Davis Opening Statement at Markup of H.R. 7655, the “Support for Expectant & Parenting Foster Youth Act”

(As prepared for delivery)

Youth with foster care experience are at least four times more likely to become early parents than their peers.  According to the National Youth in Transition Database, 22 percent of young adults surveyed at age 21 who were in foster care at age 17 had welcomed a child in the prior two years.  In contrast, the latest KIDS COUNT Data Center reports that only 5 percent of young adults aged 18 to 24 are parents. 

These expectant and parenting foster youth face additional unique difficulties - such as restricted autonomy in parenting decisions and possible challenges to their right to legal and physical custody of a child. Further, the numerous hurdles all foster youth face as they transition to adulthood - including limited financial, housing, employment, and educational opportunities - are even more complicated for young parents. 

Mr. Yakym and I have the privilege of representing two states – Illinois and Indiana – that are national leaders in helping expectant and parenting foster youth address the unique challenges they face. I also want to recognize the efforts of researchers and advocates who have worked hard to understand the needs of and effective interventions to support these youth, including:  Mark Courtney and Amy Dworsky with Chapin Hall; Justin Harty at Arizona State University; the Teen Parenting Service Network at UCAN in Chicago; the Center for the Study of Social Policy; the Children’s Law Center of California; Youth Villages; and the Transition-Age Youth Research and Evaluation Hub at the University of California Berkeley. 

From their work, we know that specialized case management for expectant and parenting foster youth coupled with connections to key resources are especially important to helping these youth transition to their new role as young parents.  One resource supported by decades of research is home visiting. Home visiting is demonstrated to help prevent child abuse and neglect, strengthen positive parenting, improve maternal and child health, and promote child development and school readiness.  Home visiting programs provide pregnant women, new mothers, and families with young children with regular, planned visits from trained professionals who help them improve their healthy living and parenting skills, promote child development, and access needed resources and services. These services are vital for at-risk youth like young parents in foster care.

I proudly join with Representative Yakym to ensure that these young parents get what they need so they and their children can thrive. The Support for Expectant and Parenting Foster Youth Act would help expectant and parenting foster youth transition to adulthood by: requiring state Chafee programs to inform youth about the Maternal, Infant, and Early Childhood Home Visiting – or MIECHV –  program to better support expectant and parenting foster youth; and by encouraging states to provide tailored case management and resource coordination services to expectant and parenting foster youth.  In our next efforts to help foster youth, I hope that we can also provide more financial support to states and tribes trying to help expectant and parenting foster youth and their children flourish. 

Providing these vulnerable foster youth with access to home visiting is especially personal for me because I am honored to call bipartisan home visiting policies one of my proudest legacies of my 30-years in Congress. From my work with Senator Kit Bond and Representatives Tom Osbourne and Todd Platt to propose dedicated funding for home visiting in 2005 to my strong partnership with Representative Jackie Walorski to expand and enhance MIECHV in 2022, we always put partisanship aside to help children and families. I hope my colleagues will support this bill to ensure that expectant foster youth have access to home visiting today, and that when it comes time to reauthorize MIECHV next Congress, the Committee will once again take bipartisan action to ensure that families in need of home visiting get it, carrying Jackie’s and my work into the future. 

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