Running Away from Foster Care Key Facts and Findings

The National Runaway Switchboard (NRS) has released the third part of a study on runaway youths and their knowledge and access of services. It includes supplemental research to May 2010's report, "Why They Run: An In-depth Look at America's Runaway Youth," which sheds further light on the runaway problem in America. This third phase of research was conducted and compiled for NRS by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC).

Researchers conducted one-on-one Interviews with youth in their current foster care placement in Chicago and Los Angeles from December 2008 through July 2009. A total of 50 youth were interviewed — 25 in Chicago and 25 in Los Angeles County. Below are key findings from the third part of the research.

Key Findings

• Most youth in this sample have run away from foster care multiple times. Only one in eight had run away a single time while one in four youth had run more than ten times.
• The reasons youth run from their foster care placements can be classified into two basic categories: (1) wanting to be with family and friends and (2) disliking their placement.
• After a runaway episode, most youths return to care voluntarily. Reasons for returning included wanting to be back at their home, wanting to go to school, and avoiding getting themselves or others in trouble.
• The majority of sample youth ran away to a friend's home, including boyfriends and girlfriends. About one-third spent their first night at a relative's home. Only three youth reported spending any time of their most recent episode in an outside location such as a squat, a park, or an abandoned building. As a result, these youth do not seek services while they are on the run from a placement.
• Less than one quarter of sample youths reported having been in touch with their caseworker while on their runaway episode and most of those youths did not contact their caseworker right away.
• Youths who run away from foster care have more knowledge of services available than found for high school aged youth in general. Youth with foster care experience generally had similar or less knowledge than other runaway youth. In particular, youth in the foster care sample had less knowledge of services that typically comes from street experience including free meals, drop-in centers, street outreach and free showers.
• The biggest barrier to foster youths seeking services while on the run is that they believe they will be turned in, either directly to DCFS or to the police.
• Youths who were unhappy with their placements felt that a change in placement would have prevented them from running away. Youths wanted more freedom and fewer rules, reflected in more trust and more respect.
• Youths felt that they should be allowed to see their family more often and for group homes to give out passes more easily. Help should be given to facilitate visits with their family. More needs to be done to obviate the effects of being placed away from their neighborhood, family, and friends.
• In general, there was a widespread feeling among youths that they need someone to talk to, who will listen to them and help work through problems. Many felt they couldn't talk to their foster parents. Youths in group homes felt that therapists in group homes turn over too frequently.
• Youths feel that caseworkers do not provide the support they need. They feel that caseworkers should visit more often and find out how the youth is doing. Caseworkers should take time to talk to the kids to understand them and try to make things better. Youths feel they are not asked their opinion and that caseworkers rely on the foster parent or a visual inspection to determine if everything is fine. Basically youths wanted caseworkers to listen to the youth, try to understand, be reasonable, and be flexible.
• Most youths do not hate the system or blame it for having to remove them from their home; they just want it to work better.