Kinship Guardianship

When a child’s parents are in trouble and can no longer care for their child, often foster care is called for. But, for some fortunate children, grandparents or other family members step in to fill the role of parents.

In Mason County a support group for those with kinship guardianship of children meets every month at Mason County Reformed Church to share the joys and trials of raising those children. Most of them are grandparents, and the group is informally called Grandparents Raising Grandchildren although according to the group’s leader, June McMann, it is more accurate to think of it as kinship guardianship.

Full Article and Source:
Kinship guardianship: Parenting all over again

Fewer Kids in Foster Care

Slightly more than a decade ago, 52,000 children were in the custody of the State of Illinois.

Over the years that number dropped considerably -- to nearly 16,000 -- due to relatives stepping up to keep families together. However, African-Americans still dominate the group, said a spokesman for the Department of Children and Family Services.

As of April 30, there were 15,912 children statewide in foster care. In Cook County, there were 6,816. Of that county total, 79 percent are African-American, according to DCFS spokesman Kendall Marlowe.

Foster care is the temporary placement of children outside their homes due to abuse, neglect or dependency. Wards of the state are either in non-relative foster homes, homes with a relative, or in group homes or centers.

Marlowe: "The ultimate goal is to return the child home once issues are resolved. When that’s not an option, the department advocates for subsidized guardianship or seeks adoption for the child."

Full Article and Source:
Fewer kids in foster care than a decade ago

Fighting For Grandkids

Kathie Good has been fighting for five months to regain temporary custody of her grandkids.

Her voluntary revelation about a 24-year-old incident has become the latest hurdle in her quest and may be one too big to overcome. That she refused to believe her daughter hurt her grandson was one of the first hurdles.

The kids were turned over to the S.C. Department of Social Services in November after doctors were concerned about what they noticed during repeated doctor visits. According to court documents, doctors found bruises on the back and elsewhere of Good's infant grandson, broken blood vessels in his eyes and swelling on his penis.

A specialist at the Medical University of South Carolina concurred with the concerns of the doctors.

Good's son-in-law was charged with abuse.

DSS suspects Good's daughter of neglect.

Good, who had temporary custody, believed the court rulings allowed supervised contact between her daughter and grandkids, which is why she let her daughter visit. DSS and the guardian ad litem said it wasn't allowed.

This isn't about suspected child abuse. That case will play itself out in the courts. The parents will be found guilty or not guilty in due time. This is about a grandmother and her grandkids, foster care and family placement, and the hurdles involved.

Full Article and Source:
Issac Bailey Foster care decision in kids' interest?

Grandparents Lose Guardianship

When the Department of Children's Services took Alena from her mother for neglect, her grandparents jumped in. John and Cindy Moffit took her from DCS custody at 8 months, put her in her own carefully decorated room and loved her.

"Then the circus began," said John Moffit.

Alena's mother sued to regain custody, as did a woman named Terri Rivera. Rivera isn't a blood relative but claimed to have taken care of Alena before the Moffits stepped in.

Rivera had been arrested in 1999 for hiring a hit man to kill her then-husband for $500. When the hit man didn't follow through, Rivera confessed to putting black widow spiders in her husband's bed. She was charged with attempted murder for the spiders. She pleaded down to aggravated assault and solicitation to commit murder and was put on 12 years probation, which was violated in 2003 for marijuana.

The Moffits figured this was a simple case and decided to represent themselves. Surely, they thought, the court would not give Alena to a non-blood relative with such a criminal record.

So the Moffits representing themselves made a critical legal mistake in their pleadings. Opposing attorneys demanded they be removed from the case. Forced by law, the judge dismissed the Moffits' attempt to win permanent guardianship.

The judge was left to rule between the DCS-judged unfit mother and Rivera. The grandparents had no rights and no case.

Rivera won permanent guardianship.

Full Article and Source:
Grandparents Fight To Regain Custody Of Child - 2-Year-Old Given To Woman Charged With Attempted Murder

Grandparent-Rights Bill

Jacque Evanson had raised her grandchildren for seven years when her daughter came back into the picture. Though Evanson had guardianship, her daughter simply had to petition the court to regain custody of the three kids.

The judge "strongly recommended" the children get visitation with their grandmother. Then their mom moved them to her home in Washington state. Since then, Evanson has had minimal contact with them.

Though she ultimately wants the kids to be with their mother, Evanson feels like she also should have some rights after raising them for so many years. That's why she's visited the Capitol several times over the past few months to testify on behalf of the grandparent-rights bills presented at the 2009 Montana Legislature.

