Grandfamilies
Encyclopedia
Grandfamily is a recently coined, infrequently used, term in the United States that refers to a family
where grandparent
s, great-grandparents, other relative
s, or close family friends are raising a child because the biological parents are unwilling or unable to do so. Legal custody
of a child may or may not be involved, and the child may be related by blood, marriage
or adoption
. This arrangement is also known as "kinship care", "kincare" or "relative care". Kinship placement may reduce the number of home placements children experience, allow children to maintain connections to communities, schools and family members, increase the likelihood of eventual reunification with birth parents, is less costly to taxpayers than formal foster care
and keeps many children out of the foster care
system.
There are currently 6,660,064 children in the United States
who are living in grandfamilies. Over 2.5 million grandparents living with their grandchildren are primarily responsible for the care of these children. According to a 2000 U.S. Census Bureau report, 2.4 million grandparents had primary responsibility for their coresident grandchildren younger than 18. Among grandparent caregivers, 39 percent had cared for their grandchildren for 5 or more years. Between 2000 and 2005, the number of children raised by relatives in the U.S. has increased by more than 222,000, and nearly 480,000 grandparents nationally are raising children below the federal poverty level. Relatives care for 24% of all children in foster care in the United States.
and neglect
in the biological home, exhibit signs of post-traumatic stress disorder
, have special needs
or disabilities resulting from in utero
substance abuse, be in need of counseling or other support services, or require specialized social and educational services.
resulting from fear of the perception that one failed in raising one's own child. Caregivers may be hesitant to pursue legal custody
of children in their care if they want to maintain relationships with the child's biological parent, or if they view the arrangement as temporary.
Grandfamilies face obstacles not encountered by biological parents such as obtaining medical and educational services for the children in their care and securing affordable housing
in which they can live with the children. Many of the public assistance benefits available to birth parents and foster families are not available to kinship caregivers even if the child was receiving assistance in the parent's home. Some states offer "subsidized guardianship" payments for kinship families with children placed through children services agencies or foster care agencies, although these payments are substantially less than payments non-relative foster families receive. Financial issues are common for many older grandparents and great-grandparents who are living on fixed income
s, Social Security
or disability payments, who did not plan to raise children late in life, or who are raising children with demanding educational or medical needs. The prevalence of these financial issues has led to a high rate of food insecurity, job loss and home foreclosure
in families who support additional children without adequate financial and service assistance. The obstacles can be even greater in "informal" care arrangements, where the relative caregiver lacks a legal relationship (such as legal custody
or guardian
ship) with the child.
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, less than 20% of children raised by grandparents have legal custody arrangements. Some states have established avenues towards legal guardianship for grandparent caregivers who are informally caring for children. Ohio's HB 130, the Grandparent Affidavit and Power of Attorney Bill, establishes two legal mechanisms to assist caregivers to access educational and medical services for children in their residential care as an alternative to intrusive children services intervention or expensive legal processes. This type of temporary guardianship is preferred by families who hope for eventual reunification of birth parents and biological children.
Recent legislation, the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008
includes several provisions affecting kinship families. The legislation authorizes federal funding of subsidized guardianship payments, establishes kinship navigator programs to assist caregivers in accessing community assistance and support services for the children in their care, requires notice be given to adult relatives when a child enters care, and allows states more flexibility with licensing standards when placing a child with a relative.
The AARP
and Generations United both maintain searchable online databases of kinship programs in the United States.
and provides funding for supportive services to grandfamilies. Reauthorized and amended in 2006, NFCSP provides federal funding for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Aging
(AoA) to administer the program. The AoA funds local Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) to provide supportive services to grandparents and other relatives aged 55 and older who are relative caregivers of children. Supportive services fall into 5 categories designated by NFCSP:
(1) information to caregivers about available services;
(2) assistance to caregivers in gaining access to the services;
(3) individual counseling, organization of support groups,
and training assist the caregivers in the areas of health, nutrition,
and financial literacy, and in making decisions and solving problems
relating to their caregiving roles;
(4) respite care to enable caregivers to be temporarily relieved from their
caregiving responsibilities; and
(5) supplemental services, on a limited basis, to complement the care
provided by caregivers.
