Housing Status

• In Los Angeles county, 50% of emancipated youth will be homeless within six months.
• Nationally, 27% of the homeless population spent time in foster care.
• A history of foster care correlates with becoming homeless at an earlier age and remaining homeless for a longer period of time.
• 65% of youth leaving foster care need immediate housing upon release.
• California has more than 80,000 youths in foster care with about 4,000 turning 18 each year.

Education Status

• 46% of former foster youth complete high school (compared to 84% of the general population.)
• 70% of teens who emancipate from foster care report that they want to attend college, but less than 50% complete their high school graduation and fewer than 10% of who graduate from high school enroll in college, and of those less than 1% graduate from college.
• Nearly 75% of former foster youth applying for federally funded foster youth grants in California had an unmet financial aid need of more than $45,000.
• Less 25% of eligible former foster youth receive a Cal-Grant award.

Employment

• Emancipated foster youth earn significantly less than youth in the general population, additionally due to their specific circumstances current and former foster youth progress more slowly into the labor market.
• 50% of emancipated foster youth experience high rates of unemployment within 5 years of emancipation.
• 1/3 of former foster youth have incomes at, or below, $6,000 per year, which is substantially below the federal poverty level of $7,890 for a single individual.

Parenting Status

• Forty-two percent (42%) of foster youth, including 60% of women, become parents within 2.5-4 years after exiting care.
• Parents with a history of foster care are almost twice as likely to see their own children placed in foster care or become homeless than parents without this history.
• Females in foster care are six times more likely than the general population to give birth before age 21.

Health

• Former foster youth are found to suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) at 2 times the level of U.S. war veterans.
• 33% of all foster care alumni have no form of health insurance.
• Youth transitioning from foster care have disproportionately high rates of physical, developmental and mental health problems.
• Nearly 50% of foster children suffer from chronic health conditions such as asthma, visual and auditory problems, dental decay and malnutrition.

Incarceration

• 25% of former foster youth will be incarcerated within the first 2 years of emancipation.