Youth Services Insider had heard through the grapevine what the conservative outlet The Daily Signal broke on Tuesday night: the Trump administration is planning an executive order focused on support for youth in foster care who age out of the system and into adulthood.
The order will be signed by President Trump at an event on Thursday afternoon. According to The Daily Signal’s report, it will involve “expanding and enhancing access to education, workforce and career development, digital resources, and other supports.”
The ends will be achieved by “leveraging federal and private sector commitments,” the article said, citing an anonymous official.
While the details of the planned executive order have yet to be revealed, this development is no doubt music to the ears of advocates who were already gearing up to push for updates to the John H. Chafee Foster Care Program for Successful Transition to Adulthood, a decades-old federal funding stream for transition-age youth.
Additional federal support for older youth in foster care has been mixed in since Chafee became law in 1999. Among the noteworthy additions since then:
-Federal funds for the extension of foster care through age 21 as part of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act in 2008.
-Guaranteed Medicaid eligibility after foster care through age 26, a provision of the Affordable Care Act.
-Dedicated vouchers to support affordable housing after foster care, a program called Foster Youth to Independence first established by the Trump administration during his first term.
Youth Services Insider has heard that the First Lady, Melania Trump, has been a driving force in soliciting input on foster care policy for the administration. The First Lady’s policy director, Sarah Gesiriech, is a veteran of child welfare policy at the state and federal level who got her professional start as a legislative assistant for Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley.
We will report back with more details once the order is made public.
Correction: Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act was passed in 2008, not as previously written, in 2009.