Child welfare
Aged-out foster youth would get housing and job help sooner
House Bill 4730 lays out three living arrangements, practical life skills training and career support, along with a monthly stipend for basic costs once a young person lives independently.
The bill would create a continuum of independent living and transitional support services for West Virginia youth leaving foster care. It is meant to keep help in place before the cutoff, not after young people are already on their own.
- The bill focuses on youth aging out of foster care.
- It would require a statewide, coordinated support system.
- Help would start before a young person leaves care.
- A young person leaving foster care in West Virginia would no longer be expected to stitch together housing, school, work and basic life skills alone
- The point of the bill is continuity
A young person leaving foster care in West Virginia would no longer be expected to stitch together housing, school, work and basic life skills alone. House Bill 4730 would require the Department of Human Services to develop and maintain a coordinated continuum of independent living and transitional support services for youth preparing to exit foster care or who have recently aged out, with the system in place before they leave care and available statewide.
A bridge into adulthood
The point of the bill is continuity. Instead of treating aging out as a sudden cutoff, it would make the state responsible for a connected set of services that can follow young people as they move from care into adult life. That matters most for teens and young adults who may be handling their first apartment, first job, or first round of bills at the same time they are losing the structure of foster care.