Stateline.org says 4 million now cared for by family members

Nationwide, at least 2.5 million kids are living with grandparents, and Stateline.org reports that states are increasingly turning to grandparents and other family member to care for abandoned children. The states are also passing laws to expand the legal rights of grandparents raising their grandchildren. But, the federal government is cutting back on funds it once provided to facilitate family care of these children.

States expand kinship care programs

By Christine Vestal, Stateline.org staff writer 

As the rolls of orphaned and neglected children swell, states increasingly are turning for help to grandparents and other family members, who now are caring for some 4 million abandoned children. 

Relatives provide homes for the vast majority of abandoned children, saving taxpayers an estimated $6.5 billion a year in child welfare costs. Officials say that without kin to provide care, the soaring number of children abandoned by parents suffering from drug addictions, domestic violence, incarcerations and AIDS would choke already-clogged child welfare systems.

Nationwide, at least 2.5 million kids are living with grandparents and 1.5 million more are living with other family members; some 2 million other children live in their grandparents’ homes with their parents. 

But the federal government hasn't made it easy. Just this year, Congress sliced funding to states for foster care by $580 million and tightened eligibility rules, making it tougher for states to provide aid to grandparent-headed households. It also trimmed welfare, Medicaid and other programs for the needy, many of which were used by states to assist caretakers who take in abandoned children.

Left holding the bag, states are redoubling efforts to expand so-called kinship care programs by cutting red tape involved in establishing legal guardianship, providing financial assistance, subsidizing housing, setting up educational funds, and providing respite care and other services for relatives willing to take in sometimes-difficult children, many of whom have suffered physical and emotional traumas.

States also are passing laws to make it easier for grandparents and other family members to gain the legal right to enroll kids in school and manage their medical care. 

Last year, 18 states expanded their kinship care programs; bills are pending in at least nine more states that would reduce paperwork, provide support services and increase funding for relative caregivers.

Over the past five years, states have begun to enact laws making grandparents de facto legal guardians of grandchildren who already live with them. Other states have called on child welfare agencies to make relatives the first choice when selecting permanent homes for children in state custody; others require notification of grandparents when their grandkids enter the child welfare system.

While most states have some type of kinship care program, the level of support varies widely. 

The most successful state efforts include so-called subsidized guardianship programs, in which grandparents, uncles and aunts receive the same or nearly the same level of financial support as non-relative foster parents, but without as much state supervision and paperwork.

Illinois, while not the first to offer such a program, is considered the model for subsidized guardianship, because it has helped more children than any other state, dramatically reducing its foster care caseload by placing kids with relatives and providing living expenses and other support services.

From 1997 to 2002, Illinois used federal funds to study subsidized guardianship and found that relatives provided homes that were 5 percent more permanent than foster parent homes. Of the 6,820 children who entered subsidized guardianship during the five-year period, only 3.5 percent returned to state custody, in most cases after grandparents or other guardians died. 

Thirty-two states offer similar programs, using money from a variety of sources, including the federal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), federal foster care funding under Title IV of the Social Security Act, Medicaid and state revenues. 

Louisiana, Ohio and Nevada have gone a step farther, offering financial support to grandparents of kids who have never entered the child welfare system. Ohio, Washington and New Jersey offer so-called kinship navigator programs to help relative caregivers gain access to existing federal and state social services and funding sources.

Although most state and federal policy-makers agree that kinship care is preferable to foster care, many say that relatives should be held to the same standards as non-family members when determining who can do the best job of providing a safe, secure and nurturing home for children whose parents can no longer care for them. 

A bill sponsored by Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Olympia Snow (R-Maine) would allow states to use federal foster care funding for relative caregivers, without requiring them to become licensed under the same rules applied to non-relatives. But aides acknowledge that chances of passage are dim, highlighting the importance of state efforts.

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