IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/cysrev/v30y2008i11p1267-1278.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

A cost-benefit analysis of transitional services for emancipating foster youth

Author

Listed:
  • Packard, Thomas
  • Delgado, Melanie
  • Fellmeth, Robert
  • McCready, Karen

Abstract

Over 24,000 youth "aged out" of the nation's foster care system in FY 2005. While independent living programs and other services are available to foster youth, and almost all states allow dependency courts to retain jurisdiction of foster youth beyond age 18, outcomes for former foster youth are disturbing. This paper describes a program to address these challenges by providing extended foster care benefits and support to former foster youth from their 18th to 23rd birthdays. A detailed cost-benefit methodology documents expected costs and key benefits of the program. According to this cost-benefit analysis, a program providing funding and guardian support for former foster youth is projected to result in net benefits to the State of California over the 40-year careers of participating former foster youth. The program, if successful for all youth, would increase lifetime earnings and taxes paid due to increased education and would lower use of TANF and prison, resulting in a benefit-cost ratio of 1.5 to 1, using discounted present value dollars. Even at 75% success, the ratio is 1.2 to 1, showing a net benefit to society. This methodology can also be used to assess the costs and benefits of similar programs.

Suggested Citation

  • Packard, Thomas & Delgado, Melanie & Fellmeth, Robert & McCready, Karen, 2008. "A cost-benefit analysis of transitional services for emancipating foster youth," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 30(11), pages 1267-1278, November.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:30:y:2008:i:11:p:1267-1278
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0190-7409(08)00082-0
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Melissa Clark & David Jaeger, 2006. "Natives, the foreign-born and high school equivalents: new evidence on the returns to the GED," Journal of Population Economics, Springer;European Society for Population Economics, vol. 19(4), pages 769-793, October.
    2. Pecora, Peter J. & Kessler, Ronald C. & O'Brien, Kirk & White, Catherine Roller & Williams, Jason & Hiripi, Eva & English, Diana & White, James & Herrick, Mary Anne, 2006. "Educational and employment outcomes of adults formerly placed in foster care: Results from the Northwest Foster Care Alumni Study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 28(12), pages 1459-1481, December.
    3. Foster, E. Michael & Holden, E. Wayne, 2002. "Benefit-Cost Analyses of the Child Welfare Demonstration Projects: Understanding the Resource Implications of the IV-E Waivers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 24(6-7), pages 431-453.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Doucet, Melanie M. & Greeson, Johanna K.P. & Eldeeb, Nehal, 2022. "Independent living programs and services for youth 'aging out' of care in Canada and the U.S.: A systematic review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 142(C).
    2. Szombath, Kitti & Varga, Erzsébet Teréz, 2024. "A hazai gyermekvédelmi rendszer fejlesztésében rejlő potenciális gazdasági hasznok [The potential economic benefits of improving the domestic child protection system]," Közgazdasági Szemle (Economic Review - monthly of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences), Közgazdasági Szemle Alapítvány (Economic Review Foundation), vol. 0(10), pages 1053-1078.
    3. Mihic, Marko M. & Todorovic, Marija Lj. & Obradovic, Vladimir Lj., 2014. "Economic analysis of social services for the elderly in Serbia: Two sides of the same coin," Evaluation and Program Planning, Elsevier, vol. 45(C), pages 9-21.
    4. Naccarato, Toni & Brophy, Megan & Courtney, Mark E., 2010. "Employment outcomes of foster youth: The results from the Midwest Evaluation of the Adult Functioning of Foster Youth," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 32(4), pages 551-559, April.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Harwick, Robin M. & Lindstrom, Lauren & Unruh, Deanne, 2017. "In their own words: Overcoming barriers during the transition to adulthood for youth with disabilities who experienced foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 73(C), pages 338-346.
    2. Refaeli, Tehila, 2017. "Narratives of care leavers: What promotes resilience in transitions to independent lives?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 79(C), pages 1-9.