House Bill 397 establishes a close-relative registry so close relatives, such as grandparents, can sign up to be notified if the state removes a child from his or her home.

House Bill 403 asks the court to consider a child's need for continuity of care along with the other criteria when determining whether the child should be placed with someone other than a parent. The bill asks the court to look at whether the child will remain in the same area, continue at the same school and other such issues when making the judgment.

Full Article and Source:
Legislature considering a half-dozen grandparent bills

More information:
Thousands of Montana grandparents are raising their kids' kids, and it isn't easy

Grandmother Seeking Guardianship

Renee Pernice’s mother is seeking guardianship of the missing woman’s two children.

In a court filing, Linda Lockwood said the father of her grandchildren, Shon Pernice, was unfit to be a parent and unable to care for the children.

Lockwood and her husband, Douglas Lockwood, made the filing this month in Clay County Circuit Court. She noted in the petition that her daughter has been missing since early January and that the Clay County prosecutor has said there is substantial evidence that she is dead.

Lockwood said that she and other relatives felt they had to act after Clay County authorities charged Pernice with felony theft for allegedly stealing a neighbor’s handgun.

The petition also contends that Shon Pernice left the boys, ages 9 and 6, alone at their Northland home at least once, brandished a gun in front of the children, and tried to withdraw money from accounts in his wife’s name alone that were set up for the children.

Investigators have said Shon Pernice is a person of interest in his wife’s disappearance. He has not been arrested or charged.

Full Article and Source:
Mother of missing woman seeks guardianship of her two children

More information:
Renee Pernice's Mom Seeks Custody Of Kids

Renee Pernice's Parents Call Husband 'Unfit' Father

Protest Against Budget Cuts

250 petitions demand state restore funds for kin caregivers

Grandparents and other family members raising children took to the streets to protest state budget cuts they say are hurting their kids.

Participants chanted as they marched: "Fight, fight, fight for grandparents' rights."

Carrying signs that read, "Not on the backs of children,'' "No more budget cuts'' and "Old people rock,'' dozens marched the seven blocks from Armory Park, where they held a rally, to the State of Arizona Administration Building, 400 W. Congress St.

About 100 caregivers and children delivered 250 petitions, demanding that legislators restore 20 percent cuts in aid to families caring for the children of relatives. The cuts, made by state legislators last month, impact more than 10,000 Arizona children, according to organizers.

Full Article and Source:
Grandparents, family members protest cuts to state assistance

Fostering Connections Act of 2008

A new law, The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008 is designed to better connect foster children with their relatives, promote permanent families through relative guardianship, and improve education and health care for foster children.

The law provides:
* Subsidized guardianship to enable children in the care of grandparents and other relatives to exit foster care into permanency
* Kinship navigator programs to help link relative caregivers to a broad range of services and supports that will help meet their needs and the needs of the children in their care
* Notices to adult relatives of a child placed into foster care
* Options for states to waive non safety related licensing standards for relative foster parents

It also offers federal reimbursement to states for support provided to foster youth up to age 21, and requires increased efforts to keep siblings together when placed in foster care.

Full Article and Source:
Fostering Connections Act of 2008

More information:
Summary of the law

Short summary of the law

Actual text of the law

Kinship provisions

Grandparents Support Group

The Lowndes/Brooks County Grandparents Raising Grandchildren support group held its first meeting of the year, allowing grandparents to discuss the rigors of raising grandchildren and learn about legal and government aid available to them.

This month’s meeting featured paralegal Dawn Best from Georgia Legal Services’ Valdosta office and Carrie Hickman from the Division of Family and Children Services.

During the meeting, Best expounded on The Kinship Care Project and Senate Bill 88, which creates power of attorney for the care of a grandchild. Best also discussed the differences between legal custody, temporary guardianship and adoption, as well as the process for appealing denial of assistance by DFCS.

Hickman then informed the grandparents of available government assistance, such as Medicaid, food stamps and temporary assistance to needy families (TANF), and eligibility requirements.

The grandparents who attended discussed topics from financial hardship to disciplinary problems with their grandchildren.

Full Article and Source:
Grandparents raising grandchildren

Too Old

A judge in a controversial child custody case in Texas has angrily stepped down after apparently being persuaded that a related judicial conduct investigation required him to do so.

