Child advocates hunt for ways to help older foster kids

Child welfare advocates on Friday renewed their commitment to foster children too old to have been adopted and too unprepared to make it on their own when they turn 18.

Gathered for the Transition to Adult Living Summit, child and family services supervisors, state employees and a few of the 75 teenagers who a year ago asked for more help preparing for life after foster care, summit participants celebrated recent advances and discussed possible improvement in the year to come.

Michelle Barnett, 17, a Clearfield High School student in foster care for three years who has her eye on college, stressed to the group that continuing medical care past foster care would be a big help. Doing so would mean she could keep her asthma in check, she said.

Barnett also hopes Utah lawmakers will vote next year to extend the Medicaid benefit for former foster care children to the age of 21. Coverage now ends at 19.

That change would require an additional $626,000 in state funds. That investment would allow the state to tap into federal Medicaid matching money, boosting total funds available to more than $2 million, said Robin Arnold-Williams, executive director of the state Department of Human Services.

Gaining access to medical care — including mental health treatment — is just one of the many obstacles foster care teenagers face once they turn 18 and find themselves cut loose from the system.

"Not only do you have to face life and all those responsibilities, but you've also gone through the trauma of abuse and neglect," said department spokeswoman Carol Sisco.

Utah joins much of the rest of the country in its quest to come up with ways to make that transition easier.

Here, the effort received a substantial boost a year go when Gov. Olene Walker agreed to the push for change.

"Not only did the governor say yes, but she moved so fast we had to scramble to keep up with her," Cisco said.

Barnett, who presented Walker with a gift Friday that recognized the governor's efforts, said she's already seen the results.

"Before, when kids got out of foster care, they had no place to go with nobody to help," she said. "The governor, plus the implementation team, have made it a lot easier."

The implementation team has focused on a variety of areas from job training and education to the young adults find affordable housing.

One such pilot project is already established in northern Utah, where former foster children can access low-cost housing once they leave care.

"It's tough because we get a lot of these kids at 14 or 15," Sisco said. "They are old enough they don't want to be adopted, yet they can't go back home. We need to give them options."

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