Helping Kin Care for Kids.

State lawmakers are recognizing the important role that grandparents and other relatives play in caring for children who might otherwise end up in state custody and in the care of strangers.

When Charlene Bannon moved from New York to San Francisco two years ago to study acupuncture, she never dreamed she would end up taking care of her sister's kids. Living on savings and credit cards and going to school full-time, she was hardly in a position to take responsibility for two youngsters.

But her sister had serious drug and alcohol problems. The children's living situation was, she says, "grotesque." Five-year-old Brianna was extremely withdrawn. Brandon, 9, suffered from major hearing loss due to untreated ear infections and was reading at a kindergarten level. Both children had been traumatized by the chaos and neglect at home. Their mother, unable to cope, handed the children over to Charlene, who became their legal guardian and started receiving welfare payments of $565 a month, not for herself, but for the children.

Jacqueline Hope lives in Denver and cares for her four grandchildren, ages 2, 4, 10 and 14. Her daughter also has a drug problem and drifts in and out of her children's lives. The two youngest, Leonard and Janea, were both born with drugs in their blood. Before her husband died two years ago, the family lived on his modest pension, his Social Security benefits and the $415 in welfare payments that the children received. With her husband gone, Jacqueline gets no pension. At 55, she is too young for Social Security. She started work as a house cleaner to make ends meet, but had to stop when health problems left her feeling tired and weak. Luckily, other family members have pitched in to help with expenses. Raising the children with so little money "gets to be kind of tough," she says. But she is determined to keep going. "The most important thing is that these children feel loved and wanted."

What Bannon and Hope have in common is that the children in their care are, in welfare terminology, "child-only" cases, in which no adult is on assistance. Analysts and policymakers have paid a great deal of attention in recent years to moving adult welfare recipients off the rolls and into jobs. They are just beginning, however, to look closely at child-only cases in the wake of federal welfare reform, which replaced the old AFDC program with Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF).

In 1999, there were 770,000 child-only cases, about 29 percent of the total TANF caseload. About 60 percent of these cases nationwide are children who live with parents who are ineligible for TANF because they receive Supplemental Security Income, have broken welfare rules, are immigrants who have been in the country less than five years or for some other reason. The other 40 percent of child-only cases are children who are being cared for by a relative other than a parent. These relatives generally do not have to meet work requirements or time limits to receive cash assistance.

More than 2 million children in the United States today live in households headed by a relative. Two-thirds of these children are being cared for by grandparents. The number of these families grew 52 percent during the 1990s. Many of these grandparent-headed families receive no public assistance. Other grandparent caregivers receive welfare for themselves or foster care maintenance payments. Some of these families receive TANF child-only grants. According to most experts, children come to live with relatives for the same reasons they are removed from home and placed in foster care. Nevertheless, relatives in child-only cases generally receive much smaller monthly payments and far fewer services than do licensed foster parents.

HELP FOR RELATIVES

States and counties are beginning to understand the special needs of families like Charlene Bannon's and Jacqueline Hope's.

Bannon says she was "losing her mind" trying to juggle the demands of child rearing, school and a part-time job. She needed help, both emotional and financial. The children needed counseling and recreational activities. "Most organizations I went to, like parent support groups, couldn't help me because the kids weren't mine," she says. Then a social worker told her about a "kinship support" program at the Edgewood Center for Children and Families in San Francisco, funded by a mix of state, county and private grants.

Edgewood, which has a contract with the local department of human services, helped with money for rent, as well as clothes, shoes and food. Bannon now has a social worker she can talk to on a regular basis. She says the center also provides a "fantastic" environment for the children. Making friends with other children in her situation helped Brianna come out of her shell and eased the pain of separation from her mother. Brandon was treated for his hearing problems and enrolled in the center's tutoring program. After a year, he now reads at a third-grade level. "Edgewood has been incredibly supportive," says Bannon.

Lillian Johnson, former head of child welfare services for San Franciso, started the Kinship Care Support Network at Edgewood in 1992. About half of the families they serve are relatives-primarily grand-parents-caring for children with child-only. TANF grants. When she started the program, Johnson spent a year listening to relative caregivers. "I learned that the three things that are most important to them are respite, recreation and respect," she says. "Many of these caregivers don't have any fun in their lives because caring for their relatives' children leaves them with too little time and too little money."

Grandparent caregivers want respect because they are often blamed for their own children's problems, which can include drug and alcohol abuse, depression and domestic violence. "We built the program around these three Rs," says Johnson. "Our caregivers tell us that they would have given up a long time ago if not for the services we provide." Only 3 percent of the children in the program end up in foster care or the juvenile justice system, says Johnson, compared with about 22 percent of children in kinship care statewide.

