What happens when kids age out of the system

Learn about: What happens when kids age out of the system from Lauri Burns,...
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What happens when kids age out of the system

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It's really unfortunate when children in the system, in the foster care group home probation system turn 18. They literally age out of the system. So the system ends and they have nowhere to go. They need to leave the only safe home they knew. They need to walk out. Most of them don't have - they don't have checking accounts, they don't have cars and they don't have cellphones. They don't have a lot of the things that normal children would have. So they age out to homelessness. 20 to 25K kids age out of the system a year. So while normal kids are turning 18, going to proms and taking limos to dances and thinking about college; our abused kids are thinking about leaving to nothing. A lot of the kids in the system try not to graduate high school because if you don't graduate you can stay a little longer. So the statistics are devastating. They say 50% of foster kids will be homeless within the first 2 years of leaving foster care. 60% of young men leaving the system end up in jail. 30% of foster kids leaving the system will be reliant on state care at some point. And only 2% of kids leaving the foster care ever get to graduate college.

Learn about: What happens when kids age out of the system from Lauri Burns,...

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Lauri Burns

Teen Project Founder & Author

Lauri Burns was once a “system kid”, a heroin addict and a prostitute. She is now a self-made success: a foster mom, the founder of one of the most recognized new charities in the US, the owner of an Information Technology firm, and author of Punished for Purpose, which chronicles her life struggles and the formula she used to become a success.

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