“It is difficult to pinpoint an exact reason for a decrease in foster care numbers over the years,” said Miranda Fisher, Utah Division of Child and Family Services public information officer. “Contributing factors likely include the UDCFS taking a preventative approach to child welfare with increased efforts and focus on keeping children safe at home, whenever possible. Changes in statute over the last several years, which prohibits DCFS from taking custody of youth for ungovernable or delinquent behaviors, are also a likely contributing factor.”

Despite the lower number of older children in the state’s care, access to resources remains a difficulty for most, according to the study. Between 2016 and 2021, Utah scored lower than the national average in five of the six categories of services that older foster youth participated in.

These services include life skills training, room and board assistance, educational financial assistance, mentoring, employment programs/vocational training, and academic support for grades K-12. Only mentoring in Utah showed an increase, rising 11% between 2018 and 2021 and reaching a rate of 24% versus the 14% national average in 2021.

This contrasts with the fact that 78% of Utah’s 2,834 older foster children have participated in a service at some point between the ages of 14 and 21, compared to 47% of the country’s 210,539 foster youth.

“It’s clear from the data that states can do more to ensure that young people in foster care have permanent families and receive the services they need to thrive as they transition into adulthood,” Leslie Gross, director of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Family Well-Being Strategy Group, said of the study. “To achieve better outcomes, all decision makers who are designing solutions must authentically partner with young people who have foster care experience.”

In the past, the UDCFS has used data like this to create the Family Unification Program voucher and the Family Self Sufficiency voucher. These programs are designed to assist older youth find and retain housing as they transition out of foster care and after. These vouchers can help provide 60 months of support for housing when used together.

“Utah DCFS is a data-driven, continuous quality improvement agency. We (will continue to) use data and statistics to improve processes and guidelines as well as implement new programs (for the benefit of foster care children),” Fisher said.

The UDCFS advises to call law enforcement for any child who is currently in danger of serious injury or is suspected to be currently in danger of serious injury. All other reporting can be done by using the UDCFS online form at dcfs.utah.gov or calling the agency’s hotline at 1-855-323-3237.