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1/17/2025
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Op-Ed: Federal benefits belong with foster kids, not administration
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By Representative Julie A. Casimiro
Last legislative session, a bill was introduced that would keep federal benefits, like Social Security or veterans’ benefits, with the foster children that are entitled to this money rather than the current practice of using these funds for administrative costs. Our foster kids already experience so many obstacles, particularly financially once they age out of the system, and it is simply not right to deny them the estimated $1 million they deserve.
Young people exiting the foster care system typically lack family or other support networks to assist them, and many have not yet acquired the life skills necessary to become self-sufficient.
Consequently, 25% of young adults who age out of foster care end up homeless or incarcerated within 18 months of exiting care. When these youth are eligible for federal benefits due to a disability or because they have a deceased parent, their federal benefits – if properly conserved for their future use – would extend them a lifeline that could help them bridge the difficult transition to self-sufficiency.
It is for these reasons that I reintroduced a bill this year (2025-H 5077) that requires DCYF to establish segregated savings accounts for foster care children receiving Social Security, Supplemental Security Income and veterans’ benefits and exempt these payments from the asset limits in order to manage the accounts and keep foster children eligible for future benefits.
We have made some great strides toward bettering our child welfare system over the years, but as anyone can see in the news all too frequently, there is still much work to be done to ensure that every child has the opportunity to grow up healthy and succeed in their adult lives.
And when thinking about our state’s foster youth, we ask you to contemplate how different your life would be if you had been raised in foster care. We ask that you think of these children, who have endured a lifetime’s worth of stress, trauma and tragedy before they even reach adulthood. These kids deserve a chance to thrive and they deserve our continued support and help.
This is why we are asking you to support this bill to ensure that children aging out of foster care have every financial tool available to them when they are out in the world all by themselves. Similar legislation has been proposed in other states, including Connecticut, Massachusetts and New Hampshire, and now its Rhode Island’s time to do the right thing and pass this legislation.
This piece of legislation will provide financial hope and opportunity for children who have had a significant lack of both in their lives. If this bill is not passed this year, the consequences will be dire for foster children aging out of state care, with an already difficult process becoming worse due to financial uncertainty and instability.
By passing this bill, we can ease some of the severe financial stress that comes with aging out of state care and we ask for public support of this lifeline legislation for our foster children.
Julie A. Casimiro, a Democrat, represents District 31 in North Kingstown and Exeter and chairs the House Oversight Subcommittee on Children and Families. This letter was co-authored by RI Child Advocate Katelyn Medeiros and Sylvia Parrott, a Jim Casey Fellow with the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
For more information, contact:
Andrew Caruolo, Publicist
State House Room 20
Providence, RI 02903
(401)222-6124
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