In 2011, the Jim Casey Youth Opportunities Initiative launched Success Beyond 18, a campaign to raise the age of foster care to 21 nationwide while making the foster care system better and more supportive of adolescents and emerging adults. The campaign began with the publication of a summary of new research on the remarkable period of brain development that occurs during adolescence and young adulthood, and the opportunity of that developmental period to help young people who have been in foster care grow through new experiences and heal from past adversity. The new research showed that adolescents still have a lot of growing to do during late puberty and beyond, and that child welfare systems may be sending them out on their own too early and without necessary resources, relationships and opportunities to thrive.

Twenty-four states and the District of Columbia now have approved plans to provide foster care for young people beyond the age of 18, adding years of potentially vital support during this time of development. But in too many cases, adding years to eligibility for foster care is not leading to a permanent, rock-solid connection with a caring adult, a connection that is critical to lasting well-being. With or without the extension of foster care, child welfare systems have a tremendous but unrealized opportunity to improve their practices by embracing the power of adolescent brain development to promote better outcomes in every facet of a young person’s life. Most importantly, child welfare service providers must focus on securing permanent families for more young people — even for older youth who are on the brink of adulthood — by understanding and responding to the many layers of each young person’s arc of development and emerging identity, from race and ethnicity to economic class to sexual orientation and gender identity. For those young people who leave foster care without legal permanence, child welfare professionals should at least facilitate the relational permanence of durable family-like connections to increase their well-being.

Click here to read the full (attached) report published July 2017 Road to Adulthood. Aligning Child Welfare Practices with Adolescent Brain Development