult; and (7) moreover, there are few evaluations that link program objectives to outcomes, leaving questions concerning the effectiveness of the array of independent living services.