    3. Jaeger, David A., 2003. "Estimating the returns to education using the newest current population survey education questions," Economics Letters, Elsevier, vol. 78(3), pages 385-394, March.
    4. Mountz, Sarah & Capous-Desyllas, Moshoula, 2020. "Exploring the families of origin of LGBTQ former foster youth and their trajectories throughout care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 109(C).
    5. David Neumark & Olena Nizalova, 2007. "Minimum Wage Effects in the Longer Run," Journal of Human Resources, University of Wisconsin Press, vol. 42(2).
    6. Cameron, Claire & Hollingworth, Katie & Schoon, Ingrid & van Santen, Eric & Schröer, Wolfgang & Ristikari, Tiina & Heino, Tarja & Pekkarinen, Elina, 2018. "Care leavers in early adulthood: How do they fare in Britain, Finland and Germany?," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 87(C), pages 163-172.
    7. Braciszewski, Jordan M. & Vose-O'Neal, Adam & Gamarel, Kristi E. & Colby, Suzanne M., 2019. "Combustible cigarette smoking and alternative tobacco use in a sample of youth transitioning from foster care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 231-236.
    8. Opsal, Tara & Eman, Rebecca, 2018. "Invisible vulnerability: Participant perceptions of a campus-based program for students without caregivers," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 617-627.
    9. Richardson, Sabrina M. & Yates, Tuppett M., 2014. "Siblings in foster care: A relational path to resilience for emancipated foster youth," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 47(P3), pages 378-388.
    10. Ilana Akresh, 2007. "U.S. Immigrants’ labor market adjustment: Additional Human capital investment and Earnings Growth," Demography, Springer;Population Association of America (PAA), vol. 44(4), pages 865-881, November.
    11. Stewart, C. Joy & Kum, Hye-Chung & Barth, Richard P. & Duncan, Dean F., 2014. "Former foster youth: Employment outcomes up to age 30," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 36(C), pages 220-229.
    12. Blakeslee, Jennifer & Miller, Rebecca & Uretsky, Mathew, 2022. "Efficacy of the Project Futures self-determination coaching model for college students with foster care backgrounds and mental health challenges," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    13. Geiger, Jennifer M. & Piel, Megan Hayes & Day, Angelique & Schelbe, Lisa, 2018. "A descriptive analysis of programs serving foster care alumni in higher education: Challenges and opportunities," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 85(C), pages 287-294.
    14. Goyette, Martin & Blanchet, Alexandre & Esposito, Tonino & Delaye, Ashleigh, 2021. "The role of placement instability on employment and educational outcomes among adolescents leaving care," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 131(C).
    15. Vinnerljung, Bo & Brännström, Lars & Hjern, Anders, 2015. "Disability pension among adult former child welfare clients: A Swedish national cohort study," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 56(C), pages 169-176.
    16. Kahn, Nicholas E. & Hansen, Mary Eschelbach, 2017. "Measuring racial disparities in foster care placement: A case study of Texas," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 76(C), pages 213-226.
    17. Harder, Annemiek T. & Mann-Feder, Varda & Oterholm, Inger & Refaeli, Tehila, 2020. "Supporting transitions to adulthood for youth leaving care: Consensus based principles," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 116(C).
    18. Thompson, Allison E. & Greeson, Johanna K.P. & Brunsink, Ashleigh M., 2016. "Natural mentoring among older youth in and aging out of foster care: A systematic review," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 61(C), pages 40-50.
    19. O'Neill, Marissa & Risley-Curtiss, Christina & Ayón, Cecilia & Williams, Lela Rankin, 2012. "Placement stability in the context of child development," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 34(7), pages 1251-1258.
    20. Akin, Becci A. & Byers, Kaela D. & Lloyd, Margaret H. & McDonald, Thomas P., 2015. "Joining formative evaluation with translational science to assess an EBI in foster care: Examining social–emotional well-being and placement stability," Children and Youth Services Review, Elsevier, vol. 58(C), pages 253-264.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:cysrev:v:30:y:2008:i:11:p:1267-1278. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/childyouth .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.