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University of Wisconsin–Madison
Poverty-related issues in the news, from the Institute for Research on Poverty

Foster Care Youth – California

More resources urged for high-risk youths in foster care, By Garrett Therolf, November 9, 2011, Los Angeles Times: “As California implements a new law extending foster care benefits to youths until age 21, social workers and policymakers should focus their efforts particularly on the hardest cases, according to a major new study. The study found that substantial amounts of money are being spent on Los Angeles County’s so-called crossover youth – children who start out as foster kids and end up committing crimes that land them in the juvenile justice system. At least 10% of the 20,000 youths under probation supervision were foster children, the study found. Each crossover youth cost taxpayers $35,000 on average in just the first four years of adulthood – more than twice the amount spent on those who were in only the foster care system or the justice system…”