After Juvenile Court Judge John Phillips decided last year that Yolanda and Arnold Del Bosque were too old to raise the young grandchildren they had been caring for since infancy and had the two boys removed to a foster home, the couple—who were 59 and 52, respectively, at the time of the ruling—made an age bias complaint against him. Armed with a letter from the State Commission on Judicial Conduct stating that it is investigating the Del Bosques' complaint, their lawyer, law professor Barbara Stalder of the University of Houston, asked Phillips to recuse himself from the custody case.

According to Stalder, Phillips had no choice but to do so while awaiting an administrative judge's ruling on her recusal motion, "high drama ensued" at a Jan. 8 pretrial hearing, when Stalder objected to Phillips' continuing on the case. Raising his voice, an increasingly angry Phillips accused Stalder of arguing with him and ordered a bailiff to escort her from the courtroom.

Stalder: “Honest to God, I really thought he was going to have the bailiff taking me directly to a holding cell.”

Philllips soon held an informal meeting and agreed to recuse himself. Another pre-trial hearing is scheduled before Juvenile Court Judge Michael Schneider, who was appointed by the administrative law judge to hear the case.

The Del Bosques—who had received glowing reports about the home they provided their grandchildren until the judge determined their age to be an issue—are now hoping to regain custody of the boys, who are 1 and 2 years old.

Full Article and Source:
‘Too Old’ Grandparents (59 and 52) Hope for Custody Under New Judge

See also:
Texas Judge Takes Tots from ‘Too Old’ Grandparents, Age 59 and 52

Ray of hope for 2 boys in legal dispute

What's Best for Payge?

Two-year-old Payge Pherigo has lived in six homes since her birth mother left the girl at a Newton hospital as a "safe haven" baby.

For the past 11 months, the little girl has been with her birth father. But he is in the county jail again, and the state is now faced with deciding whether it's best to keep Payge with a father who adores her but struggles with substance abuse problems, or to allow someone else to care for her.

The case is one that has left Department of Human Services staff members and a judge in a thankless position of balancing the girl's interests, the father's parental rights and the emotions of relatives, who believe they also could give the toddler the love she needs.

A hearing is scheduled for Feb. 6 so that Jasper County Judge Thomas Mott can review how Dustin Pherigo has been parenting since he was awarded permanent care of his daughter in September 2008. To sever parental rights, the law requires compelling circumstances, such as abuse, neglect or federal imprisonment.

Meanwhile, two aunts are willing to care for Payge: a maternal aunt who raised her as a baby for 13 months, and a paternal aunt who has baby-sat for the toddler over the last 11 months.

"Payge's crucial time is now," Mott wrote in a September 2007 court document in which he expressed doubt that Dustin Pherigo could provide her a satisfactory home. "A child's character and personality are formed during a very few short years at the beginning of life."

Both sides of Payge's family worry about how all the turmoil in the 2-year-old's life is affecting her.

Full Article and Source:
Family, state ponder: What's best for Payge?

Subsidized Guardianship

Junior speaks in front of U.S. representatives and senators about child welfare act

Rob Johnson was selected to speak by the North American Council on Adoptable Children at a reception in front of 147 House Representatives and 27 U.S. Senators because of his presentation skills and his personal experience with subsidized guardianship.

Subsidized guardianship is when family members are compensated for caring for their relatives who would otherwise be in the foster care system.

While growing up, Johnson experienced the foster care system before moving in with his aunt, who became his legal guardian. Johnson said the foster system did more harm than good. His move into subsidized guardianship with his aunt turned things around.

Johnson thanked the attendees for the passing of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008. The bill deals with improving the situations in which foster children find themselves.

Johnson: "I saw that a lot of children in the foster system were going through so much stuff and the system wasn't working. By passing this bill, it will help other youth in foster care move to permanent families through subsidized guardianship, adoption or reunification."

The act passed the House on Sept. 17, 2008, and the Senate on Sept. 22. President Bush signed the act into law on Oct. 7.

Source:
Student speaks to U.S. Congressmen

See also:
New Law Supporting Relative Guardianship

New Legislation Passed

New Law: No Need for Court

Effective July 1, the Care of a Grandchild Act allows a parent, without a court’s approval, to delegate the care of a child to a grandparent or great-grandparent in the event of hardship such as illness, active military duty, natural disaster or incarceration.

The new law is designed to assist families to transfer custody when necessary without the expense or involvement of the court system.

However, the new law has created potential problems for Dougherty County’s school attendance policy. With the notarized form, the “agent grandparent” consequently may enroll the child in a public school serving the area where the grandparent resides.

Board Attorney Tommy Coleman: "The law runs counter to what the Dougherty County School Board has been trying to do."

