In order to encourage children in foster care to finish high school, a new program in south central Kentucky is allowing teenagers to remain in foster care while they complete high school.
The program, called Fostering Futures, was instituted by Court Appointed Special Advocates of South Central Kentucky. It serves six Kentucky counties, and focuses on 16- and 17-year-olds in foster care, encouraging them to remain in the system through high school. It also works to inform the teenagers on their post-high school options, including higher education.
According to Will Constable, the executive director for Court Appointed Special Advocates, it is very difficult to keep teenagers in foster care past the age of 18, because they want to rejoin their families or branch out on their own.
“They’re reaching the point that they think they should have the privilege of making their own decisions and want to exercise that freedom,” Constable told the Associated Press. “But they’re not always as well-equipped to be independent.”
And the consequences of premature independence can be startling. The National Alliance to End Homelessness reported that a quarter of foster children experience homelessness within two to four years of leaving foster care.
To showcase the success of the program, Constable told the AP of six teenagers who stayed in foster care and eventually studied at Western Kentucky University and the Kentucky Community and Technical College system.
Similar programs exist around the country, including at 16 Court Appointed Special Advocates branches in urban areas of the United States.
