An Examination of Immigration Status and Its Implications for Transition-Age Youth in the Child Welfare System

The population of young adults who are undocumented immigrants is growing in the United States, and little is known about the prevalence and experiences of undocumented transition-age youth in foster care. This policy brief uses administrative child protective case records to provide a foundational measure of youth immigration status documentation in California leading up to the enactment of Assembly Bill 829, which aimed to enhance coordination between child welfare and legal services through timely attorney notification. In addition, we examine relationships between immigration status and Transitional Independent Living Plan (a semi-annual document describing youths’ goals and the resources needed to achieve them; TILP) outcomes. Missingness in immigration status was common and increased over time. U.S. citizens and undocumented youth were more likely to have TILPs than youth who were legal residents or had a missing immigration status. Findings highlight opportunities to both invest in services for undocumented young people exiting care and explore barriers to immigration status documentation in administrative records.