The Resource Center for Family-Focused Practice

Center for Human Services

UC Davis Extension

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Our Goals• Transitions happen in

the context of development

• Impacted by experience in foster care and trauma

• Our practice and professional identities will grow

• Youth will transition to become successful, connected adults

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Who’s Eligible?

• Age

• Order for Foster Care Placement

• Participation

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Age

• Had an order for placement on their 18th birthday

• Was still in placement or re-entered as of 1/1/12

• Transition jurisdiction can start at age 17.5 (for youth who have completed their rehabilitative goals and meet other conditions)

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High School Completion Rule• Not applicable to

youth participating in extended foster care

• Not applicable for youth in group homes (with some caveats)

• Still exists for Kin-GAP youth who entered prior to age 16 and non-related guardianships established in probate court

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Residence

• Resides in California

OR

• Under jurisdiction of California delinquency court

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Federal Eligibility

• Federal eligibility is based on the determination made when the youth originally entered care.

• No redetermination is made if the youth moves directly into extended care with no break in service.

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CRITICAL

• DPO must complete the Six Month Certification of Extended Foster Care Participation (SOC 161) and submit to the eligibility worker

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What if…• There is no placement

order?– No eligibility for extended

foster care– But can receive services

by maintaining jurisdiction

– Reconsider: placing with relatives under “return to parent” order

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Transition Jurisdiction• The youth has achieved rehabilitative

goals• The youth cannot be returned safely

to the parental home• It is in the youth’s best interest to

remain in EFC • The youth is 17.5 years old & has

permanent plan as the case plan goal• The youth is age 18 and over and in a

foster care placement as a delinquent

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Participation• Is voluntary• Youth must participate in one of 5 eligibility

conditions• Youth must sign mutual agreement within 6

months of turning 18 (not a condition of payment)• Youth remain under jurisdiction of court• Youth remain in licensed or approved supervised

placement

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BUT

• Extended Foster Care is Opt OUT

• If no action is taken, youth automatically rolls into Extended Foster Care

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5 Participation Conditions

• Youth must meet 1 or more to remain in extended care

• The TILP must identify the youth’s participation condition and a backup

• The participation condition should be linked to the youths goals for becoming more independent

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5 Participation Conditions• Be in high school• Be in college or vocational school• Work at least 80 hours per month• Participate in a program to

eliminate barriers to work or school

• Be unable to go to school or work because of a physical or mental disability

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Education• One of the following

must be documented in youth’s TILP:– Education:

• Enrolled in high school or equivalent

• Enrolled in college/vocational program

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WORK

• OR documented in TILP:

–Work• Work at least 80

hours/month• Participate in

program to find work or remove barriers to work

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Medical or Mental Health Condition

• OR documented in TILP:

– Unable to do any of the above due to medical or mental health condition

– All eligibility conditions contained in WIC 11400 & WIC 11403

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Benefits for Non-Minor Dependents

• Eligible for same rate in setting as a minor

• New statewide rates established for new placement options

• MediCal

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Benefits for Pregnant & Parenting Youth

• Infant supplement is paid– Payee depends on placement type

• For Whole Family Foster Homes, foster family homes, relatives, foster family agency placements or THP+FC host family home are eligible for $200 Shared Responsibility Plan payment

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DPO’s Role

• Assist youth to maintain eligibility

• Focus on permanency• Case planning must be

collaborative• Goal is increasing level of

responsibility• To terminate jurisdiction,

must document reasonable efforts to ensure participation

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Talking About Extended Foster Care

• Our first obligation is to explain and explore extended foster care as an option to youth

• Must document all conversations

• Sample letter of acknowledgement

• What do we need to consider?

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Adolescence Revisited• Revisit adolescent

development to harvest your wisdom

• Turn over the colored paper on your table to discover your domain

• In seven minutes, list all of the developmental milestones you can recall

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Brain Tour

• Upsurge in synaptic growth

• Pruning of new pathways possible

• Results in neuroplasticity

• May limit identification of reward cues

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Brain Tour

• Increasing myelination of nerve

• Myelin sheath is insulator

• Increases speed and efficiency

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Brain Tour

• Dopamine neurotransmission in striatal and cortical systems peaks

• Leads to temporary sensitivity to rewards

• It feels good now, do it and then the feeling quickly disappears

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Brain Tour

• Still in ventral striatum• If reward is delayed or

future, under stimulation to the striatum

• Discover and stress more immediate rewards in behavior

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Brain Tour

• Immediate rewards lead to over activity in ventral striatum

• If it feels good right now, it feels REALLY good

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Brain Tour• Orbitofrontal cortex and

medial prefrontal cortex involved in decision making

• Under stimulated during probabilistic decision making

• The “it happens to others but it won’t happen to me” complex

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Brain Tour

• Amygdala is part of the limbic system

• Primary functions are related to memory, emotion and fear

• Hyperactivity results in limits to avoidant behavior

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Brain Tour

• Development of circuits that support inhibitory control is protracted

• Immediate reward is enhanced at expense of longer term reward

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Successful Youth Development• Presence of

positive attributes• Enables youth to

reach full potential as productive and engaged

• Elements that contribute to positive sense of self

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Agency• Sense of volition over self-generated acts • Sense of self as an active, independent agent

which forms the basis for a sense of self-efficacy• Positive and strong sense of self-efficacy

enhances adjustment & well-being as individuals set challenging goals, sustain effort & recover in the face of failure

• Individuals may build self-confidence by developing beliefs in their capabilities

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Self-esteem• Global self-esteem reflects a general self-

evaluation that provides a type of composite assessment across multiple domains

• Individuals are more likely to gravitate to settings that provide opportunities to enhance self-esteem

• Healthy adjustment is related not only to global self-esteem but to specific domains and the opportunity for engagement and success in those domains

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Self-Control• Self-control is related to brain maturation• Individual temperamental, neurobiological

and care giving contribute to development of individual differences in self-control

• Self-control is a prerequisite for goal-oriented behavior across multiple domains

• Goal setting and goal pursuit is related to self-control and an important indicator of adjustment and risk

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Decision-Making Skills• Capacity to make effective decisions also increases

during adolescence with development of more sophisticated abstract reasoning skills and growing capacity for probabilistic reasoning

• Less able to plan for or anticipate the future• Less able to generate consequences spontaneously• Less able to learn from negative consequences in their

experience• Less able to view negative consequences as harmful• Overestimate risk and just as likely to feel vulnerable• Perceived benefits are more likely to drive decisions

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Moral System of Belief• Judgments about moral issues such as

harm, fairness, integrity and responsibility

• Engages psychological process such as perspective taking and empathy

• Moral system of belief accompanied by a strong sense of moral identity

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Prosocial Connectedness• Synonyms: investment, engagement, attachment,

bonding, sense of belonging, mattering to describe affiliations including families, schools, communities

• Psychological state of belonging where individual perceives that they and others are cared for, acknowledged, trusted, and empowered within a given context

• Connectedness involves both feeling cared for and caring about the social environment

• Must be a good fit between individual and context

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Cross-over Youth: A Special Consideration

• Cross-over Youth– 2/3 are male– 56% African American– 30% Latino

• Cross-over youth had more placements during their child welfare experience

• More exited from group care

• Juvenile Justice Only– 80% male– 25% African

American– 57% Latino