Over half of foster children never receive the credit checks federal law requires, leaving identity theft undiscovered for years

Federal law (Preventing Sex Trafficking and Strengthening Families Act of 2014) requires every child in foster care aged 14 and older to receive an annual free credit check and assistance resolving inaccuracies. Yet a 2024 HHS Office of Inspector General report found that over half of eligible children never received any credit check in FY 2021. Of those who did get checked, 4% already had credit reports — a red flag for identity theft, since minors generally cannot legally open credit. Foster youth are uniquely vulnerable because dozens of adults — caseworkers, group home staff, foster parents, court personnel — rotate through access to their Social Security numbers over the course of their time in care. Why it matters: Foster youth's SSNs are exposed to a revolving door of adults, so identity theft often occurs while they are minors with no way to monitor it. So these youth turn 18 and apply for their first apartment, car loan, or bank account only to discover they have destroyed credit and thousands in fraudulent debt. So they cannot secure housing or transportation, which are prerequisites for employment and education. So they fall into homelessness or exploitative living situations within the first 18 months of aging out. So the system that was supposed to protect them has instead created a financial trap that follows them for years, requiring legal intervention they cannot afford. The structural root cause is that child welfare agencies treat credit monitoring as a compliance checkbox rather than a child protection function. There is no national data collection on foster youth identity theft, no standardized process for who conducts the check (caseworker vs. agency vs. caregiver), and no enforcement mechanism when agencies fail to comply. State IT systems (CCWIS) do not flag children approaching 14 or track whether checks were completed, so the mandate is effectively unenforceable.