21.3.1  Program Goals:

• To identify youth who are likely to remain in foster care until age 18 and to help these youth make the transition to self-sufficiency by providing services.  These services may include, but are not limited to: assistance in obtaining a high school diploma, career exploration, vocational training, job placement and retention, training in daily living skills, training in budgeting and financial management skills, substance abuse prevention, and preventive health activities (including smoking avoidance, nutrition education, and pregnancy prevention).
• To assist youth who are likely to remain in foster care until 18 years of age prepare for and enter post-secondary training and educational institutions;
• To provide personal and emotional support to youth aging out of foster care, through mentors and the promotion of interactions with dedicated adults;
• To provide financial, housing, counseling, employment, education, and other appropriate support and services to former foster youth, who left care on or after their 18th birthday and have not yet reached 21 years of age;
• To assist youth to compliment their own efforts to achieve self-sufficiency and to assure that program participants recognize and accept their personal responsibility in preparation for the successful transition from adolescence to adulthood; and
• To assure youth, ages 13-21, are involved in their planning to reach self-sufficiency and understand their personal responsibility in attaining their goals. 

21.3.2  Eligibility:

• Youth, ages 13-21, currently in the legal custody of the Division and in out-of-home placement;
• Youth, who exited legal custody of the Division on or after their 18th birthday but have not yet reached age 21.

NOTE:  As space permits in the basic skills classes, Chafee may serve DYS or DMH youth, legally adopted youth, or youth no longer in Children’s Division (CD) custody under age 18. Funds may not be expended for attendance, homework or other incentives.  Payments for adopted, DYS or DMH youth must be prearranged and approved by the respective agency or adoptive parent.  This population of youth is also ineligible for college/vocational training funding or other supportive services.

21.3.3  Referral Process

Youth identified by the case manager and Family Support Team (FST) as an age appropriate youth  Chafee services should be referred to an ILP Specialist assigned to the area in which the youth resides.  The case manager will complete the referral process by giving the ILP specialist the following:

• Children’s Services Case Plan Evaluation (CS-1);
• Ansell-Casey Life Skills Assessment;
• Social Summary; and
• Psychological evaluation, if available.

21.3.4  Youth Assessment

The youth’s independent living competencies will be identified using the Ansell-Casey Life Skills Assessments  These assessments evaluate the life skills of youth and young adults.  The purpose of a life skills assessment is to provide the youth, youth’s caregiver, and Case Manager comprehensive information that will assist the youth with preparing for self-sufficiency.  The assessment is to be used in conjunction with other information available to focus specifically on those areas of the youth’s life that are, or will, impact on their preparation for self-sufficiency.  The assessment will assist in gaining understanding of the youth’s strengths and challenges so practical, concrete efforts can be made to achieve the goals to which the youth seeks.

The ACLSA is a youth-centered, web-based, secure tool for gauging current life skills, available in youth self-report and caregiver report formats.  For each format, there are three age-related levels:  Level I (8 -10 years), (Level II (11-14 years) and Level III (15-18 years).  There is also a fourth level, a Young Adults (18-25) years, that does not have a caretaker format.  It is possible for a youth to take more than two different level assessments.

The ACLSA assesses life skills using the youth’s and the caregiver’s perception about a youth’s abilities in several important life skill areas or domains.  It is important that a caregiver, or another adult who knows the youth well, completes the assessment to provide a more accurate picture of the youth’s abilities.  For the purposes of assessing youth ages 14 and older, we will not be using the Level I (8-10) years assessment.  The Level II ACLSA consists of five domains and Level III and Level IV consist of six.  The five domains included in both levels consist of Daily Living Tasks, Self-care, Social Development, Work & Study Skills, Money Management.  Levels III and IV have the additional Housing and Community Resources domain.

The youth format contains items to measure self-reported knowledge, behaviors and a brief performance section to test actual knowledge of life skills.  The caregiver form asks a parent or other adult to rate the youth in his/her care on the same set of knowledge and behavior items used in the youth self-report.  The ACLSA takes about 15-25 minutes to complete, depending on which ACLSA level is used and the youth’s reading level.  Preferably, the ACLSA is completed electronically via the Internet, but copies can be printed from the ACLSA web site at www.caseylifeskills.org and taken by hand and the responses entered into the web site at a later time.

The purpose of using the ACLSA is to provide the youth, caregiver and staff with an indication of the youth’s life skills accomplishments.  It is a flexible tool that can be used for individualized case planning, but is not meant to assess all the skills the youth needs to live successfully on his/her own.   Once the youth and the caregiver have completed the assessment, the Case Manager can receive an Individual Report (IR), which summarizes the youth and caregiver’s responses and the assessment scores.  The IR provides both a summary of the actual responses to each question as well as the domain scores, overall scores, and a performance score.   This ACLSA IR is useful for practice as it can help youth, caregivers, and staff acknowledge youth strengths, develop a realistic picture of youth readiness for emancipation, and identify areas in which youth may need to lean more or develop additional skills.  This can create opportunities and facilitates increased understanding among all team members.

