child care - Digital Library Collections

THE STATE OF AMERICA'S CHILDREN YEARBOOK 1998
when a termination is pending or completed, the
median duration between termination of parental
rights and final adoption was more than a year and
a half.
In response to such fmdings, New York City
officials, with prodding from adoption advocates
and others, undertook several initiatives to expedite
and increase adoptions. The strategies included
giving foster care agencies fiscal incentives
to increase adoptions, fmalizing adoptions for the
large number ofchildren whose cases were stuck in
the courts, and intensifying efforts to recruit adoptive
families. These activities were strengthened
through collaboration with New York's Families
for Kids initiative, supported by the w.K. Kellogg
Foundation. As a result, the number of foster children
adopted in the city increased 74 percent between
Fiscal Years 1994 and 1997.
Other states and communities are also working
to expedite permanency decisions. For example,
the Massachusetts Department of Social Services
launched Assignment Adoption in 1993. The previous
year, only 599 of the almost 5,000 children
whose case plans called for adoption were adopted,
after an average wait of four years from the time
adoption became their case plan goal. The Assignment
Adoption project involves aggressive recruitment
ofadoptive families, enhanced staffmg, legislative
changes, and intensive partnerships with the
courts. Adoptions in Massachusetts have now increased
considerably. In 1997, for the fourth year
in a row, more than 1,000 foster children were
adopted.
Children in Kinship Care
When abuse or neglect occurs or when fmancial
pressures, health problems, mental illness,
immaturity, or other troubles leave parents
unable to care for their children, family
members often step in. Data from the National
Survey of Families and Households (reported by
Esme Fuller Thomson, Meredith Minkler, and others
in the June 1997 issue of The Gerontologist)
reveal that more than 10 percent ofgrandparents at
some point assume primary responsibility for rais-
ing a grandchild for six months or more, most
often during infancy or preschool years. The Census
Bureau reported that in 1996, 2.14 million children
lived in households headed by a relative with
no parent present; two-thirds lived with grandparents
(see figure 5.3). These arrangements are often
referred to as "kinship" care.
Most kin caregivers never have contact with
the formal child protection or foster care systems.
Many have never received public assistance. For
those who do, however, 1997 brought uncertainty
and prospective changes in state support for relatives
caring for children without their parents
present.
The new rules for recipients of Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) create
new challenges for kin caregivers. Although state
rules vary, generally when a nonparental relative
and child both receive benefits, the relative is
subject to the customary work requirements and
time limits for receiving aid (see chapter 1). Alternatively,
the grant may be for the child only, not
the relative caregiver. But limited assistance may
make it difficult for some relatives to continue
caring for the child. Instead, they may have to
look to foster care.
Nationally, HHS estimates that about onethird
of all children in foster care are in kinship
care arrangements. In California almost half of the
approximately 100,000 foster children are living
with relatives.
More support to kin. Some states, such as California,
Missouri, and South Dakota, are considering
new approaches to supporting relative
caregivers. To provide kin caregivers in California
with more assistance, the caregivers, child advocates,
county welfare departments, and state leaders
together addressed safety, support, and permanence
issues for children in kin placements. A
statewide Kinship Care Task Force, convened by
the California Partnership for Children, issued a
report titled Kinship Care in California: The Challenges
and Opportunities Facing Relatives and the
Children Placed in Their Care. And the legislature
enacted three bills in 1997, establishing services for
68 CHI L D R E 'S D E FEN S E FUN D