ABSTRACT
Three years, 5 months, and 16 days from the date of our first session, September aged out of the child protective system and moved in with her boyfriend, Sonnythe typical independent living plan for the majority of girls leaving custody. Atypically, however, was the fact that this scheme actually worked as a tentative step into adulthood. The state offered little else, and what they did have for 18-yearolds, September neither wanted nor trusted. At some point Hanna had applied for and received Social Security disability reimbursement for September, based on her psychiatric hospital diagnosis. A few weeks after her 18th birthday September she was called to report to the Social Security office to have her Social Security check made out to her instead of the state.