PROGRAMS FOR GRANDPARENTS

Jacqueline Hope, the grandmother of four, got help from Denver's new Grandparents and Kinship Program in the city's Department of Human Services. In addition to the standard child-only payment of $415 per month, she now receives a TANF-funded "supportive payment" of $490, for a total of $905 per month. The extra money helps, but still leaves her family well below the federal poverty guideline of $19,950 for a family of five. The program also has a clothing allowance and has paid for the three oldest children's therapy to help them deal with the loss of their grandfather two years ago. The counseling "has helped them a lot," says Hope. A grandparent group has also provided much-needed emotional support. When she joined the group, she says that it helped to learn that "a lot of people are going through the same thing I am."

State legislators are starting to realize that supporting relatives who care for children, including children who receive TANF child-only grants, is good for the children, their families and the state budget. Children who are in the care of relatives generally experience greater stability than do children in nonrelative foster care. Without support, however, many grandparents find it next to impossible to raise their grandchildren, especially when the children reach the difficult teenage years.

Many grandparents are on fixed incomes and, like Jacqueline Hope, have their own health problems to contend with. Without help, some have no choice but to relinquish their grandchildren to an already overburdened foster care system. Although some relatives need extra cash, many say they are more in need of such services as respite care and support groups, as well as legal assistance to obtain custody or the authority to enroll a child in school and consent to medical treatment.

The good news for states is that increased TANF grants and support services generally cost substantially less than formal foster care, which involves costly supervision by courts and caseworkers. "When the alternative is foster care," says Deborah Stein of the National Association of Child Advocates, "both the state and the kids may be better off if the family receives preventive services. It can mean greater continuity of care and connection with their families. And for the states, these programs can result in significant savings."

The success of Edgewood's kinship program inspired the California Legislature to enact a Kinship Support Services Program in 1997. It provides grants to eligible counties to support relatives caring for children placed in their homes by the juvenile court or who are at risk of abuse or neglect or delinquency. Funds can be used for a wide array of services, including case management, housing, homemaker services, respite care, transportation, counseling, tutoring and day care. The Legislature approved $3 million in funding for the program in August.

GRANDPARENTS SAVE STATE MONEY

Representative Sharon Weston Broome of Louisiana became interested in kinship care after she attended a grandparent support group about four years ago. "I became their advocate," she says. "They touched my heart."

She sponsored legislation that created a program in 1997 to support grandparents caring for children in the child welfare system. But she found that most children in the care of grandparents are not in the state system. So in 1999, she introduced a bill to establish a more comprehensive Grandparent Subsidy Program that would pay an enhanced TANF child-only grant to children in the custody or guardianship of grandparents who meet financial eligibility criteria. Although state lawmakers were initially skeptical about what they perceived as another welfare program, the legislation eventually received overwhelming support.

"Once the committee heard the stories of grandparents, they became more sensitive to the issue," says Broome. "Also, being able to use TANF was a godsend, because we didn't have many options in terms of the state general fund." The most effective selling point, however, was showing lawmakers that "you can save money by allowing grandparents to care for the children instead of the state." The program pays kinship caregivers $222 per month per child, which is considerably less than the state's monthly foster care cost, which includes administrative costs and may include a clothing allowance, counseling and related expenses.

Like Representative Broome, Missouri Senator Mary Bland's interest in kinship care began with a visit to a grandparent support group. She heard the story of a 73-year old grandmother in poor health who was raising 10 grandchildren in Kansas City. "That's a tough position to be in," says Senator Bland. "There are a lot of grandparents out there who need assistance. They are helping to take the burden of caring for children off of the state."

She sponsored legislation that created the Grandparents as Foster Parents program, which offers an enhanced monthly grant and support services to grandparents and other relatives, age 50 and older, who have guardianship or custody of a child. Like Louisiana's program, there is no requirement for involvement by the child welfare agency.

In Ohio, the 2000-2001 biennial budget includes a requirement that the state create a kinship support services program. Senator Merle Kearns, chair of the Senate Human Services and Aging Subcommittee, learned about the needs of kinship caregivers from nurses who work in under-served communities. "We were amazed at how many grandparent caregivers are out there.

"They were telling the nurses that they couldn't get the children immunized because they didn't have the authority," says Senator Kearns. The state Department of Job and Family Services is now providing counties with the funds to hire or contract with "kinship navigators" to help grandparents and other relatives obtain needed services, including legal authority to make important decisions on behalf of the child. The state health department created a program called Help Me Grow, that includes a toll-free number kinship caregivers can call for services and referrals. Callers will also receive a Kinship Resource Guide, a directory of service providers in each county.

