One State Is Disrupting the Pipeline from Foster Care to Jail


In 2017, California's Continuum of Care (CCR) program began shifting money away from group homes for children in foster care, closing 300 homes in the first year. The money goes instead to recruiting more families to house children, who are newly eligible for extended care to age 25. The goal is to shrink a system that too often dooms children to homelessness on the streets and incarceration. While some clients have found the family love that a group home can't replicate, many lower-income families have struggled to meet the program's requirements, threatening its ultimate success.

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