Many people have asked about my preschooler’s new fascination with college. He introduces himself: “Hi, I’m not in college.” He introduces his little brother: “He’s one year old and he’s not in college.” And for the past few months he has been enamored with writing in notebooks: “I’m doing homework, and it’s for college.” While we’ve reserved taking him on the college tour circuit, until at least elementary school, it seems the culprit behind his newfound obsession is my sixteen-year-old niece, who spent the summer with us while participating in a pre-college science program at New York University.

And though she seemed to spend as much time answering one million questions from our four-year-old, as she did completing her many daily assignments, I have to admit that he wasn’t the only one completely enraptured with her. Every morning we were all amazed at her expert curling iron skills. In the afternoons we sat in awe, as she’d tell us the stories of her never-ending Facebook friends. Our evenings were spent dancing to her MTV favorites. It was a “coolly” refreshing few months in our otherwise child-centered existence. And though my years of enjoying teenage sons will be here soon enough, it made me stop to think about what it would mean to share my life with a teen for longer than one summer. Because of the critical need to help unfortunate children, foster care and adoption are ongoing topics of discussion in our family. But I’ve always imagined that any new addition would be someone in the range of requiring a booster seat to get around. It didn’t strike me until this summer that a MetroCard-carrying teenager might be the person to fill that void.

According to the Administration for Children’s Services (ACS) there are 15,492 children in foster care in New York City. The modern foster care system was designed to improve the lives of young children in poor living circumstances who need temporary or permanent homes. Unfortunately, this system does not adequately address the special needs of the more than 30% of adolescents and teenagers that are in the system. As a result, adolescents and teenagers have largely ended up in group homes or institutional settings with fewer opportunities to receive individualized attention, build trusting relationships with caregivers, and develop lasting friendships.

While few will argue against the idea that a stable home environment is optimal for most children, the bureaucratic and emotional challenges facing families raising teenagers in foster care can be daunting. According to a 2002 report from the Center for New York City Affairs, Child Welfare Watch, families that fostered teens cited a lack of adequate support from agencies regarding age-appropriate training that addresses the developmental needs of teenagers, the desire for more flexible spending budgets to address the needs of teens and their extracurricular interests, and the need for a system that would allow teens more opportunities to participate in the decisions involving their future. In addition, many of the teens in foster care will go through the “tumultuous stage” experienced by most adolescents. However, they may also present with additional emotional difficulties from a history of neglect, abuse or trauma—creating special challenges to family caregivers.

According to the New York State Office of Child and Family Services, the goal for most children in foster care is to return to their homes or to a family member once the issues that initially brought them to foster care have been resolved. Foster parents are supposed to work with birth parents to assist in that process. For many other children, the goal is to be adopted into a new family. However, a significant portion of children who enter foster care at a young age remained there as teens because neither of those goals are met. Recently, several states have faced scrutiny for their “aging-out” policy—where teens are released from the foster care system at the age of 18 to cope. There is some debate over whether 18 is too young for this transition, and whether or not teens are given adequate resources to deal with life on their own—including finding affordable housing, learning how to shop and cook independently and deciding on whether to enter college or seek employment.

In New York City, teens are allowed to remain in the system until the age of 21. New York City Public Advocate Bill de Blasio and many others have recently argued that even after 21 years old, young adults should be tracked by the government to determine if they are using services that will help them thrive as adults (obtain a driver’s license, have health care, obtain housing, identify adult resources, etc.)¹.

Stories of the inadequacies of the foster care system in New York City and across the United States are abundant. Dealing with the underlying issues of poverty, mental health and ethnic disparities that create the need for the foster care system will not easily be resolved. Widespread budget cuts to social service agencies don’t leave much room for vast improvements in the near future. However, the potential to change a few lives for the better has made the challenge of taking in teens worthwhile for some foster families. The many ACS success stories of teens and adolescents who were initially judged to be too old to assimilate, but were given a chance to demonstrate otherwise, have begun to reshape the mindset of foster care placement agencies and interested families. Success stories have included improvements in grades, increased civic awareness and greater self-esteem. Most importantly, they have included the development of lifelong nurturing relationships that not only enrich the lives of teens but the lives of foster families as well.

Reference:
1. http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/15/nyregion/15foster