, Children Services
, or another foster care agency to apply for the TANF Child-Only grant. TANF funding can be obtained through county Job and Family Services facilities.
provides a federal tax credit
to workers with incomes up to $36,348 (single), or $38,348 (married) who are raising children. Families must meet income requirements that depend on the number of children they are raising. Caregivers do not have to be the child's legal guardian
or custodian
, and the child doesn't have to be defined as the caregiver's dependent by the IRS. The child must be your biological child, grandchild, stepchild, foster or adoptive child, sibling, or a descendant of one of these. The child must have lived with you for more than half of the filing year and be under the age of 19, a full-time student under the age of 24, or totally disabled
.
helps families who pay for child care so that they can work or look for work. The dollar amount of the credit depends on the number of children in the family, the annual household income, and the amount of money paid annually for child care. Caregivers do not have to be the child's legal guardian or custodian, but the child must be defined as the caregiver's dependent by the IRS.
offers a tax credit of up to $1000 per child. The maximum income allowable to receive this credit is fairly high, so many families who are over-income for other programs may be eligible. The qualifying child must be younger than 17. Caregivers do not have to be the child's legal guardian or custodian, but the child must be defined as a dependent by the IRS.
Family
In human context, a family is a group of people affiliated by consanguinity, affinity, or co-residence. In most societies it is the principal institution for the socialization of children...
where grandparent
Grandparent
Grandparents are the parents of a person's own parent, whether that be a father or a mother. Every sexually-reproducing creature who is not a genetic chimera has a maximum of four genetic grandparents, eight genetic great-grandparents, sixteen genetic great-great-grandparents, etc...
s, great-grandparents, other relative
Relative
-General use:*Kinship, the principle binding the most basic social units society. If two people are connected by circumstances of birth, they are said to be relatives-Philosophy:...
s, or close family friends are raising a child because the biological parents are unwilling or unable to do so. Legal custody
Child custody
Child custody and guardianship are legal terms which are used to describe the legal and practical relationship between a parent and his or her child, such as the right of the parent to make decisions for the child, and the parent's duty to care for the child.Following ratification of the United...
of a child may or may not be involved, and the child may be related by blood, marriage
Marriage
Marriage is a social union or legal contract between people that creates kinship. It is an institution in which interpersonal relationships, usually intimate and sexual, are acknowledged in a variety of ways, depending on the culture or subculture in which it is found...
or adoption
Adoption
Adoption is a process whereby a person assumes the parenting for another and, in so doing, permanently transfers all rights and responsibilities from the original parent or parents...
. This arrangement is also known as "kinship care", "kincare" or "relative care". Kinship placement may reduce the number of home placements children experience, allow children to maintain connections to communities, schools and family members, increase the likelihood of eventual reunification with birth parents, is less costly to taxpayers than formal foster care
Foster care
Foster care is the term used for a system in which a minor who has been made a ward is placed in the private home of a state certified caregiver referred to as a "foster parent"....
and keeps many children out of the foster care
Foster care
Foster care is the term used for a system in which a minor who has been made a ward is placed in the private home of a state certified caregiver referred to as a "foster parent"....
system.
There are currently 6,660,064 children in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
who are living in grandfamilies. Over 2.5 million grandparents living with their grandchildren are primarily responsible for the care of these children. According to a 2000 U.S. Census Bureau report, 2.4 million grandparents had primary responsibility for their coresident grandchildren younger than 18. Among grandparent caregivers, 39 percent had cared for their grandchildren for 5 or more years. Between 2000 and 2005, the number of children raised by relatives in the U.S. has increased by more than 222,000, and nearly 480,000 grandparents nationally are raising children below the federal poverty level. Relatives care for 24% of all children in foster care in the United States.