Case Managers must ensure all youth ages 14 and older are administered the ACLSA.  It is crucial at least one adult complete the caretaker form to gain a realistic picture of the youth’s life skills accomplishments, within seven (7) days of when the youth completes their assessment.  More than one adult can complete the caregiver format, but it is important the adult completing the assessment, is someone who knows the youth well.  The ACLSA will be administered to the youth in Life Skills training at least twice, a pre-test at the beginning and a post-test at the end of the training.  The youth may complete the assessment additional times throughout the Life Skills training to assess his progress.

21.3.5  Life Skills Curriculum

Basic life skills training shall include but is not limited to:

• Self esteem;
• Personal responsibility;
• Financial responsibility;
• Housing issues;
• Employment issues;
• Daily personal care;
• Sexual responsibility;
• Relationship building; and/or
• Realistic goal setting.

Group size depends on availability of youth in any given area.  In order to provide quality services, it is recommended the groups be maintained at a minimum of six (6) with a recommended maximum of fifteen (15).  If there are less than six youth eligible for the program in any one area, ILP Specialists and contracted trainers will coordinate with other areas to maximize services.  Every youth who meets the eligibility requirements will be given the opportunity to complete the life skills training and receive support services.

21.3.6  Educational Assistance

Youth in out-of-home care are often one or more grade levels behind due to the disruptions in their lives.  Education should be approached in a comprehensive and integrated manner in the early years.  Begin early with on-going encouragement and support for higher education and make the educational plan part of the permanency plan.

More specifically:

• 14-15 year old – Begin development and implement individualized education plan with youth and make certain they are enrolled in the Pre-ILP Program.
• 16-18 year old – Identify and assist in the development and implementation of an educational plan.  Provide encouragement and support for those who have an existing plan.  Enroll the youth in the ILP Life Skills training.
• 18-21 year old – Identify educational needs and provide assistance, support or assist in the development of an educational plan.

All youth should have a minimum of a GED as an overall goal.

21.3.7  Education and Training Voucher

The Promoting Safe and Stable Families Amendments of 2001 added a 6th purpose, Education and Training Vouchers (ETV) to the Chafee program.  ETV allows states to provide funds for youth to attend post-secondary education or training programs.  Early and on-going support for education is extremely important in preparing youth for self-sufficiency.  Setting, monitoring and incorporating educational goals as part of their permanency plan will assist youth in understanding the importance of having a vision of educational success.  At a minimum our foster youth should have a GED as their educational goal, but it is our desire that youth shall have the opportunity to receive post-secondary education and training.  The ETV Program gives the Children’s Division the opportunity to provide educational and training funds to assist eligible youth interested in pursuing a higher education to reach their goals. 

Those Eligible for ETVs include:

• Youth currently eligible for Chafee services;
• Youth who were adopted from foster care after their 16th birthday;

Additionally:

• Youth participating in a higher education program on their 21st birthday shall remain eligible until age 23, provided they are making satisfactory progress;
• Youth must have a high school diploma or equivalent;
• Youth must demonstrate academic success or motivation in school (generally a “C” average or its equivalency or as otherwise agreed upon with the plan) or in training program;
• Youth must be accepted to an accredited or pre-accredited public or non-profit college/university and vocational school or certified training program;
• Appropriate scholarships, grants and other financial assistance must be explored and utilized; and
• There must be reasonable assurance the youth will graduate from the educational or training program.

Youth may receive up to $5,000 per year or the total “cost of attendance”.  The cost of attendance includes:

• Tuition and fees.
• Room and Board for former foster youth who left care at age 18 or after but have not reached age 21.  Room and Board assistance may also eligible for youth 21-23 if they are enrolled full-time in a post-secondary educational or training program.
• Rental or purchase of required equipment, materials or supplies (including a computer).
• Allowance for books, supplies, transportation, etc.
• Special study projects.

Eligible youth may apply for post secondary education/training assistance by completing the attached Chafee Education and Training Voucher application, CS-ILP-6.  Once the youth has completed the application and provided the necessary documentation, the application shall be forward to the ILP Specialist assigned to the county for processing.  ETV assistance will be reviewed and made on a semester basis. 

This application is also available on the DSS Intranet at http://www.dss.mo.gov/cs/index.htm and the DSS Internet at http://www.dss.mo.gov/ under Children’s Services program or directly to the Chafee web site at http://www.dss.mo.gov/cd/chafee/index.htm.  The application can be printed off these sites and completed by hand or the youth may complete the application on-line and printed it off.