California’s Raises the Age Limit to 21 for the Foster Care System
On October 10th, Governor Schwarzenegger signed a bill into law from the campus of Vista Del Mar Child and Family Services in Santa Monica, California that would allow children to stay in the foster care system until age 21. This will relieve California’s foster children of the burden of worrying about aging out of the system at age 18. The authors of the bill recognized that the recession has created many Boomerang Kids, the term giving to children who leave home but return to their parents’ support system. Foster children do not have a place to Boomerang back to so what happens to them?
The Governor quoted a study showing that for every dollar the state invests in foster care, two and a half dollars are saved. The cost of the extra three years will be funded by state and federal money. He also said that as he sees it as an investment, the kids would have to do their part by returning to school, work and/or meet regularly with their case workers in exchange for the financial and social support. What are your thoughts? Should the state pay for a child to be in foster care until 21? Leave a comment below.
