
CURRENT NEWS:
Youth who "age out" of foster care at 18 face higher rates of homelessness, unemployment and incarceration. Last fall, Congress passed legislation that allows states to tap into federal funds to keep youth in foster care up to age 21.
- Mark Courtney's research and testimony to Congress helped support passage of this legislation.
- Partners for Our Children and the Juvenile Law Center recently issued a joint report from a convening that explored how states can use this new law to smooth the transition of foster youth into adulthood.
- Newsweek called Mark Courtney's cost-benefit analysis of allowing youth to remain in care until age 21 "a radical shift in child-welfare policy." See more media coverage of Courtney's report, which was released by a bi-partisan group of Californian lawmakers seeking to expand that state's foster care system to age 21.
- Mark Courtney was keynote speaker and Adolescents Aging out of Foster Care was the subject at a conference held in April at the Center for Advanced Studies in Child Welfare at the University of Minnesota.
Our 2008-2009 agenda – developed in collaboration with our partners, the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services Children's Administration – focuses on these key initiatives:
- Recruitment and Retention of Foster Parents and Kinship Care Providers
- Evaluation of Washington's Solution-Based Casework Practice Model
- Family Reunification
- Improving Outcomes for Children & Families: The Division of Labor between Public and Private Sectors
- Placement Stability
CONTACT INFORMATION:
info@partnersforourchildren.org
Voice: 206.221.3100
Fax: 206.221.3155
PRESENTED BY:

Mark Courtney, Ph.D.