Co-producing service experiences for transition-age youth in foster care: Exploring the connection between transitional independent living plan development and independent living service usage

In the U.S. foster care system caseworkers are charged with preparing older adolescents unlikely to be reunified with their families or be adopted for independent adulthood. An important tool is the transitional independent living plan (TILP), which involves collaboratively engaging transition-age youth in planning for their future, identifying goals, and determining service needs. The TILP guides which Independent Living Services (ILS) the youth may receive. Depending on the youth’s goals and needs, ILS may include training and support in education, career, parenting, and other areas. Past research on this topic has focused on the availability and effectiveness of ILS and TILP planning. Less is known about whether the frequency of TILP engagement is associated with ILS use. Using administrative data and representative longitudinal survey data, we examine the relationship between TILP development and ILS utilization patterns among older youth in California foster care. Our results show that youth developed less than one TILP per year, used about one ILS monthly, and used four different types of ILS while in care. Our regression results demonstrate that youth with more TILP engagement were expected to use more ILS and a broader range of ILS. Our results also highlight associations between the county’s administrative contexts and the youths’ ILS utilization patterns. Our study offers rare empirical evidence that underscores the importance of regularly co-producing future plans with youth, training caseworkers to work collaboratively with youth in decisions about their lives, and reducing between-county variation in TILP and ILS practices.