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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

The Need for a Federal Guardianship Program

Although many families who adopt from foster care are able to receive federal support to meet their children’s needs, no equivalent federal support exists for guardianships to help children exit foster care when reunification or adoption isn’t possible. Eight states currently have temporary waivers from the federal government which allow them to use foster care funds (Title IV-E) to provide guardianship assistance as a way for some children to leave foster care.12 Some of these waiver programs have demonstrated an overall increase in the numbers of children exiting foster care to permanent families—both adoptive and guardianship.13 Unfortunately, states without a federally-supported guardianship program have no means for obtaining a waiver to do so in the future, as the authority to grant child welfare waivers has lapsed. As waivers in the existing states are completed, it is not certain whether these programs will be provided continuing federal support. Absent a change in federal law that establishes subsidized guardianships and makes them available to all states, many children will not benefit from this critical route to permanency.

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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