Published by the American Academy of Pediatrics, this booklet provides an overview of important health issues for children and youth in foster care. The appendix provides three downloadable age-appropriate forms that judges can share with caseworkers or caregivers to obtain, record, and track relevant health information for individual children.

This blog entry highlights new issue briefs that examine three types of programs relating to youth in or transitioning out of foster care. The program topics are education, financial literacy and asset-building, and employment. Each brief contains recommendations for policymakers and program staff to consider when conducting future evaluations of independent living programs. The briefs demonstrate the unique needs and circumstances of youth in foster care.

The Children’s Bureau and Office of Community Services developed a toolkit entitled “A Financial Empowerment Toolkit for Youth and Young Adults in Foster Care.” This toolkit aims to provide caseworkers, care providers, foster parents, and other adults with strategies and resources to help youth improve their approaches to gaining financial competence.

The Federal Interagency Forum on Child and Family Statistics released a special issue report that focuses on youth in transition to adulthood in the United States. The report states that youth in transition often face challenges while trying to achieve financial and social independence, and aims to capture the needs of youth in transition to inform future policy approaches that serve this population.

The Brookings Institution released a policy brief that states that well-targeted interventions at various child life stages could decrease the gap between more- and less-advantaged youths by over 70 percent.

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) released a report that summarizes a study conducted to equip policymakers with recommendations and improvements for policy pertaining to former foster youth looking for housing options. The study included a literature review, a web-based environmental scan, agency surveys, housing site visits, and a research brief. The authors also convened a forum with policymakers, practitioners, and researchers to disseminate study findings. Results from the study indicated that policies and programs offer few housing opportunities for former foster youth, and included implications for future policy and research.

The Working Poor Families Project released a policy brief that explores ways to connect young adults between the ages of 18 and 24 years old to education and training programs borne out of state level policies and interventions.