Changes in the system’s student assignment policy made in 2006 require students to remain at a single school through the school year, with a few exceptions, even if a family moves to a new address.

The new law requires parents to certify that the transfer of care to a grandparent is not solely for the purpose of sending the child to another school, but Coleman said some parents have been known to “take advantage” of the system.

Dougherty Probate Judge Nancy Stephenson: "Thought the new law might impact the number of temporary guardianship papers issued by her office", but it hasn’t.

Requests for temporary guardianships have declined since the school board’s 2006 policy revision made them invalid for the purpose of determining student residency.

Full Article and Source:
School law creates kinks

More on the Care of a Grandchild Act:
SB 88 - Care of a Grandchild Act; provide subsidy to certain grandparents raising grandchildren under certain circumstances

GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA: the "Care of a Grandchild Act"

Banning Unmarried Couples

Voices for America’s Children joins Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, a member of Voices network, in opposing Arkansas Initiated Act 1 because it will endanger thousands of foster children awaiting a permanent home.

Bill Bentley, Voices President and CEO:

"With more than 3,700 children currently residing in foster care, and 500 who are waiting to be adopted on any given day, Arkansas’ children cannot afford to be denied the opportunity of finding a permanent home. Currently, over 200 foster youth in Arkansas leave foster care at age 18 without ever gaining a permanent home. This ballot initiative would increase this number dramatically and result in the state turning its back on its most vulnerable children. Voices strongly urges all voters to reject this measure."

Initiated Act 1 bans unmarried cohabiting couples from serving as foster or adoptive parents. This ballot initiative applies equally to heterosexual and homosexual unmarried couples as well as to all adoptions from public and private child-serving agencies.

Legislation signed by the President, The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act will allow Arkansas to use kinship and guardianship placements as well as provide additional supports for foster youth up to their 21st birthday. Initiated Act 1 threatens the ability of Arkansas to take full advantage of the positive improvements available in this law.

Full Article and Source:
Advocates Urge Arkansas Voters to Reject Initiated Act 1

See also:
Fight over act to limit adoptions heating up

Clergy: Vote 'No' on Initiated Act 1

For the kids: Vote 'No' on Initiated Act 1

Vote 'No' on Initiated Act 1

New Law Supporting Relative Guardianship

President Bush signed the bipartisan Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act into law.

The bill is widely viewed throughout the child-welfare community as a remarkable achievement by a Congress often incapacitated by partisanship.

James Brown, president of the Child Welfare League of America, said: "This is a historic moment for foster children and families," calling it the most significant foster-care legislation since 1980.

Among its major provisions, it will:

* Provide more financial incentives for adopting children out of foster care, especially older youths and those with special needs. One example: federal adoption assistance for special-needs children will no longer be limited to those who come from low-income families.

* Allow use of federal funds to assist children who leave foster care to live as legal guardians of relatives — a step which will help an estimated 15,000 children. In the past, such "kinship care" — which experts view as preferable to foster care — was generally not eligible for federal aid.

* Allow direct federal foster care funding to tribal governments, so more American Indian and Alaskan Native children can receive services while remaining in their own communities. Previously, the tribes had to go through state agencies to seek this funding.

* Allow states to provide federally subsidized foster care services to young people up to age 21, instead of 18.

* Require child-welfare agencies to make "reasonable efforts" to keep siblings together when they enter foster care, and work harder to ensure that foster children receive a stable education and proper health care.

Full Article and Source:
New law meant to improve stability for foster care

More on H.R. 6893:
Measure helps children move out of foster care

CWLA Cheers President Bush for Signing Child Welfare Legislation

See also:
New Legislation Passed

New Legislation Passed

Groundbreaking legislation, marking the most sweeping congressional reform of the U.S. foster care system in more than a decade, has passed the House of Representatives and is on its way to the Senate where it is expected to pass.

The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (H.R. 6893) is designed to help thousands of children in foster care by promoting permanent families for them through relative guardianship and adoption.

Among its many provisions:

* the establishment of "Family Connection Grants," which will help families facilitate the adoption of foster children with blood relatives such as grandparents or aunts and uncles

* doubles the amount of money states would receive for promoting and completing certain adoptions

* tribal governments will be able to receive foster care funds directly from the government, thus ensuring that more American Indian and Alaskan Native children can remain in their own communities

* allows states to continue providing support up to the age of 21 for young people in foster care who are pursuing education, training or work

* improves oversight of the educational progress and health care needs of children in foster care

The Honorable Maura Corrigan, Michigan State Supreme Court Justice and a Member of the Pew Commission said: "The need for all children to have safe, permanent families to love, nurture, protect, and guide them was a steady compass throughout our commission's deliberations, State courts see tens of thousands of foster care cases a year. This legislation provides important new policy that will help judges and other professionals ensure that more abused and neglected children can leave foster care to join safe, loving homes."

