The Supporting Foster Youth and Families through the Pandemic Act (H.R. 7947) became law as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act on December 27, 2020 (PL 116-260). This law should bring significant emergency relief to young people in and from foster care. The law will help young people by: prohibiting a termination of services to youth even if they reach age 21, requiring states to provide re-entry into care until a youth reaches age 22, and providing $400 million additional Chafee funds. Now that these important provisions are effective, the work of implementation must occur!
On January 13th, 2021, FosterClub and Juvenile Law Center co-hosted a webinar for advocates that included the following:
- summary of the law
- tips for advocates to use in their states to help ensure young people receive support as soon as possible
- strategies for advocate (including young people) involvement in the implementation and oversight process.
View the webinar recording here > > >
Download the slides >>>
Access the handouts and resources shared on the webinar:
1) Detailed Summary of Older Youth Provisions
Download the Jan 12 version
2) Letter to Child Welfare and Independent Living (IL) Director to request to partner in the implementation process. Advocates can use this template letter to request an initial meeting with state leaders, and partnering in the implementation of the Older Youth Pandemic Relief.
Download the Jan 13 version or view the LIVE Google Doc
3) Implementation Decision Points. These questions and decision points can be used by advocates to ask about state implementation strategy, and to guide the development of recommendations for implementation.
Download the Jan 13 version or view the LIVE Google Doc
Stay tuned for future webinars as implementation continues!
Reach out to FosterClub's policy team at [email protected] or Jenny Pokempner at [email protected] for questions about this webinar or implementation.