Thank you to Governor Ducey, DES Director Michael Wisehart, and DCS Director Mike Faust for directing over $9 million in COVID relief to ensure that foster children placed with kin have the supports they need to weather the public health crisis. The Pandemic Emergency Assistance Funds are being distributed to more than 3,000 relatives who care for over 5,000 foster children. Eligible caregivers will receive a one-time stipend of $1,800 per child.

CAA also thanks Arizona Grandparent Ambassadors and Kinship Caregivers for its partnership in advocating for the relief funds and is grateful to Representative Joanne Osborne who helped negotiate for this money and to Senator Lela Alston who tirelessly advocates for kinship families in the legislature.

Relatives play a critical role in Arizona’s child welfare system, stepping up to care for more than 50% of the state’s foster children. However, because relative caregivers typically step in at a time of family crisis and don’t plan to become foster parents, the vast majority are not licensed which means that they receive just $75 a month for each child in their care—far less than the $641 that is provided when a child is placed with a licensed foster parent. COVID-19 has stretched the already thin resources of many of these families to the breaking point and this relief will provide crucial help to kinship foster families.

A recent report from the Proceedings of the National Academy of the Sciences found that for many children in the United States, especially Black children, encounters with the child welfare system are commonplace. The study looked at the prevalence of contact with Child Protective Services (CPS) across the 20 most populous counties in the U.S., including Maricopa County. The peer-reviewed study found that contact with Child Protective Services is much more common than previously thought.

• 1 in 3 children will ever have a CPS investigation,
• 1 in 8 will ever experience confirmed maltreatment
• 1 in 17 will ever be placed in foster care, and
• 1 in 100 will ever have parental rights terminated

The study also found that the risk of CPS contact was unequally distributed by race and ethnicity. Black children had consistently higher rates of investigations. Including Maricopa County, Black children had risks of investigation that exceeded 60%. Black children also experienced very high rates of later-stage involvement in nearly all counties. Rates routinely exceeded 20% for confirmed maltreatment, 10% for foster care placement, and 2% for termination of parental rights. Maricopa County was cited as having comparatively extreme rates of foster care placement and termination of parental rights for all children, leading to very high rates of both events for all racial and ethnic groups except Asian/Pacific Islanders. The county had the second-highest risk rate for placement in foster care and the highest risk for terminating the parental rights of Black children.

Learn more about racial and ethnic disproportionality in Arizona’s child welfare system.

Today, Fostering Advocates Arizona (FAAZ), a group of policy leaders with lived experience in foster care, delivered a petition signed by nearly 600 Arizonans to Governor Doug Ducey and Department of Child Safety (DCS) Director Mike Faust urging them to use federal COVID relief funds to provide young people who aged-out of foster care with a $500 check.  In early March, the state received $10.5M in additional funding to help older and former foster youth get through the pandemic, but to date, less than $1M has made it into the hands of young people and time is running out for former foster youth ages 21 through 26 who will lose eligibility for the funds on September 30th.

The $10.5M is Arizona’s share of a $400M allocation included in the Consolidated Appropriations Act, passed by Congress late last year. For months, Fostering Advocates Arizona supported by community allies, have been lobbying DCS to use a portion of the funds to provide no-strings-attached payments to young people who aged out of foster care. The group presented its comprehensive set of recommendations for implementing the older youth provisions of the Consolidated Appropriations Act to DCS Director Mike Faust in April. The proposal included distributing the funds through a $500 stimulus-style check for anyone 18 through 26 who aged out of foster care in Arizona as well as making additional needs-based funding available to those who need more help. DCS, however, has not adopted the two-tier distribution strategy and instead is relying only on a needs-based application process that has been troubled.

The federal guidance for these funds recognizes that many young people who are in or were in foster care have not benefitted from other COVID-19 relief, such as stimulus payments and unemployment insurance, and urges states to use a portion of the funds for quick, streamlined direct financial support. A growing number of states are doing just that, but Arizona has still not embraced the idea even as time is running short. Nikki Burgess, a member of the FAAZ Young Adult Leadership Board, urges, “When FAAZ met with Director Faust he assured us he would consider stimulus payments if warranted at a later date. That day is now. We are asking Governor Ducey and Director Faust to help us and other youth make it through this challenging time by providing a $500 payment. Please act before it is too late.”

Show your support for the FAAZ $500 payment by tweeting the below message:

Foster youth need stimulus too. @dougducey, @ArizonaDCS it's time to #ReleaseTheFunds and support foster youth today! #FAAZ500

Already logged into twitter? Click here to tweet now.

Yesterday, the Department of Child Safety finally re-launched an online portal to distribute COVID relief funds to older and former foster youth. The new portal, administered by Arizona Friends of Foster Children Foundation, allows young people ages 14 through 26 to apply for needs-based pandemic relief. $10.5M in federal funds for the relief were allocated to Arizona in early March, but DCS is having trouble getting the money out the door—and time is running out for young people ages 21 through 26 who will lose eligibility on September 30th.

