Law designed to help foster youths underused

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AUGUSTA – Hundreds of Maine children have not taken advantage of a program that would pay for their college education and provide for living expenses while they go to school. They are children who have been in state foster care and normally would “age out” of care at 18.

“We have had some great success stories,” said Hugh Sipowicz, who manages the state’s Independent Living Program. “But, yes, I sure wish a lot more kids would take advantage of what is available.”

The program, funded by the federal Chafee Foster Care Independence Act, provides help to teens to prepare them for life on their own. That help ranges from life-skills classes on topics such as how to balance a checkbook to a program that pays for college tuition and living expenses. But according to a yearly report filed with federal officials, less than a third of the estimated 950 teens older than age 16 who are eligible for the whole array of independent living skills programs take advantage.

“We have a lot of kids who leave just as soon as they turn 18,” Sipowicz said. “But I think it is getting better. We have more freshmen starting school this fall than we ever have had.”

So far this year, 83 children have left state care immediately when they reached 18. A few more agreed only to stay through the completion of high school. There are 38 starting in some form of higher education program this fall. Not all will succeed and several are expected to drop out of the program before the end of the school year.

But it certainly is getting better for many former foster children like Nate Poland of Belfast. The 20-year-old will spend the fall and winter on board the schooner Lettie G. Howard as part of a program that will lead to a degree from Washington County Technical College. The winter months will be spent cruising as far south as Argentina with a mix of seamanship courses and math and English classes.

“I am really psyched about this,” he said. “I don’t think I ever could have done this without this program to pay for school.”

Poland has been in foster care “since I was a little kid” and took advantage of the program when he turned 18 to start courses at the University of Maine’s Hutchinson Center in Belfast. He said he is putting a lot of bad things behind him.

That was a common theme among several teens who agreed to be interviewed about their experiences with foster care and about the opportunities they now have through the 2-year-old federal program. Crystal Castro of Portland is 19 and enrolled in the criminology program at the University of Southern Maine.

“I might have been able to go to college; I always have wanted to go ever since I can remember,” she said. “But, I would have had to go so far into debt. This lets me concentrate on classes and not [on] how to pay the bills.”

Sipowicz said those youths who stay in the system until they reach 18 come from backgrounds of serious abuse and neglect.

“I have had friends say they wish their mother had beat them up so they could get in on this … um, maybe I shouldn’t have said that, but they did,” said David Blodgett, 19, of Portland. “My own apartment, that’s awesome. My school paid for, yeah, it’s awesome.”

While they can still joke about their troubled pasts, there is agreement on why so many children who could take advantage of programs after age 18 do not. Those children are so embittered by their years in the care of the Department of Human Services they want nothing to do with the agency once they turn 18.

“I think it’s because DHS has always run their lives, and they just don’t want DHS in their lives anymore,” said John Rutterford, 19, of Portland. “[But] to get a college education, to have my apartment paid for and have insurance, I’m willing to live with it.”

The teens did indicate that the caseworkers often were trying to help them but were unsuccessful because of other demands on their time from other foster children.

“Somebody is always having a crisis,” Rutterford said. “Most of the time when I called [my caseworker] I got an answering machine.”

Chris Hunninghaus, an independent life-skills worker, was a foster care worker for years. She acknowledges that the complaint about teens in crisis getting all the attention is based in reality.

“Caseworkers are doing a very tough job,” she said. “They have to deal with the crisis situation first. Many I know would love to have my job where they have time to work with the kids.”

A foster care worker can be responsible for as many as 30 children, while a life-skills worker rarely works with more than dozen.

Poland said he had so many different caseworkers over the years, he could not begin to remember all their names. He said none seemed to care about him as a person until he was assigned an independent-living skills worker as he approached 18.

“She helped me. She listened to me,” he said. “She was there for me.”

And that, said Russ Quaglia, director of the National Center for Student Aspirations at the University of Maine, is a key to getting more foster children to take advantage of programs aimed at helping them.

“I have looked at the data here, and these kids have about the lowest aspirations we have measured,” he said. “And given what they have endured, that is understandable, but it just means we have to do more to help them.”

Quaglia said role models are very important to improving the aspirations of teen-agers. He said DHS officials need to recognize their unique responsibility as surrogate parents for many children and provide more time for staff to work with each child and recognize their individual needs.

“Parents are the best role models,” he said. “But when there are no parents, we need to help these kids.”

Quaglia also said teachers need to take on more responsibility for children in foster care. He said next to parents, teachers are major role models for youths.

“Teachers know who these kids are,” he said. “And yes, I know teachers are overworked, but they can be crucial in reaching these kids and making a difference.”

While all four members of Maine’s congressional delegation supported the Chafee law, all expressed concern that so many foster children do not take advantage of the programs offered.

“It is certainly troubling to me,” said Sen. Susan Collins, who sponsored the legislation creating the program after Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., died in office after drafting the measure. “We have got to find a way to get more of them to take advantage of these wonderful opportunities.”

Sipowicz said the state is trying to find ways to get more 18-year-olds to join the voluntary program. He said many children in care, and those just out of care, serve on the Youth Leadership Advisory Team, which allows direct feedback by teens at meetings and conferences. Sipowicz said the children are being heard.

“I am certainly interested in hearing what professor Quaglia has to say,” he said. “We are just starting the third year of the Chafee program and my hope is we can get everyone involved in solving this problem.”

As programs go, the independent living program is not a big-ticket item. Congress provided $700 million over five years for the effort. In Maine, the program spends about $900,000 in state and federal funds. The actual cost is higher but difficult to figure because teens who continue on the program continue to be eligible for Medicaid and other programs that are funded separately.