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Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Bills aid foster children after 18

Richard Roesler Staff writer

OLYMPIA – For far too long, state lawmakers said Tuesday, an 18th birthday for many children in foster care has brought with it a perverse gift: loss of health care, housing and nearly all other support.

“These are the kids that we are responsible for bringing up. I’m afraid we’re doing a miserable job,” said Rep. Jaime Pedersen, D-Seattle. “When they turn 18, we wash our hands of them.”

The result, he and other lawmakers said, is all too predictable: homelessness, despair, and a very shaky launch into adult life.

On Tuesday, the state House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved half a dozen bills intended to shore up that transition, and help fix other problems identified by a two-year study of the state’s troubled foster-care system. Among other things, the bills would provide housing vouchers and advice, health coverage until age 21, require more complete information on foster children’s background for courts, and try to find ways to stabilize education for foster kids.

Many lawmakers said that as parents of adult children, they cannot imagine cutting their kids off from financial and emotional support at 18.

Rep. Mary Helen Roberts, D-Edmonds, said she still occasionally fields calls from her sick daughter, now grown.

“I can’t imagine at 18, having said to her: ‘By the way, when you feel sick, you’re on your own, don’t call me,’ ” Roberts said.

To be fair, many foster parents go far beyond what the state will pay for, establishing long-lasting bonds with children they raised.

But children, who don’t have that support lifeline, need help, said Rep. Eric Pettigrew, D-Seattle. He recalled visiting a foster girl who, upon turning 18, expected to be handed a garbage bag for her clothes and wished good luck.

“It is those kids that we have a responsibility for,” he said. “Those kids that don’t have any other place to go.”

Among the bills passed Tuesday:

“HB 1922: Would provide housing vouchers and case management services for 300 to 400 youths who annually “age out” of foster care, helping them into safe housing.

“HB 1201: Extends Medicaid health coverage to foster children until age 21. Otherwise, Roberts said, foster kids who are seriously sick or injured are likely to end up as uninsured patients at hospital emergency rooms.

“This really ends up being penny-wise and pound-foolish,” she said.

“HB 1333: Would help ensure that parents ordered by a court to get help actually get it, would help get services for all caregivers before returning a child home and would require background checks on all adults in such a home.

“HB 1334: Details the documentation that social workers must provide to a court when they recommend that a child be returned home.

“One of the things we found was that the courts were not getting all the pertinent information,” said Rep. Bill Hinkle, R-Cle Elum.

“HB 1287: Requires that foster parents and caregivers seeking to adopt a child be notified that they have a right to be heard in court when a judge is making decisions about the child. Rep. Ruth Kagi, D-Lake Forest Park, said one of her constituents had cared for a child for three and a half years, only to be denied the right to speak when a judge was deciding where to send the child.

“HB 1716: Sets up a grant program “to implement school enrollment stabilization strategies” for foster kids. Roberts said that only about one-third of foster children graduate from high school on time.

And each move to a new school district, she said, is about a four-month setback in learning.