Kinship Children
There are many reasons a parent may be unwilling or unable to care for their child, including death, incarceration, illness, substance abuse and financial instability. Many kinship children were placed by child protective services agencies after removing the child from the biological home, and often local children services will seek out relative placements before placing a child in non-relative foster care. Most kinship children have experienced some form of trauma that resulted in estrangement from their natural families. Kinship children may have been victims of abuseChild abuse
Child abuse is the physical, sexual, emotional mistreatment, or neglect of a child. In the United States, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Department of Children And Families define child maltreatment as any act or series of acts of commission or omission by a parent or...
and neglect
Neglect
Neglect is a passive form of abuse in which a perpetrator is responsible to provide care for a victim who is unable to care for himself or herself, but fails to provide adequate care....
in the biological home, exhibit signs of post-traumatic stress disorder
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Posttraumaticstress disorder is a severe anxiety disorder that can develop after exposure to any event that results in psychological trauma. This event may involve the threat of death to oneself or to someone else, or to one's own or someone else's physical, sexual, or psychological integrity,...
, have special needs
Special needs
In the USA, special needs is a term used in clinical diagnostic and functional development to describe individuals who require assistance for disabilities that may be medical, mental, or psychological. For instance, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders and the International...
or disabilities resulting from in utero
In utero
In utero is a Latin term literally meaning "in the womb". In biology, the phrase describes the state of an embryo or fetus. In legal contexts, the phrase is used to refer to unborn children. Under common law, unborn children are still considered to exist for property transfer purposes.-See also:*...
substance abuse, be in need of counseling or other support services, or require specialized social and educational services.
Kinship Caregivers
Kinship caregivers may be grandparents, great-grandparents, siblings, aunts, uncles, or family friends of the children in their care. Caregivers often feel responsible for extended family members and prefer to care personally for relative children who may otherwise end up in non-relative foster care. In many cases, grandparents and other relatives have not planned for the addition of children to the home, and may have problems accessing social and educational services that have changed drastically since they raised their own children. Some caregivers experience feelings of guilt and social isolationSocial isolation
Social isolation refers to a lack of contact with society for members of social species. There may be many causes and individuals in numerous generally social species are isolated at times, it need not be a pathological condition. In human society, in those cases where it is viewed as a pathology,...
resulting from fear of the perception that one failed in raising one's own child. Caregivers may be hesitant to pursue legal custody
Legal custody
-Prisoners:See of the Prison Act 1952.In section 4 of the Official Secrets Act 1989, the expression "legal custody" includes detention in pursuance of any enactment or any instrument made under an enactment.-Children:See of the Children Act 1975....
of children in their care if they want to maintain relationships with the child's biological parent, or if they view the arrangement as temporary.
Grandfamilies face obstacles not encountered by biological parents such as obtaining medical and educational services for the children in their care and securing affordable housing
Affordable housing
Affordable housing is a term used to describe dwelling units whose total housing costs are deemed "affordable" to those that have a median income. Although the term is often applied to rental housing that is within the financial means of those in the lower income ranges of a geographical area, the...
in which they can live with the children. Many of the public assistance benefits available to birth parents and foster families are not available to kinship caregivers even if the child was receiving assistance in the parent's home. Some states offer "subsidized guardianship" payments for kinship families with children placed through children services agencies or foster care agencies, although these payments are substantially less than payments non-relative foster families receive. Financial issues are common for many older grandparents and great-grandparents who are living on fixed income
Fixed income
Fixed income refers to any type of investment that is not equity, which obligates the borrower/issuer to make payments on a fixed schedule, even if the number of the payments may be variable....
s, Social Security
Social Security (United States)
In the United States, Social Security refers to the federal Old-Age, Survivors, and Disability Insurance program.The original Social Security Act and the current version of the Act, as amended encompass several social welfare and social insurance programs...
