Aging Out Of Foster Care Research

This is an excellent design for a study on young adults aging out of foster care or juvenile justice system in Los Angeles County.

What is even more amazing is the authors of the study do not realize other significance of their findings.  They have provided us with a snapshot of the nation's economic crisis.

Youth who age out of the child welfare system are likely to live in poverty and rely upon public assistance.  Why?  Because the system is designed that way.

The way the child welfare system was designed was to not invest in human capitol, or for this instance, not invest in the best interests of the child to garner a future productive, tax paying citizen.

Encouraging a child welfare system which only allows denies access to necessary medical resources and public assistance upon entry into foster care of juvenile justice is part and parcel to the codification of poverty.  Poverty, or failure to provide for the necessary needs of the child, is child abuse and neglect and grounds for state intervention.

Once the child is removed from society, only the basic human needs are legally provided.  A child in this environment fails to thrive, causing the outcomes found in this report.  The youth becomes reliant upon the public welfare system, because this is what has been taught and this is all that is known. The youth is thrown onto the streets upon aging out at 18 or perhaps 21 to go back to the only family they know: public assistance.

Eventually, that young adult will reproduce, generating more product for the child welfare system and the cycle continues.

I wonder if anyone has taken the time and ask themselves why we, as a society, feel it is better to "make these lazy bums go out and find a job" than it is to just stop the cycle of child welfare?  This cycle has become a drain upon the nation's social and economic security.

We created this.  We can stop it.  All we have to do is help from the beginning and rebuild a compassionate infrastructure for our communities.  Until the corporate child welfare system is dismantled, the only thing which will change will be an increase in the number of children being put in foster care and juvenile justice.

Pay attention to the costs of drugging children.
Young Adult Outcomes of Youth Exiting Dependent or Delinquent Care in LA County Report