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When you’re leaving foster care
For young people in the United States who are about to leave foster care at 18 or a little later (people call it aging out), and for those who already have. The plan the agency is supposed to make with you. The papers you should leave with. Health coverage that can last until you are 26. Staying in care longer, or coming back. A place to live, money for school, and help with work and food. Your right to be heard. Take only what you need today.
Right now
- In danger? Call 911.
- Nowhere to sleep tonight? See When you need a place to stay. If you left care at 18 and are not yet 21, also ask the child welfare agency about coming back: a federal summary of state laws says many states allow it.
- Need a doctor or a prescription? A federal brief says all young adults who were enrolled in Medicaid when they aged out of foster care are eligible for Medicaid until age 26, even after a gap. Contact your state Medicaid agency and tell them you aged out of foster care.
- Turning 18 soon, and no plan? Ask your caseworker now for your transition plan and your papers. A federal factsheet says the law requires both.
- Thinking about ending your life? Call or text 988, at any hour.
More help
- To keep a record of every call and paper: Paper trail and Dates to keep.
- Before you dial: Call script: know what you will say before you dial.
- Tonight: When you need a place to stay and When you need food.
- Papers: When your ID is gone and When someone is using your name.
- A doctor: When you need a doctor and can’t pay.
- Money: When the money runs out and Money plan.
- Work: Resume builder, Interview practice and When something is wrong at work.
- A lawyer you can afford: When you need a lawyer and can’t pay.
- If a relative is taking you in, or took in your brother or sister: When you’re raising a relative’s child.
- For the hard nights: When you feel alone, When the past won’t stay in the past, Breathe and Can’t sleep?
- All our free tools and Get help now.
This page and its wording were written with AI (Claude) for Scarlet Beast (our AI policy). No lawyer, caseworker or person who has been in foster care has reviewed it, and it was not written by someone who has lived it: an AI has never been in foster care. The facts come from pages read on October 6, 2026. Five are publications of Child Welfare Information Gateway, a service of the Children’s Bureau in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: Helping Youth Transition to Adulthood: Guidance for Foster Parents (November 2018, which this page calls “the 2018 factsheet”; it was written for foster parents, not for you, and we say so where it matters); Using Your Voice: A Guide for Youth on Participating in Case Planning (December 2021); Health-Care Coverage for Children and Youth in Foster Care—and After (February 2026); and two summaries of state laws, Extension of Foster Care Beyond Age 18 (current through March 2022) and Educational Supports for Youth in Foster Care (current through April 2020). The rest: the Children’s Bureau’s page on the Chafee program (updated September 2026); the Department of Housing and Urban Development’s page and young-adult brochure on Foster Youth to Independence vouchers; HealthCare.gov’s page for people under 30; and Medicaid.gov’s page on where to get help. FosterClub is named because the federal publications name it; nothing here is passed on from it. The page says whose words it is passing on, and what is marked “ours” is our own suggestion. What we did not read: any state’s or tribe’s laws, forms or programs; the federal laws themselves; the Medicaid agency’s own questions and answers on former foster youth. What we could not read: the Federal Student Aid site, whose pages would not load for us, so what this page says about student aid comes from the two older publications. Several counts of states here are years old, and the page gives each with its date and does not list the states. The publications do not agree on one age (the yearly credit check: 14 in one, 16 in another), and the page shows both. We did not call any agency. Nothing on this page is stored on your device or sent anywhere, and the page loads no analytics (privacy). Your browser will still remember that you visited, as it does for any page. It was checked by programs, not yet used by people. Scarlet Beast is not a law office, a child welfare agency or a government agency, and takes no money from anyone named here. Found a mistake? Email [email protected].