The first iteration of the portal was cumbersome and the process was time-consuming. Although DCS agreed to correct the problems and re-launch a new version of the portal, nearly two months have gone by without any way for young people to apply for funds while a new portal and process were readied. Unfortunately, even though the process may be improved, DCS continues to rely on need-based criteria to distribute the funds. Despite federal guidance, urging from community stakeholders, and a spate of other states that have adopted the strategy, Arizona refuses to make stimulus checks available to all eligible young people who have aged out of foster care.

That’s why Fostering Advocates Arizona (FAAZ), a group of policy advocates with lived experience in foster care, continues to call on DCS to use a portion of the funds to provide every young person who aged out of foster care with a $500 no-strings-attached payment. Stimulus checks are the fastest and fairest way to get the funds to foster youth who need help now to pay for rent, groceries, and other necessities.

Please join FAAZ in the #ReleaseTheFunds campaign by signing this petition.

Sign the #ReleaseTheFunds petition

Young people who have aged-out of foster care were at high risk for experiencing homelessness, unemployment, food instability and other negative outcomes prior to the pandemic, and COVID-19 has heightened their vulnerability. Even as conditions begin to improve in Arizona, the recovery tail will be longer for these young people who don’t have family to support them as they try to regroup, recoup, and reengage in school and work.

Help has arrived and is sitting at the Department of Child Safety. DCS has almost $10.5M for pandemic relief for older and former foster youth. But, to date, DCS has distributed just $500,000 to young people. Slowed down by a cumbersome, individualized, needs-based process, DCS has had trouble getting the money out the door. DCS plans to have a community-based agency take over the process but getting that partnership in place is also moving slowly. In the meantime, three weeks and counting have gone by without any way for young people to submit applications for the funds. And for most young people, time is of the essence. Eligibility for the funds was expanded to include young people ages 21 through 26, but only until September 30th.

Fostering Advocates Arizona (FAAZ), a group of policy advocates with lived experience in foster care, is calling on DCS to use the funds to provide every young person who aged out of foster care with a $500 no-strings-attached payment. Stimulus checks are the fastest and fairest way to get the funds to foster youth who need help now to pay for rent, groceries, and other necessities. The FAAZ $500 request is supported by federal guidance which encourages states to use at least a portion of the funds for direct stimulus-style relief:

“In the past year, CB [Children’s Bureau] has heard from many young people who are in or were in foster care that they have not benefited from other COVID-19 relief assistance, such as stimulus payments or unemployment insurance. Therefore, CB urges all child welfare agencies receiving the additional Chafee grant to consider using at least a portion of the funds to facilitate quick and streamlined access to direct financial support for youth who were or are in foster care.”

But so far, DCS is saying “no” to stimulus checks. Instead, it is saying yes to pilot programs and other purposes, allocating less than half of the $10.5M to direct financial supports to young people.

Sign this petition and join FAAZ in urging Governor Ducey and DCS Director Mike Faust to #ReleaseTheFunds by providing a $500 stimulus to check to every young person age 18 through 26 who has aged out of foster care in Arizona.

Sign the petition today!

Meet Nancy.

Nancy and her husband faced a real challenge when twelve years ago they stepped in as informal caregivers to raise two grandchildren. As Nancy describes,

“Twelve years ago the bio-mother of our granddaughters then 2 and 3 years old, called to tell me that she would have to put the babies into foster care because she had to go to Texas to be with a man she met online playing World of Warcraft.  The children’s father, our son, was unemployed and sleeping on the floor of an apartment of a friend who reportedly sold drugs—so not a parenting option.

We said that we would take them—but only if we obtained legal guardianship to ensure that we could access medical care and school for them.

When I went to get them and some of their clothes and toys from the apartment where they lived with their mom, there were bugs jumping off the floor, old pizza on the floor, rotten food in the refrigerator, and insects everywhere.  Needless to say, we left all of their belongings and started from scratch purchasing new clothes, toys, beds, diapers, and everything else.

Since then, we have been the full-time caregivers of our grandchildren.  Since they were not placed with us through the child welfare system, we had no help navigating the system and had to figure it out ourselves. There has never been any financial help. We have spent our savings and retirement to care for these children and we do not regret it at all.

However, I worry. I am almost 71, and work three part time jobs. My husband’s employer went out of business a few years ago, and he has not had employment since. I have no idea what would happen if I became unable to work.

This is one of many reasons I strongly support changes that would help keep kids out of the system and help other families like ours.”

Research shows that supporting kinship caregivers often costs less to the state, and helps prevent children from entering foster care. Help families across Arizona like Nancy’s by asking your legislator to pass Senate Bill 1144. Find your legislator here.

“It’s not controversial. Give young people the cash and trust them to make the decisions they need to make for their lives and their priorities. That’s my message,” said Aysha Schomburg, the Biden Administration’s top child welfare official during a town hall hosted by the national nonprofit Think of Us last week. Schomburg was responding to questions about the slow pace many states are taking to distribute $400 million in federal funds to foster youth. Those funds, allocated through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, are directed toward COVID relief for older and former foster youth, a population pushed even closer to the financial edge by the pandemic.