The Pew Commission, a national, nonpartisan panel established by The Pew Charitable Trusts, undertook a year-long comprehensive assessment of the nation's foster care system and developed practical child-centered solutions to improve outcomes for foster care.


Source:
Landmark Adoption Bill Passed By House

See also:
Congress Passes Foster Child Act

Help for Grandparents

Nalani Fujimori, from Legal Aid:
"Legal aid has actually been representing grandparents in a number of different areas. We assist with guardianships and adoptions as well as powers of attorney when the parents know that they're going to giving their kids to the grandparents,"

"Adoptions provide a little more stability and security for grandparents because they actually have full control and ability to raise those children as their own children. When a grandparent takes an adoption they can actually apply for social security for that child."

If not adoption or guardianship, grandparents may want to consider becoming foster parents to the grandchildren.

"And I think some of the recent changes in the law will provide more opportunities for relatives to get more information about becoming foster parents. It puts in new regulations for the Department of Human Services to provide applications for these grandparents."

If you have questions you can call Legal Aid at (808)536-4302 on Oahu or (800) 499-4302 on the Neighbor Islands.

Source:
Benefits for Grandparents caring for Grandchildren

Reforming Foster Care

H.R. 6307, the Fostering Connections to Success Act, was passed last week by the House. This bill is a strong first step in reforming the foster care system, and it includes provisions supporting kinship caregivers.

The bill includes the three core elements of the bill, H.R. 2188, the Kinship Caregiver Support Act.
1) it allows states to use federal funds to support family caregivers raising relatives in the foster care system;

2) it provides funding to establish kinship navigator programs;

3) it requires notification of relatives when a child enters the foster care system.

Research clearly shows that kinship foster care families are safer, more stable placements that are more likely to keep children connected with their siblings and communities than non-relative placements.

In Illinois, studies projected a savings of approximately $48 million over ten years. Federal financial assistance currently is available to foster and adoptive families. Only a few states receive a waiver to provide such aid to kinship caregivers. Illinois enjoys such a waiver, which currently serves over 6,000 children statewide. H.R. 6307 removes this roadblock for all the states and offers an important path to permanency. The bill also facilitates kinship care foster placements by requiring states to notify grandparents and other adult relatives when a child is removed from custody of a parent.

Full Article and Source:
DAVIS: Advancing kinship care

See also:
Kinship Care vs. Foster Care

Foster Care Legislation

Foster Care Legislation

The U.S. House of Representatives passed a landmark child welfare bill, designed to get children out of foster care and into the homes of their kinfolk.

Dr. Abe Bergman, a pediatrician at Harbor View Hospital who has specialized in foster care help said "If enacted it would be the most significant child welfare legislation passed in years."

The bill is complicated, but its essence is helping relatives take on responsibility for parenting. The bill allows states to provide assistance to relatives who become the legal guardians of children in foster care.

The legislation also authorizes $50 million a year in matching grants to states, local agencies, tribes and private nonprofits for work in connecting foster children to their relatives.

The Bush Administration declared that it opposes the foster care legislation, arguing that the House bill raises "significant programmatic and fiscal concerns."

Full Article and Source:
McDermott wins on foster care

Kinship Care vs Foster Care

New research from The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia:

Children removed from their homes after reports of maltreatment have significantly fewer behavior problems three years after placement with relatives than if they are put into foster care.

The study, which looked at a national sample of U.S. children removed from their homes following reports of maltreatment, is published in the June issue of the Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine.

The results of the study provide compelling evidence to support efforts in recent years to identify what is sometimes referred to as "kinship care" as an alternative for placing children into non-relative foster care and to maximize the supports and services that will help children achieve permanency in these settings.

"Our results suggest for the first time, in a national population group, that family care may offer protective value in terms of well-being and stability for children in out-of-home care."
David M. Rubin, M.D., M.S.C.E., pediatric researcher and lead author of the study.

Full Article and Source:
Kinship Care More Beneficial Than Foster Care, Study Finds

See also:
American Medical Association
Archives of Pediatrics & Adolescent Medicine:

Kinship Care and Lessened Child Behavior Problems

Impact of Kinship Care on Behavioral Well-being for Children in Out-of-Home Care