Davis Opening Statement at Worker and Family Support Subcommittee Hearing on Foster Youth
(As prepared for delivery)
Foster care should be a last resort. When foster care is necessary, we have a legal and moral obligation to act “in the best interests of the child”. The best interest of children and youth is not limited to onlyfood on the table, a warm place to sleep, or a path to employment. The best interest of children and youth must include the love and support of a family and quality opportunities for success, just as we give our own children.
Our Subcommittee has made real, bipartisan progress on improving federal policy to help older youth. I am grateful to the older youth who experienced foster care who have shared their wisdom and hard truths to make our policies better. Foster youth advocacy was critical in enacting the Family First Prevention Services Act that created guaranteed federal funding to prevent youth from entering care. It was foster youth advocacy during the Pandemic that helped secure mental health and parenting prevention services, an enhanced Earned Income Tax Credit for foster and homeless youth, and $400 million dollars for foster youth to help make ends meet, stay housed, and remain in school. Unfortunately, we still have a long way to go.
Too often, we still fail the children in our care, especially those who are older. Despite some improvements, older foster youth are still more likely to drop out of school, become teen parents, experience incarceration, and suffer homelessness. Many states place older youth in institutions instead of with kin or foster families, and too many run away from their foster care placements due to lack of support. Nearly 20,000 youth each year “age out” of care without reunification or connection with a forever family. The Trump Administration has made our work to help foster youth harder by closing half of the regional offices of the Department of Health and Human Services that monitor and support state child welfare, seemingly without any plan for how to continue that work.
Congress established the Chafee Independence program to serve older youth. Regrettably, federal Chafee funding serves less than half of eligible youth and limited funds constrain states’ ability to provide key elements to independence – like housing and a driver’s license. Only about three to four percent of foster youth obtain a 4-year degree, and only about one-third of this small number get federal education vouchers. Further, most vouchers are woefully small. My home state of Illinois adds a subsidy of $2,500 to each federal voucher and has increased the number of state scholarships to try to fill the gap.
Foster youth often carry the weight of trauma and instability, and new scientific research shows that the brain growth of adolescence offers a powerful chance to heal. Federal policy should ensure that foster youth receive the essential supports that promote healing, including mental health resources, meaningful relationships, and community.
I am deeply thankful to the youth who bravely share their experiences - including today’s witnesses and the youth here for Foster Youth Shadow Day. I am committed to listening and pushing for federal policies that truly reflect what they need to thrive.
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