Mark Courtney

California foster youth who remain in extended foster care after they turn 18 have more savings and are more educated than their peers who exit foster care at 18, according to a report released late last year by the University of Chicago-based research group Chapin Hall.

Earlier this summer, Mark Courtney and his team at Chapin Hall at the University of Chicago released the latest installment in his most recent longitudinal study, the California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (CalYOUTH).

The Chapin Hall Center for Children at the University of Chicago recently released a brief highlighting factors that lead to high school completion and college enrollment for foster youth. “Each month in extended foster care past age 18, increased the expected odds of completing high school by about 8 percent,” the Chapin Hall brief said.

Maria Serrano couldn’t wait to leave foster care behind when she turned 18 two years ago. “I didn’t want anything to do with the system,” she said. In foster care since she was 15, Serrano felt unstable in the child welfare system.

Researchers and child welfare advocates will gather in downtown Los Angeles on May 10 to explore the preliminary findings of the California Youth Transitions to Adulthood Study (CalYOUTH). CalYOUTH is a five-year research project looking at the impact of the California Fostering Connections to Success Act, a California law known as AB 12 that extended foster care to age 21 and took effect in 2012.

By Anna Maier New research shows that California teenagers in foster care display a surprising optimism about their future, despite the many challenges they face. “In general young people [aging out of foster care] tend to be pretty optimistic, in that sense I don’t think they differ much from their peers,” said Mark Courtney, Professor in the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago and director of the CalYOUTH study.

Foster youth approach the age of 18 with serious health and socioeconomic risk factors, but do so with optimism and a sense of support, according to the baseline findings from a five-year study on California youths released late last week.

Andrew Bridge, former foster youth, Harvard Law graduate, and the author of the wildly popular novel “Hope’s Boy” has just quieted the crowd of roughly 150 child welfare advocates, researchers and youth services providers convened on the campus of the University of Pennsylvania for a two-day conference exploring issues facing youth aging out of foster care.

The purpose of this study was to explore the continuity of behavioral health services for youth aging out of foster care, including the relationship between remaining in foster care after one’s 18th birthday and the receipt of services.