On November 8, 2019, Dr. Vanessa Fry, Research Director at the Idaho Policy Institute, and Guido Giuntini, a lecturer in the College of Business and Economics, presented to The Governor’s Task Force on Children At Risk (CARTF). They presented results from a study examining the long term outcomes of children in Idaho’s foster care system. They specifically asked the question, “Do children who have aged out of Idaho’s Fourth Judicial District’s Court Appointed Special Advocate (CASA) program engage with the Idaho Department of Corrections (IDOC) at the same rate as the general population?”.
The study found:
- Former foster children and youth in the study are 2.2 times more likely to have interacted with IDOC than the general population.
- The ratio for males is 2.2 times that of the general population and for females it is 2.6 times.
- As former foster youths age, incidents increase
Vanessa Fry, Research Director at the Idaho Policy Institute; Joshua Wickard, Ada County Public Defender and Chairman of CARTF; Jennifer Tachell, West Ada School District Behavior Specialist and Vice Chair of CARTF; Guido Giuntini, lecturer in the Department of Economics at Boise State University