or disability payments, who did not plan to raise children late in life, or who are raising children with demanding educational or medical needs. The prevalence of these financial issues has led to a high rate of food insecurity, job loss and home foreclosure
Foreclosure
Foreclosure is the legal process by which a mortgage lender , or other lien holder, obtains a termination of a mortgage borrower 's equitable right of redemption, either by court order or by operation of law...
in families who support additional children without adequate financial and service assistance. The obstacles can be even greater in "informal" care arrangements, where the relative caregiver lacks a legal relationship (such as legal custody
Legal custody
-Prisoners:See of the Prison Act 1952.In section 4 of the Official Secrets Act 1989, the expression "legal custody" includes detention in pursuance of any enactment or any instrument made under an enactment.-Children:See of the Children Act 1975....
or guardian
Legal guardian
A legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. Usually, a person has the status of guardian because the ward is incapable of caring for his or her own interests due to infancy, incapacity, or disability...
ship) with the child.
According to the 2000 U.S. Census, less than 20% of children raised by grandparents have legal custody arrangements. Some states have established avenues towards legal guardianship for grandparent caregivers who are informally caring for children. Ohio's HB 130, the Grandparent Affidavit and Power of Attorney Bill, establishes two legal mechanisms to assist caregivers to access educational and medical services for children in their residential care as an alternative to intrusive children services intervention or expensive legal processes. This type of temporary guardianship is preferred by families who hope for eventual reunification of birth parents and biological children.
Recent legislation, the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008
Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008
The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 was an Act of Congress in the United States signed into law by President George W. Bush on October 7, 2008. It was previously unanimously passed in both the House of Representatives and in the Senate...
includes several provisions affecting kinship families. The legislation authorizes federal funding of subsidized guardianship payments, establishes kinship navigator programs to assist caregivers in accessing community assistance and support services for the children in their care, requires notice be given to adult relatives when a child enters care, and allows states more flexibility with licensing standards when placing a child with a relative.
The AARP
AARP
AARP, formerly the American Association of Retired Persons, is the United States-based non-governmental organization and interest group, founded in 1958 by Ethel Percy Andrus, PhD, a retired educator from California, and based in Washington, D.C. According to its mission statement, it is "a...
and Generations United both maintain searchable online databases of kinship programs in the United States.
Assistance for Grandparents and Relatives Raising Children
In many U.S. states, financial and service assistance programs that are available to birth parents and foster families are not available to kinship caregivers based on the family relationship to the child. Some states have more kinship support services in place than others, but the following financial assistance is available to qualified caregivers nationwide.Supportive Services
The National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP) became law in 2000 under the reauthorization of the Older Americans ActOlder Americans Act
The Older Americans Act of 1965 was the first federal level initiative aimed at providing comprehensive services for older adults. It created the National Aging Network comprising the Administration on Aging on the federal level, State Units on Aging, and Area Agencies on Aging at the local level...
and provides funding for supportive services to grandfamilies. Reauthorized and amended in 2006, NFCSP provides federal funding for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration on Aging
Administration on Aging
The Administration on Aging is an agency of the United States Department of Health and Human Services. AoA awards annual grants to State government agencies on aging and Native American tribal organizations to support programs mandated by the Congress in the Older Americans Act...
(AoA) to administer the program. The AoA funds local Area Agencies on Aging (AAAs) to provide supportive services to grandparents and other relatives aged 55 and older who are relative caregivers of children. Supportive services fall into 5 categories designated by NFCSP:
(1) information to caregivers about available services;
(2) assistance to caregivers in gaining access to the services;
(3) individual counseling, organization of support groups,
and training assist the caregivers in the areas of health, nutrition,
and financial literacy, and in making decisions and solving problems
relating to their caregiving roles;
(4) respite care to enable caregivers to be temporarily relieved from their
caregiving responsibilities; and
(5) supplemental services, on a limited basis, to complement the care
provided by caregivers.
