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Push to extend foster care from age 18 to 21 could keep more young adults with services they need
Foster care ends abruptly when a youth turns 18.
Once young people in state care hit that age, they re legally free of the system and many foster youth are more than eager to depart.
Naketa Ross was one of them when she left her foster placement in Chicago 23 years ago. It was a big mistake.
“I was homeless for a while and then I begged the state to take me back on, Ross said, after enduring bed bugs and a stay in a women s shelter. “I didn’t have the skill set to transition into adulthood.”
Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this article gave an incorrect first name for group home Director Jenna Bowman. It also misstated the fee that plaintiffs attorneys may be paid for monitoring compliance with the settlement terms in the case.
A six-year drive to reform the state s foster-care system could end Friday, when a federal judge will consider final approval of a class-action settlement.
The settlement, reached in negotiations between the Arizona Department of Child Safety and child-welfare advocates, outlines four major areas of improvement. Attorneys for both sides say they expect the settlement, which got preliminary approval in October, will get a final OK from U.S. District Court Judge Roslyn Silver.