Legislatures in some states have created special programs in which enhanced child-only grants are used to support relatives caring for children in the child welfare system. Florida's Relative Caregiver Program pays relatives an amount that is greater than the standard child-only grant, but less than the monthly foster care maintenance payment. Relatives must undergo background checks, but need not go through foster care licensing. California's Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program (Kin-GAP) supports relatives who have obtained permanent guardianship of abused or neglected children. Participants receive an amount equal to the monthly foster care maintenance payment. The program is funded with a mix of TANF, state and county funds.

Some states, such as California and Delaware, have enacted medical and educational consent laws providing related caregivers with temporary authority to consent to medical treatment and school enrollment. Louisiana Representative Broome is planning to introduce similar legislation in 2001.

"Relative caregivers also have trouble being heard in custody disputes involving the child," says Anna Beltran, project director for Generations United. Kentucky and Indiana have responded to this problem by adopting "de facto custody" laws, which give relative caregivers status as an interested party and right to notice of hearings in legal proceedings.

Kinship caregivers often say that, despite difficulties, raising children has enriched their lives. "Even though it hasn't been easy, I wouldn't trade this year for anything," says Charlene Bannon.

Jacqueline Hope is trying to adopt her grandchildren. "My job is to make sure these kids are secure, that they have a family," she says.

Steve Christian is NCSL's expert in child welfare.

WHEN ONLY CHILDREN RECEIVE WELFARE

Children being raised by a relative are not the only ones eligible for assistance under "child-only" benefits of Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF). Although kinship caregivers are the largest category (40 percent) of these cases, disabled parents, parents who are not citizens and parents who have been removed for not complying with welfare rules also can receive benefits for their child even though they are not eligible themselves. These child-only cases are not subject to work requirements or time limits.

Parents receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) do not qualify for welfare, but may apply for TANF for their children. Parents who are over 65, blind or disabled and who have little or no income are eligible for SSI benefits. When their children receive TAN F, the case is considered a child-only case. On average, a quarter of all child-only cases involve a parent receiving SSI.

About 16 percent of child-only cases concern youngsters born in the United States to parents who are not citizens. Most people who entered the country alter August 996 and have not become citizens cannot receive TANF for five years, but their children are eligible for help.

A child-only case can also result when a parent loses benefits for not complying with TANF requirements. Noncompliance can include failure to participate in work activities, ensure that children attend school, keep children's immunizations current or assist with child support enforcement measures. In some states, when a parent loses benefits the case converts to a child-only case. In other states, the entire family is removed from the rolls.

While welfare caseloads nationwide have declined by 52 percent, the proportion of instances where only the child is receiving welfare is growing. About 30 percent of the total TANF caseload, or 770,000 cases in 1999, were child-only. States have varying numbers of child-only populations ranging from 10 percent to almost half of their caseload due to diverse sanction, kinship and foster care policies. States and counties with higher numbers of immigrant families also can have higher child-only case numbers.

In the next year, more will be known about this growing welfare caseload of children because child-only statistics are now-required in new federal data collected this year. As the needs are better understood, states have the flexibility to shape support services that assist these children and their families. Support groups for grandparents, child care for SSI recipients, English classes for parents who are not yet citizens and home visits for sanctioned parents are only a few examples of how states are responding to the special needs of these welfare recipients.

-Jenna Davis, NCSL 

OTHER INNOVATIVE PROGRAMS

Mediation and Legal Assistance: In Illinois, the Department of Aging, Department of Children and Family Services and Loyola University are collaborating to train law students as mediators to help grandparents communicate with their adult children and work out the best plan for grandchildren who need a home and care. The Department of Aging is also developing a legal assistance program in which trained non-lawyers based in county clerk's offices assist relative caregivers in obtaining custody and guardianship.

Housing: In Boston, two local nonprofit organizations have bought an apartment building and designed it specifically for grandparent-headed families. GrandFamilies House provides a number of services, including Generations Learning Together, a preschool and after-school care program that tutors kids in math, computer and science skills. The facility also offers a computer center, homework assistance and senior fitness programs.

Respite Care: A number of communities across the country are providing relative caregivers with respite care, which can include support groups, recreational activities and out-of-home programs for children such as tutoring and educational field trips. For example, the Adult Well-Being Program in Detroit, Mich., offers a full range of activities for grandparents 60 and older, including volunteer senior companions who come into the home to give caregivers a break.