Schomburg’s message of urgency is the same one members of Fostering Advocates Arizona (FAAZ), carried to the Department of Child Safety when they met with Director Mike Faust early last week. FAAZ’s young adult leaders, all with experience living in foster care, delivered recommendations to the agency for distributing close to $12 million in relief funds to current and former foster youth ages 14 through 26. The comprehensive set of recommendations addresses all aspects of implementation and provides early feedback on DCS’s application process for targeted, need based supports. (Apply here!)

FAAZ’s #1 Recommendation:

Provide a one-time $500 stimulus payment to all youth ages 18 through 26 who aged out of foster care!

A one-time, $500 stimulus check for young people who have aged out of care gets cash in the hands of young people quickly and allows them to decide what they need most. Here’s how some FAAZ members would use a $500 stimulus payment.

Watch our video below!

Are you a young person between the ages of 18 and 27 in Arizona with experience in foster care? Tell us what you would do with a $500 stimulus check!

Allies please help spread the word!

Make a Video:
Please take a 5-30 second video to tell people what you would use a $500 COVID relief payment for. Film yourself TikTok style (vertical selfie). When your video is ready, post it on social media, tag Fostering Advocates Arizona with hashtag #fundfosteryouth.

Handles:
Instagram: @fosteringadvocatesarizona
Twitter: @FosteringAdvAZ
Facebook: @fosteringadvocatesarizona

Upload:
Have a Google account? Upload your video here so we can use it to advocate for direct payments.
https://forms.gle/AZeu5LsVeUubnLim6

Video Tips:

• Pick a bright spot and make sure you are facing the light. Outside, in the car, by the window are great; anywhere that has great selfie light!
• Make sure we can hear you. Avoid lawnmowers, buses, barking dogs.
• Short and sweet. One or two sentences might be all you need!

Last week, Arizona’s Department of Child Safety was awarded nearly $10.5M in federal funding to provide much needed and long-awaited pandemic relief to older and former foster youth up to age 27. These supplemental funds were provided by the Supporting Foster Youth and Families Through the Pandemic Act, passed late last year as part of the Consolidated Appropriations Act, and are the result of advocacy by young people from across the country who lobbied Congress to provide direct financial assistance to youth with experience in foster care—most of whom have been left out of prior stimulus measures. While not new, hastened by the pandemic, the concept of providing direct, no-strings-attached cash payments to young adults who have aged out of foster care is taking root.   

Prior to the pandemic, many young adults were already relying on their parents and relatives for housing and financial support well into their twenties and that trend has increased sharply during the COVID-19 crisis. With high rates of unemployment, stagnant wages, and high housing costs, the path to financial independence for young adults is fraught with obstacles that are nearly impossible to navigate without the help of family. But that is exactly what young adults who have aged-out of foster care must do. In Arizona, about 900 foster youth age-out of foster care each year. They can choose to participate in extended foster care through age 20, but on their 21st birthday lose state financial support and must fend for themselves. “The government functions as their parent, and then swiftly extinguishes financial support, depriving foster kids of the safety net that so many of their peers increasingly find necessary. This added disparity compounds the systemic disadvantage that foster kids already endure, and puts them at heightened risk for poverty, homelessness, and incarceration,” say Mark Courtney & Shanta Trivedi in the recently published piece The Case for Providing Guaranteed Income to Kids Aging Out of Foster Care.  

Citing research that shows remaining in foster care after age 18 increases the likelihood of positive outcomes in adulthood and decreases the likelihood of poor outcomes, Courtney, a professor at the University of Chicago who has spent decades studying the experiences of former foster youth, and Trivedi call upon states and localities to provide a regular stipend to young people as they transition from foster care to independent adulthood. Guaranteed income programs, like the one for former foster youth currently being piloted in Santa Clara County, California, provide direct cash payments to individuals with financial need. Though targeted by need, these payments are not contingent on unemployment or encumbered by other requirements. Recipients can use the funds flexibly to meet their most pressing needs in the moment—groceries, rent, transportation, education. Importantly, because guaranteed income programs are not contingent on the recipient being unemployed, they facilitate participation in the job market which is critical for former foster youth who don’t have family supports for back-up when they need help paying for rent, food, healthcare, and other basic needs.  

Hastened by realities laid bare by COVID-19, the idea of guaranteed income for former foster youth is gaining traction in the child welfare community and beyond. Last week, a bill was introduced in California to take the Santa Clara pilot program statewide, and new polling shows that nationwide a majority of voters favor a guaranteed income program for young adults transitioning from foster care.  

Source: Data for Progress and The Lab https://theappeal.org/the-lab/report/guaranteed-income-for-kids-transitioning-out-of-foster-care/

Even prior to the pandemic, many young adults relied on their parents for financial support—a trend has increased precipitously during COVID-19. But young adults who have aged-out of foster care don’t have a similar support system, and without it struggle. Arizona has made important investments in its extended foster care program in recent years, but that still leaves many exposed to dire outcomes like homelessness, incarceration, and poverty at age 21. Making needs-based financial support available to former foster youth would provide a lifeline for vulnerable young people and help them successfully transition to independent adulthood.