Our Work – Health
Expectant and Parenting Youth
In California, there are over 1,000 youth in foster care who are custodial parents.
JBAY is committed to providing these young families with the support and resources they require. JBAY has worked towards this goal by advocating for policies such as an increase to the infant supplement and the establishment of the Expectant Parent Payment and the THP-NMD Housing Supplement.
Policy
The number of young parents in foster care increased in 2012 with the implementation of AB 12 which increased the upper age of foster care from 18 to age 21. In 2016 JBAY successfully advocated for an increase to the infant supplement, a monthly stipend that parenting foster youth receive to care for their child, from $411 to $900.
In 2020, JBAY worked to establish the THP-NMD Housing Supplement for the Transitional Housing Placement for Non-Minor Dependents (THP-NMD). The THP-NMD Housing Supplement will supplement the foster care rate paid to THP-NMD providers on behalf of youth placed in their programs, based on the cost of housing in each county according to HUD’s Fair Market Rent, and provides a higher Housing Supplement for serving youth who are custodial parents, allowing for larger, non-shared housing accommodations for parenting youth and their children.
In 2021, JBAY successfully advocated for the establishment of an Expectant Parent Payment, a new financial benefit for pregnant foster youth that begins three months prior to the expected birth date in order to better support pregnant foster youth and improve prenatal and birth outcomes.
