Davis Opening Statement at Hearing on Older Youth in Foster Care

(As prepared for delivery)

Mr. Chairman, thank you for holding this hearing so that our Subcommittee can hear from youth who have experienced foster care. Their voices must shape our work.

To start, I have to acknowledge the ongoing dysfunction in the Republican conference that continues to prevent the House from governing.  Last session’s chaos, infighting, and extreme proposals prevented all but a handful of laws from enactment. Today, we are just two days from a government shutdown, our fourth near-miss. This perpetual crisis promotion prevents us from addressing real problems like child poverty, the child care crisis, and helping older foster youth.

Older youth make up a very small share of the foster care population, but their experiences make up a disproportionate share of the foster care system’s shame.  They are more likely to experience multiple placements, live in institutions, suffer abuse within the system, and run away.  Each year, about 20,000 youth “age out” of foster care without a family or loving adult to guide and support them.  Youth who age out are less likely to finish school or go to college and more likely to become teen parents, live in poverty, endure food insecurity, and experience homelessness. These outcomes are appalling. We must do more to help them.

All of this happens even though many of these youth have loving family members or friends who want to welcome them into their families, or parents who just need a little extra help to get back on track.  When we enacted the Family First Prevention Services Act in 2018, older youth fought by our side for prevention services to help families address challenges and avoid foster care. As we implement that landmark law, my North Star for action remains listening to these youths’ voices as they continue to challenge us to help connect them to their families while making them and their families stronger.

Foster youth have told me that they need connections with loving adults and to stay in touch with their families, especially their siblings.  They need the basic building blocks of independence that all teens need – an education, a driver’s license, a safe place to live, a plan for the future, and the array of supports that parents provide to their young-adult children, supports that don’t just stop because they turn 18 or 21.  These youth need us to never ever give up on making sure they are part of a family that loves them unconditionally.

I am deeply proud to have helped shape some landmark laws to address key challenges in child welfare, including providing guardianship opportunities in 2008, helping families avoid foster care altogether in 2018, and helping older foster youth avoid homelessness during the pandemic. Today, I look forward to hearing from our expert panel and my colleagues about ways to address ongoing challenges.

Despite the internal challenges facing this Congress, I believe we can make real progress to help older foster youth.  I look forward to working with my colleagues to move forward.