Chapin Hall

The Issue

About 20,000 young people age out of foster care each year. Extended foster care provides these young people with additional opportunities to prepare for their transition to adulthood. Central to extended foster care are Independent Living Programs (ILPs) and Supervised Independent Living Placements (SILPs). ILPs provide services and resources that help young people develop critical life skills, pursue academic and career goals, and build connections with supportive adults.  SILPs allow young people to experience living on their own while still receiving supervision and support from their caseworkers. This policy brief examines the critical roles that ILPs and SILPs can play in supporting young people in extended foster care.

The Evidence

• Compared to their peers, young people who age out of foster care are less likely to enroll in or graduate from college, less likely to be employed or earn a living wage, more likely to experience homelessness or housing instability, more likely to become involved with the criminal/legal system, and more likely to be financially insecure. Despite these challenges, young people who age out of foster care often demonstrate remarkable resilience and many achieve positive outcomes.
• Young people who remain in foster care beyond age 18 are more likely to receive independent living services and more likely to experience positive outcomes related to education and employment and decreased likelihood of negative outcomes related to homelessness and criminal legal system
• The evidence base for ILPs is limited, and little is known about the relationship between different SILP options and young people’s outcomes.

The Way Forward

The authors offer several policy and practice recommendations to improve the implementation of ILPs and SILPs.

Not every young person in extended foster care is ready to live independently. However, flexibility in SILP eligibility requirements would allow more young people in extended foster care to experience living on their own before aging out.

Young people in extended foster care often need services that are outside the purview of child welfare agencies, Cross-system collaboration would help young people in extended foster care access these services.

Professionals who work with young people in extended foster care to understand trauma, responses to trauma, and trauma’s developmental impacts and use trauma-informed practices to help young people build relationships with caring adults who will support them during their transition to adulthood.

Continuous quality improvement and evaluation are critical to ensuring that ILPs and SILPs are effectively preparing young people in extended foster care for successful transition to adulthood and making changes to program design or service delivery if they are not.

Because young people who identify as Black or LGBTQ+ are over-represented in extended foster, professionals who work with young people in extended foster care should reflect the diversity of that population and receive cultural competency training on inclusive practices for supporting those young people during their transition to adulthood.

Read the brief