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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
CHILDREN A D FAMILIES IN CRISIS kinship caregivers in pilot counties, allowing access to child abuse information when assessing relative placements, and making adoption laws friendlier to relative caregivers. Other states are also seeking the best and most appropriate ways to make placement with relatives a viable alternative to long-term foster care. Maryland, for example, received HHS approval in 1997 for a five-year demonstration program that will offer relative caregivers ongoing financial assistance. The state will make a $300 per month guardianship payment for children who have spent at least six months in a foster home with a kin (or non-kin) provider with whom they have a strong attachment, if returning to their birth parents and adoption have both been ruled out. The state proposes to place at least 300 children in guardianship each year and to guard against families moving inappropriately from the TANF program to the child welfare system. The Children's Bureau in the Administration for Children, Youth and Families in HHS also awarded about 20 grants in 1997 to state and local child welfare agencies, some private providers, and universities. The grants will be used to train staffin assessing and supporting relative caregivers, to train caregivers and offer them special services, and to explore adoption by caregivers. The Brookdale Foundation is offering support to a broader group of relative caregivers, including those without contact with the formal child welfare system, through its Relatives as Parents Program. In 1997 the foundation awarded grants to 15 community-based organizations and five state agencies to develop assistance to grandparents and other relatives who have assumed parenting responsibilities. State initiatives must include a statewide organization of local programs, an interagency task force to collaborate on behalf of grandparent caregivers, and the establishment of new relative support groups. Community Partnerships to Protect Children The past year brought renewed support for community efforts to keep children safe from abuse and neglect. A July 1997 General Accounting Office report, Child Protective Services: Complex Challenges Require New Strategies, recommended that the secretary of HHS target future child protection funding to localities exploring col- Figure 5.3 Children in Relatives' Care The number of children living with relatives and no parent in the home Number of children being raised by relatives with no parent present 25 r--------------------::-:"::-::':-:-----, 2.0 • Grandpa,.n" • All other relatives grew 59 percent between 1989 and 1996. The .. 1.5 c: ~ i 1.0 number of these children living with grandparents increased 62 percent 05 during the some period. 1989 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995 1996 Source: U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, March Current Population Surveys for 1989-96. CHI L D R EN'S D E FEN S E F U D 69
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About CDF he Children's Defense Fun
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Copyright © 1998 by Children's Def
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Acknowledgments Susanne Martinez, d
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THE STATE OF AMERICA'S CHILDREN YEA
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