Experts Talk Developing a Model for Extended Foster Care and Re-Entry Policies

The Jim Casey Youth Oppor­tu­ni­ties Ini­tia­tive​’s webi­nar, Mod­el Exten­sion of Care and Re-Entry Poli­cies — Cre­at­ing a Legal Struc­ture that Pro­motes Engage­ment, explores key com­po­nents of a youth-engag­ing extend­ed fos­ter care sys­tem. More than half the states have extend­ed fos­ter care beyond age 18, but many are strug­gling to build a sys­tem that engages youth and serves them well. This ses­sion explores mod­el pro­grams and poli­cies in var­i­ous states as well as reform plans.

The webi­nar is the final in a six-part series titled, Lever­ag­ing the Strength­en­ing Fam­i­lies Act. The Pre­vent­ing Sex Traf­fick­ing and Strength­en­ing Fam­i­lies Act (SFA) con­tains pro­vi­sions to help increase the num­ber of youth placed in per­ma­nent fam­i­lies and con­nect­ed with car­ing adults as they tran­si­tion to adulthood.

Pre­sen­ters for this webi­nar included:

• Sarah Helvey, direc­tor, child wel­fare pro­gram, Nebras­ka Appleseed
• Jen­ny Pokemp­n­er, direc­tor, child wel­fare pol­i­cy, Juve­nile Law Center
• Jen­nifer Rodriguez, exec­u­tive direc­tor, Youth Law Center
• Ang­ie Schwartz, pol­i­cy direc­tor, Alliance for Children’s Rights

Pre­vi­ous webi­na­rs in this series:

• Cre­at­ing Effec­tive Nor­mal­cy Policies
• Effec­tive Court Over­sight to Sup­port and Enforce Nor­mal­cy and Youth Engagement
• Keep­ing Sys­tems Account­able in the Imple­men­ta­tion of the SFA
• Max­i­miz­ing Youth Engage­ment in Court Reviews and Case Planning
• Improv­ing Per­ma­nen­cy Out­comes for Old­er Youth