Findings from this study indicate that young adults who have aged out of the child welfare system are faring poorly as a group compared with their peers. The study also suggests that there are potential benefits of allowing foster youth to remain in care past age 18.

The Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Former Foster Youth (Midwest Study) is a prospective study following a sample of young people in Iowa, Wisconsin, and Illinois as they make the transition from foster care to early adulthood. It provides a comprehensive picture of how foster youth are faring during this transition since the Foster Care Independence Act of 1999 became law.

The Midwest Study examines the experiences of these young people across a variety of domains, including living arrangements, relationships with family of origin, social support, receipt of independent living services, education, employment, economic well-being, receipt of government benefits, physical and mental health, health and mental health care service utilization, sexual behaviors, pregnancy, marriage and cohabitation, parenting, and criminal justice system involvement. Because many of the questions they were asked had also been used in the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, it is possible to make comparisons between this sample of young adults who “aged out” of foster care and a nationally representative sample of their peers in the general population. Data from the Midwest Study indicate that young adults who have aged out of the child welfare system are faring poorly as a group compared with their peers. Foster youth in Iowa and Wisconsin are generally discharged from care at age 18, or age 19 at the latest. By contrast, foster youth in Illinois can remain in care until they are 21. Thus, the Midwest Study presents a unique opportunity to compare the outcomes of young people who aged out of care in states with different policies.

Conditions of Youth Preparing to Leave State Care provides information about the 732 foster youth in the Midwest Study at the time of the baseline interview, when they were 17 or 18 years old. These foster youth had entered care prior to their 16th birthday due to abuse and/or neglect and nearly all were still state wards. Outcomes at Age 19 is based on survey data collected from the 603 study participants who were re-interviewed at age 19. The report compares the outcomes of the 282 young adults who were still in foster care to the outcomes of the 321 who had already been discharged. Outcomes at Age 21 is based on survey data collected from the 591 study participants who were interviewed when they were 21 years old.

The Midwest Study is a collaborative effort among Chapin Hall; Partners for Our Children at the University of Washington, Seattle; the University of Wisconsin Survey Center; and the public child welfare agencies in Illinois, Iowa, and Wisconsin.