Child-Only TANF Funds
The federal government has set aside Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) funding in all U.S. states to support working families with children under a certain income level. While eligibility to receive regular TANF funds is dependent on a family's annual household income and employment status, a "Child-Only" version is available nationally. This Child-Only grant only takes into consideration the income level of the dependent child, not the work or income eligibility of the caregiver. Some sort of temporary or permanent custody is required through juvenile courtJuvenile court
A juvenile court is a tribunal having special authority to try and pass judgments for crimes committed by children or adolescents who have not attained the age of majority...
, Children Services
Child and family services
Child and family services is a government and/or non-profit organisation designed to better the well being of individuals who come from unfortunate situations, environmental or biological. People who seek or are sought after to participate in these services, usually do not have stable homes and no...
, or another foster care agency to apply for the TANF Child-Only grant. TANF funding can be obtained through county Job and Family Services facilities.
Tax Credits
Three tax credit opportunities are available for kinship families raising children in the United States. Earned Income Tax CreditEarned income tax credit
The United States federal earned income tax credit or earned income credit is a refundable tax credit primarily for individuals and families who have low to moderate earned income. Greater tax credit is given to those who also have qualifying children...
provides a federal tax credit
Tax credit
A tax credit is a sum deducted from the total amount a taxpayer owes to the state. A tax credit may be granted for various types of taxes, such as an income tax, property tax, or VAT. It may be granted in recognition of taxes already paid, as a subsidy, or to encourage investment or other behaviors...
to workers with incomes up to $36,348 (single), or $38,348 (married) who are raising children. Families must meet income requirements that depend on the number of children they are raising. Caregivers do not have to be the child's legal guardian
Legal guardian
A legal guardian is a person who has the legal authority to care for the personal and property interests of another person, called a ward. Usually, a person has the status of guardian because the ward is incapable of caring for his or her own interests due to infancy, incapacity, or disability...
or custodian
Custodian
The term Custodian may refer to:* Janitor, a person who cleans, maintains, provides security and initiates repairs or makes minor repairs to buildings.* Custodian bank, an organization responsible for safeguarding a firm's or individual's financial assets...
, and the child doesn't have to be defined as the caregiver's dependent by the IRS. The child must be your biological child, grandchild, stepchild, foster or adoptive child, sibling, or a descendant of one of these. The child must have lived with you for more than half of the filing year and be under the age of 19, a full-time student under the age of 24, or totally disabled
Disability
A disability may be physical, cognitive, mental, sensory, emotional, developmental or some combination of these.Many people would rather be referred to as a person with a disability instead of handicapped...
.
Child and Dependent Care Credit
Child and Dependent Care CreditChild and Dependent Care Credit
The Household and Dependent Care Credit is a nonrefundable tax credit available to United States taxpayers. Taxpayers that care for a qualifying individual are eligible. The purpose of the credit is to allow the taxpayer to be gainfully employed. This credit is created by 26 U.S.C...
helps families who pay for child care so that they can work or look for work. The dollar amount of the credit depends on the number of children in the family, the annual household income, and the amount of money paid annually for child care. Caregivers do not have to be the child's legal guardian or custodian, but the child must be defined as the caregiver's dependent by the IRS.
Child Tax Credit
Child Tax CreditChild tax credit
A child tax credit is the name for tax credits issued in some countries that depends on the number of dependent children in a family. The credit may depend on other factors as well: typically it depends on income level. For example, in the United States, only families making less than $110K per...
offers a tax credit of up to $1000 per child. The maximum income allowable to receive this credit is fairly high, so many families who are over-income for other programs may be eligible. The qualifying child must be younger than 17. Caregivers do not have to be the child's legal guardian or custodian, but the child must be defined as a dependent by the IRS.
External links
- http://www.grandfamilies.org/
- http://www.grandfactsheets.org/
- http://www.gu.org/Foste10161796.asp/
- http://www.aarp.org/quicklink
- http://www.abanet.org/child/kinshipcare.shtml
- http://www.grandfamiliesofamerica.com
- http://life.familyeducation.com/grandparents/family/29678.html