CFK reports from: Vulnerable Youth and the Transition to Adulthood
Event: A panel discussion
Organized by: Chapin Hall Center for Children and the Urban Institute
Where/When: Urban Institute, Washington DC, Thursday, February 9, 2006

Report by: Susan Phillips

In the second of a new series of panel discussions on positive youth development models, five panelists discussed the issues facing certain populations of young people as they make the transition to independent living as adults. The discussion focused particularly on young people aging out of foster care; those emerging from the juvenile justice system; young people with disabilities; and young people who are disconnected from both school and work.

Harry Holtzer, a professor of public policy at Georgetown University, said that his research finds that labor force participation among African American men is declining, and that even during the strong labor market of the 1990s, African American men continued to leave the labor force. While factors such as the changing needs of the labor market, racial discrimination in hiring, the growth in the percentage of single-parent families, and the increasing isolation of some poor minority neighborhoods are partly to blame, said Holtzer, they don't account for the size or persistence of the problem.

Holtzer suggested two other factors are at work. First, even though crime was declining in the 1990s, mandatory sentencing laws sent many more young black men to jail. When they emerged with criminal records, they faced new barriers to employment. Second, said Holtzer, the focus on child support enforcement efforts may have had an unintended consequence of making work less attractive to young men who were also disconnected fathers.

Pamela Loprest, a senior research associate with the Urban Institute, said young people with disabilities are often forgotten in policy discussions concerning "disconnected youth," but that over 9 million young people fall into this group. She said a particularly difficult issue for these young people has been maintaining health insurance while transitioning from childhood to adulthood. Children who receive benefits through Social Security because of disability must undergo a review at age 18, and about one-third lose their Social Security benefits as a result.

Loprest said this group of young people is also less likely to participate in any kind of program to prepare them for the workforce than others, with only 20 percent reporting that they received any such training.

Mark Courtney, director of the Chapin Hall Center for Children, spoke about the problems facing children who age out of foster care, most of them at age 18 (those in a few states and the District of Columbia can remain in "the system" until age 21). He noted that in Illinois, one of the states that allows a longer stay, 72 percent of 19-year-olds opted to remain in care, using the extra time to pursue education, job training, and the skills they need to live independently. Those who remained in care also were much more likely to be receiving needed treatment for diagnosed mental illnesses, and much less likely to be incarcerated.

"It all calls into question the idea that these young people are ready to be on their own at 18," remarked Courtney.

Cassie Bevan, a senior policy advisor to Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, said that the policy response to vulnerable 18-to-21-year-olds is "half-hearted, half-assed and inadequate," with 2 million young people with few resources attempting to negotiate a patchwork system offering a dizzying array of programs with different eligibility requirements and different goals. She said the primary policy goal should be the creation of a "seamless system" of services, and that one way to achieve it would be to give states more flexibility through federal block grants—an idea that, Bevan acknowledged, is generally regarded by advocates as a back-door way to cut funding rather than a reform.

Alvin C. Collins, chief of staff for the Anne Arundel county executive in Maryland, said that at the county level, individuals trying to better serve disconnected youth are looking for more information, better research into what works, and ways to integrate different programs and funding streams so that entire families can be served easily in their communities. "Integration of resources, flexibility of resources—that's a common thread," said Collins. He said more attention must be paid to young men before they enter the criminal justice system.

Chapin Hall and the Urban Institute are co-sponsoring these monthly panel discussions under the title "Thursday's Child."