Passing foster care’s point of no return

According to the insightful documentary “Aging Out,” airing Saturday at 9 p.m. on KCET, there are half a million children in this country’s foster care system. Most eventually return to their own families or are adopted, but about 20,000 “age out” each year, meaning they literally outgrow the system, advancing into adulthood without the necessary skills and support needed to make the transition.

The age limit varies from state to state, ranging from 18 to 21. In some states, there is a buffer period during which the young people may elect to remain in foster care, generally to assure themselves a place to live. Within two to four years after leaving foster care, 25% of those who age out are homeless, 40% are on public assistance and 50% are unemployed. A quarter of the males have been incarcerated and more than half of the females have given birth.

As staggering as those numbers are, they don’t do justice to the frustrating, embittered and tragic individual stories related in “Aging Out.” Written, produced and directed by Roger Weisberg, along with co-producer and co-director Vanessa Roth, the film follows three young people as they transition to “independent living.”

While it has become something of a cultural joke for kids to remain in their parents’ homes now well into their 20s and 30s, the underlying truth is that it has become more difficult to get the traction necessary to land that first meaningful job or first apartment. For the three young adults depicted in Weisberg and Roth’s documentary, the odds are even longer as they face many of the same challenges but with little or no family and financial support.

David Griffin is an angry, volatile young California man who entered the system as an infant because of his mother’s mental health problems. By the time he reached his 18th birthday, he’d lived in 20 foster care situations, either in group homes or with families. His abrasive nature and tendency toward violence have made it difficult for him to maintain relationships with his foster parents. Criminal behavior and drug use have further complicated his life. His plans for the future changed radically day to day, but he dreamed of going to Canada, building a log cabin and living off the land.

Remaining in the New York foster care system beyond her 18th birthday was Daniella Anderson’s choice. She entered at 16 after fleeing an abusive father and needed a place to live while attending college. Daniella and her boyfriend, Veasna, a Cambodian-born young man who lives in a foster group home, were expecting a child and shuttling back and forth between school, jobs and their respective residences, balancing the benefits of remaining in foster care with the restrictions it places on them.

Bright and hard-working, Risa Bejarano was a rarity in the system. She graduated from Pioneer High School in Whittier and earned scholarships, which enabled her to enroll at UC Santa Barbara. She had a remarkably close relationship to her foster mother. Her journey, however, was made treacherous by drugs and alcohol and unresolved issues surrounding the sexual abuse that landed her in foster care at age 9.

Though the film is undeniably moving, Weisberg and Roth allow the stories to unfold uninflected, with David, Daniella and Risa speaking candidly about their experiences. The three young adults, who have been forced to deal with adult problems their entire lives, seem both wise beyond their years and impossibly naive. In some instances, they are their own worst enemies, making bad situations worse through their self-destructive or defiant behavior. It is easy to empathize with the foster parents and administrators, who are presented as neither heroes nor villains but as regular people struggling within an explosive bureaucracy and dealing with the aggravation of world-weary post-adolescents.

The film does not rip the foster care system or the many people who open up their homes and lives as foster parents, but rather presents detailed examples of a structure that is inarguably dysfunctional.

It makes a strong case for reforming the procedures for dealing with aging out, but more importantly, it suggests that the kids are being let down at an even earlier age.

*

‘Aging Out’

Where: KCET

When: 9 -- 10:30 p.m., Saturday

Ratings: TV-PG L (may be unsuitable for young children with advisory for language)

Directors, producers, Roger Weisberg and Vanessa Roth. Writer, Roger Weisberg.