Youth Leaving Care: How Do They Fare?

In September 2005, the Toronto-based Task Force on Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults (MISWAA) examined Canada's income security system and presented proposals to improve the economic security of low-income, working-age adults. Former youth in care, with their poor outcomes and limited prospects for self-sufficiency as they progress through adulthood, are a small but important part of this population. In Canada, provincial and territorial governments have the jurisdictional responsibility for child welfare. In all provinces and territories, this responsibility ends when the youth reaches the age of majority, generally eighteen. Youth in care may receive extended services past age eighteen, subject to certain requirements. This article examines recent Canadian, American, and international research on what happens to youth who age out of the child welfare system. The findings show a consistently disturbing pattern of poor outcomes for youth leaving foster care. The article describes what governments should do to promote more successful transition and to improve the outcomes for youth as they leave the child welfare system for independent living. (Contains 1 table and 17 notes.) [This document is a summary of a 2005 briefing paper prepared for the Toronto-based Task Force on Modernizing Income Security for Working Age Adults. Funding was provided by the Laidlaw Foundation.]