Teens aging out of foster care raises concerns

CHARLESTON, W.Va. (WSAZ) -- The West Virginia Legislature’s point person on foster care called for lawmakers to audit state spending on programs that help 18-year-old foster children transition into adulthood.

“We need to know what’s effective,” said senior advisor Jeremiah Samples. “What is the outcome? Is it having an outcome? Or does it make us feel good that we are allocating the money to it.”

Samples spoke of more than 15,000 West Virginians who entered foster care after age 14, saying many aged out of the system and into adulthood carrying with them trauma to a new generation.

“From a probability perspective, the cards are stacked against them,” he said Monday before the Legislature’s Joint Committee on Children and Families.

“We’re perpetuating the problem,” he said. “Except, instead of it just being cyclical, it’s like an avalanche -- it’s snowball rolling down the mountain and it picks up steam.”

Samples, a former leader within the state’s Department of Health and Human Resources, told lawmakers those in foster care can exit the system at age 18. That’s unless they choose to receive extended services.

However, Samples said many lack trust and want nothing to do with the government, increasing the likelihood of isolation, homelessness, arrest and drug abuse.

It’s not an issue of bad policy, Samples told lawmakers. He said West Virginia has good policies, ones that are in line with other states. However, the issue in his opinion is implementation.

“We need to know what’s effective,” he said. “What is the outcome? Is it having an outcome? Or does it make us feel good that we are allocating the money to it.”

Sen. Amy Grady mentioned a mentor program as one possible solution. Afterward, she told WSAZ knowing those outcomes is important.

“We’re dealing with human beings and people, and kids who have been in the system that we’ve been taking care of,” she said. “We’re responsible for them. Not only until they’re 18, but to make sure they’re productive members of society.”

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