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Report

Strengthening Families Through Guardianship


Quick Summary

More than 500,000 children will close their eyes tonight as wards of the state in foster care. They are waiting for the security, stability and love of permanent families. Foster care was created as a short-term safety net for children in crisis, however, on average children will languish in care for more than two years. More than half the children leaving foster care will return home to their birth parents, and about 18 percent will leave foster care to adoptive families. For some, however, reunification with their parents or adoption is not an option.

Strengthening Families Through Guardianship
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Report Project

Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care

Report Topic

Health Topics

Strengthening Families Through Guardianship

When a child is facing a crisis situation in his or her home, sometimes relatives step up to help by becoming foster parents. Currently, more than 124,000 children are living with relatives in the foster care system.When reunification or adoption is not possible, a legal guardianship with a relative or caring adult can be a way for a child to leave foster care for a safe, permanent family.

More than half of relative caregivers are over the age of 50,5 and many are grandparents on fixed incomes and unprepared to handle the unexpected expense of raising more children.6 Monthly foster care payments help defray some of the costs of care and help relatives who might have otherwise been unable to take the children. Approximately 12 percent of children in relative placements in foster care have been living with their relatives for more than a year; they may end up staying in foster care indefinitely if the relative caregiver needs financial assistance to help provide for the children. But foster care was never meant to be a long-term living situation for children.

Children, as wards of the state, and the foster families who care for them are subject to rules designed to safeguard children living in temporary situations. Being in foster care means that children have monthly visits from case workers and must have state permission for activities like school pictures or vacations outside the state with one’s family. Being in foster care means being different from other children and living with a sense of uncertainty about what the future holds.

Table of Contents
 

Date added:
Apr 10, 2008
Project:
Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care
Topic:
Health Topics
References:
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References:

1 Testa, M., Bruhn, C. & Helton. J. Comparative safety, stability, and continuity of children’s placements in formal and informal substitute care. A paper presented at the NSCAW Data Users’ Workshop, January 25-26, 2007. Washington, DC;
2 Ibid.; Analysis by the University of Illinois, Children and Family Research Center at Urbana-Champagne (2007), reported in Kids Are Waiting. (2007). Time for Reform: Support Relatives in Providing Foster Care and Permanent Families for Children. Retrieved March 30, 2008 from http://kidsarewaiting.org/tools/reports/files/0004.pdf
3 Rolock, N. & Testa, M. (2006). Conditions of children in or at risk of foster care in Illinois. Urbana, IL, Children and Family Research Center.; Wulczyn, F. & Zimmerman, E. 2005. Sibling placements in longitudinal perspective. Children and Youth Service Review, Vol.27, pp. 741-763.
4 US Government Accountability Office. (2007). African American Children in Foster Care: Additional HHS assistance needed to help states reduce the proportion in care. Retrieved April 1, 2008 from: http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d07816.pdf
5 Macomber, J.E., Geen, R. Main, R. (2003). Kinship Foster Care. Retrieved March 30, 2008 from: http://www.urban.org/url.cfm?ID=3108936
6 Children’s Defense Fund. (2004). Financial Assistance for Grandparents and Other Relatives Raising Children. Retrieved March 30, 2008 from http://www.childrensdefense.org/site/DocServer/financialassistance0805.pdf?docID=467
7 Kids Are Waiting. (2007). Time for Reform: Support Relatives in Providing Foster Care and Permanent Families for Children. Retrieved March 30, 2008 from http://kidsarewaiting.org/tools/reports/files/0004.pdf
8 National Abandoned Infants Resource Center. (2005). Subsidized guardianship. Retrieved March 30, 2008 from http://aia.berkeley.edu/publications/fact_sheets/subsidized_guardianship_2005.php
9 The American Bar Association, Casey Family Programs, and Generations United. (2008). Subsidized Guardianship Programs. Retrieved March 30, 2008 from: www.grandfamilies.org and http://www.grandfamilies.org/index.cfm?page=aboutus; US Children’s Bureau. (May 2007). Summary of the Title IV-E Child Welfare Demonstration Waivers. Retrieved March 30, 2008 from: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/programs_fund/cwwaiver/2007/summary_demo2007.htm
10 US Children’s Bureau. (May 2007) Summary of the Title IV-E Child Welfare Demonstration Waivers
11 The American Bar Association, Casey Family Programs, and Generations United. (2008). Subsidized Guardianship Programs. US Children’s Bureau. (May 2007) Summary of the Title IV-E Child Welfare Demonstration Waivers.; Generations United. (2005). Grandfamilies: Subsidized Guardianship Programs. Retrieved March 30, 2008 from: http://www.gu.org/documents/A0/GUGeneralFactSheetJune.pdf
12 US Children’s Bureau. (May 2007). Summary of the Title IV-E Child Welfare Demonstration Waivers.
13 US Children’s Bureau. (May 2007). Profiles of Child Welfare Demonstration Projects. Retrieved April 1, 2208 from: http://www.acf.hhs.gov/programs/cb/programs_fund/cwwaiver/2007/profiles_demo2007.htm

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