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Question of the Week
Q: I am a social worker helping a young person apply for Special Immigrant Juvenile Status (SIJS). Once she receives it and later becomes a U.S. citizen, she would like to sponsor her sister to immigrate to the U.S. Is that allowable under SIJS? For the answer, follow this LINK.
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State Provides Guidance on New Requirements Regarding Medi-Cal for Former Foster Youth
The California Department of Social Services has released All County Letter (ACL) 17-54 to provide guidance to counties on updates to the law that extended Medi-Cal benefits to former foster youth up to age 26.
Assembly Bill (AB) 1849 (Gipson), which became effective January 1, 2017, introduced new requirements. At a hearing to terminate dependency jurisdiction over a nonminor, the court must submit a report verifying that the eligible nonminor has been provided with his/her Medi-Cal Benefits Identification Card, written verification of enrollment in Medi-Cal, and continued an uninterrupted enrollment in Medi-Cal.
Counties are required, during the 90-day period prior to a youth exiting foster care, to provide the youth with information regarding health insurance options that include verification that the youth is enrolled in Medi-Cal and a description of the steps the youth’s social worker or probation officer is taking to ensure the youth is transitioned into the Medi-Cal program for former foster youth upon case closure with no interruption in coverage and no new application being required.
The ACL shares updates made to the JV-365 form related to termination of dependency jurisdiction for nonminors to ensure youth transitioning out of foster care are automatically being enrolled in benefits, as well as a sample form for complying with the new requirements established by AB 1849. To read the ACL, follow this LINK. To learn more about extended benefits to age 26, visit Children Now’s Covered ‘Til 26 website.
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7/27 Webinar: Results from a Pilot to Transform Housing Providers into College Success Programs
Most non-minor dependents and former foster youth living in transitional housing in California have a high school diploma, making college enrollment the next logical step in their education. Unfortunately, most foster youth are not making this critical transition from high school to college. Of youth in THP+FC who hold a high school diploma, as of March 31, 2017 just 41 percent are enrolled in or have completed college, and among youth in THP-Plus, the figure is 43 percent.
To increase rates of college enrollment and retention among current and former foster youth, John Burton Advocates for Youth has been working closely with a cohort of 28 transitional housing providers across the state to promote college enrollment and retention.
On Thursday, July 27th from 10:00 to 11:00 a.m. John Burton Advocates for Youth will host a web seminar, marking the release of a report sharing the preliminary results from the first year of the pilot.
Presenters will share what the programs were doing to support youth in college at the start of the pilot, along with their level of college enrollment; what college enrollment and retention practices the programs learned about and adopted; and lessons learned along the way, both in terms of practices that promote college retention, and policies that either encourage or discourage college enrollment. To register for the web seminar, follow this LINK. To download an invitation, follow this LINK.
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Kids Count Shows Child Poverty Persists Despite Increased Employment & Earnings
The Annie E. Casey Foundation has released its 2017 Kids Count Data Book, which includes information about a wide range of well-being indicators for children and their families
The report begins with a number of interesting observations, including the fact that since the end of the recession, both employment and wages have increased, yet child poverty has increased 3 percentage points, to 21 percent. According to the report, children are also continuing to struggle educationally, with a full 65 percent of fourth-grade students nationally reading below grade level.
One particularly bright spot identified in the report was the near-universal health care coverage for children, at 95 percent in 2015. Another positive development was a record-low number of teen births, down 63 percent from 60 to 22 births per 1,000 teenage girls.
In addition to national averages, the report also includes a state-by-state analysis of child well-being indicators, with New Hampshire listed as the state with the top spot in overall child well-being and Mississippi rating fiftieth. California’s overall rank was #37, rating higher in the area of health (#9) and lower in the area of economic well-being (#46).
In addition to the Kids Count Data Book, Annie E. Casey Foundation maintains a comprehensive data center that provides information by county, city, congressional district and zip code.
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High Rate of Foster Care Participation Among Inmates: an Alternative Fact
“Seventy percent of all California state prison inmates have spent time in the foster care system.” While it sounds compelling, is it true? According to the due diligence conducted by Children’s Data Network at the University of Southern California, it turns out to be an “alternative fact.”
In a recent blog post, Children’s Data Network looked into the claim and found that 28 percent of incarcerated individuals reported having been in foster care at some point in their lives, according to a report by California Senate Office of Research.
A more recent analysis by the Children’s Data Network linking child protective service records and records from the California Department of Justice found an even lower figure: just 9 percent of those arrested/booked had experienced placement in child-welfare-supervised out-of-home foster care.
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