Leaving the Sticky Notes Behind: Harnessing Innovation and New Technology to Help America's Foster Youth Succeed
House Subcommittee on Work and Welfare
2025-11-18
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Source: Congress.gov
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I want to welcome everybody to our work and welfare subcommittee hearing this morning. The title of our subcommittee today is Leaving the Sticky Notes Behind, Harnessing Innovation and New Technology to Help America's Foster Youth Succeed. I want to welcome all of our witnesses here today, which I'll introduce after my opening statements, and want to welcome the members here to this very important hearing today. A special thank you and welcome to our witnesses for traveling here today. I'm Congressman Darren LaHood, the chairman of the subcommittee, and I represent Illinois' 16th district, which covers much of central and northwestern parts of Illinois. This will be our second hearing as part of the committee's bipartisan work to modernize and reform the Chaffey Foster Care Program. During our hearing in June, we examined challenges youth face when aging out of foster care. Witnesses highlighted that many of our foster youth are not aware of resources offered through the Chafee program and raised concerns about states not drawing down all of their available federal funds. Our hearing today will focus on how technology and innovation can help caseworkers better support transition age foster youth. Last week, I had the honor to join President Trump and First Lady Melania Trump for the signing of an executive order titled Fostering the Future for American Children and Families. The executive order includes a call for the modernization of state child welfare systems and expanding the use of technology. And I am committed to help advance those priorities through our work on this subcommittee. Youth aging out of foster care are one of the most vulnerable populations in our country. 80% of foster youth experience trauma before adulthood, and nearly half have been diagnosed with mental health conditions. Foster youth have higher rates of educational dropout, early pregnancy, and unemployment.
One of the most significant barriers that I'm concerned about is access to stable housing. One estimate finds that nearly 35% of former foster youth experience homelessness by age 21. Programs like Shafi play a critical role in assisting youth by helping them develop life skills, access housing, and enroll in education and training. And we know caseworkers are at the forefront of youth's experience. Caseworkers help youth navigate programs, plan their future, and work towards successful independence. Yet many states face significant costs and lengthy timelines to modernize state systems. States are continuing to rely on decade-old technology, such as green screen mainframes and the equivalent of electronic, quote, sticky notes. This increases administrative burden and fuels high turnover and burnout among caseworkers. It certainly does not advance our goal of improving outcomes for foster youth. Child welfare systems have not kept up with the pace of technology and its children and caseworkers that have felt the most impact. When caseworkers rely on spreadsheets or clunky software applications to track cases, it does not create an optimal environment for identifying unmet needs or helping youth cultivate relationships with family and kin, things that are foundational to success. We will hear today from some remarkable individuals who took their experience in the private sector and developed new technology to provide better, more advanced tools for our caseworkers. with incredible results for our foster youth. I'm convinced that federal Chaffee funds could have more of an impact when paired with modern technology and newer case management tools. We know some states are testing innovative models, and I'd like to explore ways to cultivate that across the country.
I look forward to working with my colleagues on the subcommittee and the full committee to take what we have learned from these hearings to develop ways to improve Chaffee and other federal programs supporting our foster youth. Thank you again for our witnesses for being here today, and I look forward to a substantive and productive hearing today. With that, I now recognize the ranking member and my friend, Congressman Danny Davis.
And I look forward to working with you again and appreciate all of our witnesses for being here today as well. Especially do I want to welcome Ms. Carr, who not only lives in the greatest city in this country, but also lives in the community where I live, work, and have the honor of representing. So thank you very much for your work and for being here. Over 3,000 youth between 16 and 20 live in our home state of Illinois. Despite important policy improvements over the past few decades, our foster care system continues to fail
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