Youth with disabilities who experience foster care (YDFC) often experience poor long-term adult outcomes. However, when educators help them access appropriate services and supports YDFC can reach their maximum potential. This chapter describes a youth-centered approach to transition planning for this vulnerable population and highlights essential elements to consider during the process such as disability, mental health, trauma, resilience, self-determination, culture, and how trauma impacts mental health. The chapter concludes with an example of creating a youth-centered plan, possible tools to use, and additional resources.
TopBackground
Child-welfare systems around the world vary widely in their structures, approaches, and the services available during and while transitioning out of care (Häggman-Laitila, Salokekkilä, & Karki, 2018). Unfortunately, a thorough discussion that includes youth in residential care is beyond the scope of this chapter. Residential settings differ considerably and can range from small group homes to large facilities (e.g., orphanages or institutions); where and how youth receive services and education in these settings and best practices related to residential services are dependent on the specific setting (Petrowski, Cappa & Gross, 2017). However, many of the recommendations provided can be utilized by people working in residential settings.
For the purpose of this chapter, foster care is defined as a situation “where children are placed by a competent authority for the purpose of alternative care in the domestic environment of a family other than the children’s own family that has been selected, qualified, approved and supervised for providing such care” [United Nations General Assembly, 2009, para 29 (c) (ii)]. Therefore, the discussion and recommendations extend to kinship care (formal care arrangements that are sanctioned, monitored and supported by the statutory organs, with children cared for by friends, relatives or kin) (Delap & Melville, 2011). For brevity, in this chapter, the term foster care will be used to encompass all out of home placements.
Regrettably, there is insufficient data available to estimate the number of children in foster care globally. However, Petrowski, et al., (2017) examined available data from 142 countries which covered more than eighty percent of the children in the world. Their study estimated that about 2.7 million children (0-17) are in residential care. They had considerable difficulty locating reliable data on the number of children in foster care. However, based on data available they estimate that there are around 788,000 children in Central and Eastern Europe and the Commonwealth of Independent States combined, and 799,000 children in low- and middle-income countries, plus the 39 mostly high-income countries (often classified as industrialized countries) living in foster care. The researchers caution that these numbers are likely underestimated and few countries had sufficient data to disaggregate by sex and disability status.