Statistics
HOMELESSNESS:
Covenant House reports that 50% of adolescents aging out of foster care and juvenile justice systems will be homeless within 6 months because they are unprepared to live independently, have limited education, and no social support.
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EDUCATION:
Only 54% of aged-out foster kids receive a highschool diploma.
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70% of foster kids WANT to attend college….but only 3% of aged-out foster kids goto college and less than 1/2 of them ever graduate—–(In comparison, over 70% of high school students attend college and 65-70% of those graduate!)
UNEMPLOYMENT:
Over 50% of aged-out foster kids are unemployed —-(Compared with 14.2% of general youth aged 14 to 24.)
Over 30% are receiving welfare assistance.
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EMOTIONAL PROBLEMS:
It is estimated that as many as 80% of kids in foster care have emotional and behavioral problems.
A study by the Department of Health and Human Services (2005) evaluating care of foster children stated that: there was a sheer lack of mental health services for children, mental health assessments were not conducted adequately or timely, and that there is a lack of consistency in providing preventative services for children. (HHS. 2005. “General Findings from the Federal Child and Family Services Review.”)
Even former foster children are twice as likely to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) as Iraq war veterans, according to the 2005 Northwest Foster Care Alumni study.
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PRISON AND PREGNANCY
Crime also factors in.— 25% of emancipated youth were incarcerated within a two year period of leaving a foster care environment
40% of women reported having been pregnant at least one time in the 18-24 months since leaving foster care.
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Just a couple years ago…..
A statewide survey by the Florida Department of Children & Families released in 2007 found that a majority of 17-year-olds in its custody either believe they lack, or actually are lacking, the necessary skills and services needed to live on their own at 18.
Most of the youths surveyed said they had no bank account and no plan for developing skills beyond high school. Fewer than half, or 45 percent, were performing at or above their grade level. Nearly a third had been arrested at least once in the past year.
1.
Susie Minx | September 23, 2010 at 5:14 pm
Wow!
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Lori | October 22, 2010 at 4:08 pm
And the numbers keep getting worse….7 of us were pregnant, before we aged out, none of us got to keep the babies.
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Darlene Dreisch | December 27, 2010 at 8:26 pm
I am so sorry for what you’ve gone through, all of you who have been victimized by government and foster care injustices.
My husband and I would love to adopt a family of young adults who have aged out of the foster care system. I think there should a website for loving familes to adopt those who need one. Adults need families, too. Anyone can be adopted, it doesn’t matter what age you are.
And we expect nothing more than love in return!
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Mary | January 15, 2011 at 4:19 pm
And, according to the DOJ, 80% of the prison population has been in the foster care system. That’s atrocious.
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Danielle Gletow | January 16, 2011 at 9:31 pm
Hello-
I am a foster parent and the Founder of One Simple Wish – we grant simple wishes to foster kids and kids who have aged out. Please check us out – we’re happy to help as much as we can. And please spread the word.
http://www.onesimplewish.org
Thanks for being so open and honest about your experience.
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Foster care versus a Family… the reality. « I Was A Foster Kid | February 4, 2011 at 12:15 am
[...] Grim Statistics [...]
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Ebony Downing | February 5, 2011 at 12:15 am
It’s true and you are right. They tired to keep my baby. Told me I was too horrible to have a baby. I was not a criminal, had never been arrested. But I was a group home run away. They wanted to lock me up and throw away the key, and take my baby away. I ran, and ran. I married at 16, a week before the system could get me. My baby was safe. And through the hardest times I look at her and tell myself I fought this long, there is no way I’m giving up now. My kids won’t be a “statistic” of a “statistic”.
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Elia | February 27, 2011 at 1:19 pm
Great job!!!
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douglas wood | November 19, 2011 at 10:08 am
Dear Ebony i to was a foster child in foster homes all my life. I know the feeling of being a statistic. some how i got myself thru collage,and a life for myself and made my own family by having four kids the first at seventeen i let no one take my kids who are all raised now very sucsesfull in life. (You go girl good job)
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Dodgester | April 13, 2012 at 6:25 pm
I too was a foster child though starting at the age of 8 due to brutal beatings by my own mom. However, instead of the beatings going away when I went into the foster care system, the beatings got that much more worse. While my mom did it only 2 times (of course, that’s 2 too many times), I got it daily by the older bigger kids ganging up on me only for the school officials to tell me to ignore it or they didn’t want to hear it. To add insult to injury (literally), not only did I get punished by the school officials for attempting to defend myself from those other kids by fighting back, I was further punished by my guardians with my guardians siding with the school officials. I went to a total of 13 different schools (the 2 schools that did treat me with respect are not your regular public schools while all of the remaining 11 schools are your regular public schools that didn’t treat me with proper respect) and lived in a total of 8 different homes with 8 different moves (one of the moves was back to my mom, but that only lasted 6 months before it became permanent for me to be in the foster care system). Of those 8 different homes, only 2 of them did I feel any real sense of protection, which was at a residential home and a group home as they didn’t tolerate bullying or any similar type behavior. Even when I lived at the monastery for the last 5 years in the foster care system, I did not have a sense of protection as the bullying still took place, and the school officials purposefully attempted to hold me back academically including in Math all because of my LD that was primarily in Language. I was also treated like I couldn’t do anything because of the seizures I had to deal with. Both the seizures and the LD were caused by a high fever of 102F and right ear ache combined when I was just 10 months old.
When the CPS had templated on taking my kids away, I took my kids to my wife’s family in TN to look over them instead. For as long as I can help it, I will not allow them to take my kids into the foster care system as no child should be treated like they are the scum of the earth who can either be trampled on or be used for someone else’s benefit with them getting practically nothing for it. Yep, I was more or less trampled on by nearly everyone else and then when they found out within the first 2 weeks I was in computer literacy class in high school (Fall 1987), they then used me to do some of their work and I got nothing for it.
Since when should foster kids be treated in this sort of manner or even worse like what happened to Marcus Fiesel on February 21, 2007?
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imfoster | August 17, 2011 at 10:03 pm
Great article! If people want to have more productive members of society they need to know the hardships fosters are facing aging out of the system. These kids are put into the world often times with no one to guide them and expected to make it on their own.
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Sarah | September 22, 2011 at 8:28 pm
Hi, I am writing a paper on kids aging out of the foster system and your page here completely proves my point, but my teacher wants source to be listed in my paper, could you tell me where you got your statistics? Thanks!
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just a wad of gum « I Was A Foster Kid | February 13, 2012 at 1:02 am
[...] Statistics [...]
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g dubb | March 27, 2012 at 9:18 am
what do u think about kids in foster care
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from foster care to … where? « I Was A Foster Kid | April 20, 2012 at 1:12 am
[...] Statistics [...]
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Debbie Richert | April 27, 2012 at 8:45 pm
I am doing a power point for a college project and found your site very informative. I would like to use some of you statistics, if you don’t mind.