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Most states, including Missouri, have a law that allows some children who are in foster care to gain access to extended services between the ages of 18 and 21. The pandemic law extended that to 22. The reason behind the program, funded by the federal government, is simple: It helps children who have had a difficult life transition into adulthood and ideally avoid pitfalls that might lead to incarceration, where they would cost taxpayers even more money.

Jenny is one of those children. That鈥檚 not her real name, but she and her attorneys asked that I protect her privacy. Around the same time the law extending the foster care program to age 22, Jenny turned 21.

Her foster care services were not extended by the Missouri Children鈥檚 Division. Jenny, who lives in Jackson County, has two children. She has struggled to find employment during the pandemic, in part because her child care options have been shut down.

鈥淚 wasn鈥檛 ready,鈥� to age out of the system, she told me in an interview. 鈥淢y case worker asked if I was ready to age out, and I specifically told her no.鈥�

Jenny had been in the foster care program since age 14, the result of a biological father who abused her: 鈥淭he last time, it was so horrible, I had to run away to a stranger鈥檚 house.鈥�

Her grandmother ended up taking her to a hospital; she had been in foster care ever since. But when she turned 21 during the pandemic, she found herself with no financial aid, no guidance. She feared she and her children would end up on the streets.

Attorneys for the American Civil Liberties Union and Legal Services of Eastern Missouri interceded. They filed a lawsuit asking a judge to make Missouri enforce the federal law. On Aug. 13, Jackson County Family Judge Jalilah Otto issued an order requiring the state to extend Jenny鈥檚 foster care services and pay her the assistance she should have been receiving since last December.

Jenny is hardly alone. There are hundreds of other teens or young adults like her who could use the services provided for in the federal law, but Missouri hasn鈥檛 done enough to help them, alleges ACLU attorney Anthony Rothert.

鈥淯nfortunately, President Trump鈥檚 compassion is more than Missouri officials can muster,鈥� he said. 鈥淚nstead, they continue to break their word by defying obligations that come from their choice to take a massive amount of federal funds.鈥�

Rebecca Woelfel, communications director for the Department of Social Services, says the state 鈥渋s complying with state and federal law.鈥� She pointed to a news release the department sent out in July announcing that some foster children were eligible for the enhanced federal aid, and she says the department mailed letters to youth who had aged out of the program between January 2020 and June 30, 2021, to let them know about the additional aid. Woelfel says 1,059 foster children or former foster children have applied for the assistance.

The extension of the foster care program for those who have aged out at 21 ends Sept. 30, so other people who are in Jenny鈥檚 situation will no longer have access to the special assistance after that date. That鈥檚 why Rothert thinks it is so important for as many people as possible to find out about their rights to additional financial aid, or their opportunity to re-enter the foster care program, to help them get through the pandemic. He doesn鈥檛 believe the state has done nearly enough to reach people like Jenny, particularly while spending millions of dollars of COVID-19 aid on various consultants with little to show for it.

鈥淎lready, Missouri is nearly eight months late in providing youth in need with the relief to which they are entitled, while wasting no time spending pandemic funds on pet projects,鈥� Rothert says. 鈥淚s there no one in Missouri executive government who will stand up for these youth?鈥