National Resource Re-Discovered - Gerard Wallace, Esq

National Resource Re-Discovered - Gerard Wallace, Esq. Director, NYS Kinship Navigator

Hidden in plain sight for decades, kinship families may finally have a coming out party. TheAnnie E. Casey Foundation has published a policy paper describing kinship families and showing higher numbers of children are cared for by relatives than reported in the past Census data. Nationally, approximately 2.7 million are children cared for by relatives and family friends, with the highest numbers in California (333,000), Texas (276,000), Florida (164,000), and New York (153,000). These families are disproportionally poor and people of color. Annie E. Casey reports that one in five black children, and one in eleven of all children, will livewith kin during their childhood. A national resource for children has finally found its voice.

Most of kinship care is not foster care. Nationally, only 104,000 children that are placed with kin are in the foster care system. In New York, only 6001 of the 153,000 kinship children are in foster care. The rest reside with relatives and family friends in an informal setting, outside of the child welfare sphere.

Grandparents and other kin care for children when parents are unable or unwilling to do so, often for the same reasons that children enter foster care; thus, around situations of trauma and loss. Just imagine that you get a call from Child Protective Services, telling you that your grandchild will be removed from your daughter's care if you don't offer to become the custodian. You'd act just like thousands of other grandparents. You'd agree. And then, the questions begin: daycare, medical care, early intervention, family court, financial help, to work or stay home, and countless other dilemmas too numerous to name.

Kinship families have long labored far from the spotlight, while protecting children at risk, healing children with trauma, and persisting through a thicket of legal, social, and family obstacles. Advocates and caregivers have called for action to support these families. Some states, like New York, have responded with assistance and services, despite state fiscal woes. But the recognition that kinship families are an integral part of the nation's child welfare response hasn't happened. At least not until now. With the release of the Annie E. Casey report, the wholesale recognition of the importance of these families just might be an idea whose time has come.

There are very good reasons to support these families. They are the only large scale resource for children at risk, they get better outcomes, and they are less expensive. The reasons for their success are clear. The family is highly motivated to go the distance. Most of kinship care is done by grandparents, and a grandparent's love is the cure for many ills.

Annie E. Casey's report makes common sense, cost effective recommendations. Similar recommendations were published in NYS's three AARP sponsored kinship summit reports and in the upcoming Child Welfare League of American and National Committee of Grandparents national summit report. All recommend policies andpractices which will keep children out of foster care and in the homes of loving family members.

Supporting our grandparents and other caregivers is not just good policy, its part of our traditions. George and Martha Washington raised two grandchildren, Eleanor Parke Custis and GeorgeWashington Parke Custis. President Obama spent time in the care of his grandparents. It's finally time to recognize that children from broken homes don't have to lead broken lives.