Nelson is a character in a new video, Beyond the System, which portrays the typical experiences of many of the 100,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 21 in foster care in the United States. (Beyond the System also tells the true and inspiring story of a young woman in foster care who took control of planning for her future as a graphic designer.)

First as lawyers assigned by the family court to represent foster children, and now as creators of a program to teach foster care teens to advocate for themselves, we have met hundreds of teens like Nelson throughout the foster care system who have ambitious aspirations. They want a future that will allow them to become graphic designers, nurses, computer network engineers, etc. They want to live in safe neighborhoods, and to send their own kids to good schools. They want to be members of a community. They want to be participating citizens and they have the potential to do so.

Yet research from around the country shows that high percentages of young people leave foster care without high school degrees, jobs, or a place to live, and many become homeless, dependent on welfare, or end up in prison. "No one at the (foster care) agency knew about our career goals or what we wanted to do when we were older." In a new report, The Future For Teens In Foster Care, we document the problems teens and professionals identify in the foster care system related to teens�from a lack of support for education, to a failure to connect teens with permanent families, to the emphasis on day to day "behavior management" over teaching teens to take on responsibility, to segregation from the larger community. The overarching problem is that there is no focus on helping teens develop plans for after foster care, and skills and resources to implement those plans.

To reverse the failure of the foster care system for teens, change must occur at three levels.

First, there needs to be a new philosophy for teens in foster care�that they can become participating citizens, not merely "self-sufficient." Policy makers and professionals must raise their expectations for teens in care, and treat them as if they will have a fulfilling and productive future.

Second, before being discharged from foster care, every teen should be helped to develop a concrete plan for his or her path toward career, education, and personal goals, based on that teen's individual aspirations. The plan should be specific up through the age of 25 (we have developed a model "Y25 Future Plan" in our own work), and should be supported by the adults working with the teen.

The plan should be based on information gathered by the teen through research and informational interviews. The video Beyond the System shows Sashine, a young woman in foster care preparing for and going on an informational interview with a professor, in order to learn about the education she needs to achieve her goals. Informational interviews are part of a process of building a network of supporters outside the foster care system.

Teens need training and support to create, research, and implement these plans. This must be given in an environment of high expectations for success. We have found that self-advocacy education is one way to guide teens through the process. Teens automatically begin to take on more responsibility for their future and for their present situations when they begin to develop plans for the future, based on their own interests and goals.

Finally, foster care agencies and states need to be held accountable for results for teens leaving foster care. We cannot continue to allow young people to be held in the custody of foster care for years, only to be released with little education, skills, or resources.

Teens in foster care want and deserve to have future. We can help them get there.