A small policy change could help more kids aging out of foster care

When young adults age out of the Department of Children and Families at age 18 without a permanent family, they face myriad challenges living independently. Former foster children who age out of the system often have trouble securing housing and employment or staying in school.

That’s why DCF gives young adults an option to voluntarily sign back in to DCF care to receive services, including young adult support payments. These are payments of around $40 a day plus a clothing allowance, totaling approximately $16,700 a year, and can last until the recipient turns 23.

The money is intended to help with rent, utilities, car payments, college tuition, or any other expenses facing a young person starting out on their own. If the young adult is living with their foster family, the foster parent gets the money.

If they are living in an apartment, college dorm, with a romantic partner, with a relative, or in any other independent living arrangement, the young person gets the money.

However, there is one exception: Under department policy, a young adult living with a biological parent cannot get the payments.

For many young adults, this exception causes needless hardship. Attorneys with the Children’s Law Center of Massachusetts filed a lawsuit against DCF July 8 in Suffolk Superior Court challenging the biological parent exception. The department should seek to settle the case by instituting a policy that would let young adults living with a parent get support payments on a case-by-case basis, if they need them.

The plaintiff in the suit is an 18-year-old man with a mild intellectual disability referred to by the pseudonym John Doe. Doe was in the child welfare system, in multiple group homes, between ages 13 and 18. When he turned 18, he moved in with his mother in Lynn while he finished high school, which he did this June. He still meets with a DCF caseworker. Doe requested support payments to pay for rent, transportation, food, and other expenses. But his request was denied because he is living with a biological parent.

The lawsuit argues that the policy conflicts with state laws requiring the department to provide services, including support payments, to help young adults transition to independence. It also claims the policy wasn’t properly adopted and violates federal law.

Children’s Law Center attorney Alexis Williams Torrey said particularly given the high price of housing in Massachusetts, young people may move in with a parent because they can’t afford to rent an apartment. But they still have expenses. “If they can live with a parent and avoid homelessness while they get their feet on the ground, it may very well be the safest and most stable option while they enter the workforce or they finish school,” Williams Torrey said.

A DCF spokesperson declined to comment, citing the pending litigation.

It’s not clear how many young people move in with a parent after aging out of the child welfare system. In March 2026, according to state data, there were 1,914 people between the ages of 18 and 21 being served by DCF, 902 of whom were classified as living independently (rather than in a group home or with a foster family).

In fiscal 2025, the state paid out $2.9 million in young adult support payments, according to state data obtained by the Children’s Law Center and shared with the editorial board. (Some payments are eligible for federal government reimbursement.)

A 2024 Boston Globe column mentioned a young man who moved in with his mother after dropping out of college for financial reasons without realizing his support payments would end. The family was evicted.

The editorial board recently spoke to an 18-year-old woman in Weymouth with a disability who left a residential treatment program, where DCF had placed her, and moved in with her mother, who works at KFC, while finishing high school. The woman, who asked that her name be withheld to protect her privacy, said she could have used support payments to help her afford food and health insurance. Money, she said, is a “very hard struggle for my family and me.”

Not every state has young adult support payments, and different states structure them differently. Washington and California both give payments to young adults living with a biological parent.

From a budgetary perspective, changing the policy means giving a small amount of money to a small number of young adults. From a human perspective, this could help a young adult who had a difficult childhood get an education, buy a car to get to work, or remain housed while they figure out their next steps. That’s worth the money.