KINSHIP CARE IN THE NEWS
In the past year alone, dozens of articles about kinship care have appeared in mainstream print and electronic media outlets. Most of them positive, these articles reflect states' increasing reliance on relative caregiving and illuminate many of the key issues facing advocates, legislators, and kinship caregivers.
Our Favorite 2006 Articles
Kinship
Care and the Spread of Methamphetamine
July 21, 2006, Oregonian
This article highlights and praises a recent Generations United
report, "Meth and Child Welfare: Promising Solutions for Children,
Their Parents and Grandparents."
Kinship
Care Liaison Program Passes First Anniversary
Daniel Silliman, July 4, 2006, Clayton News Daily
"I called her Mama. I call her my mama. I think that's a name she deserved," says Margaret Price, the Kinship Care Liaison for the Clayton County Department of Family and Child Services, of the grandmother who raised her. Though Price's position was intended to be temporary, the Department is pushing for it to become permanent. An estimated 100,000 children live in kinship care in Georgia; 10,000 of them live in Clayton County alone.
Families
Add 3rd Generation to Households
Mireya Navarro, May 25, 2006, Families Add 3rd Generation
to Households
This article explores why "multigenerational households"—households
comprised of three or more generations—are growing faster
than any other type of housing arrangement.
States
Expand Kinship Care Programs
Christine Vestal, May 25, 2006, Stateline.org
The article highlights recent state kinship care legislative developments, highlighting new laws that address important issues such as de facto and subsidized guardianship, kinship navigators, and relative notification when a child enters the child welfare system. It also provides a chart listing state-by-state the number of children living in households headed by grandparents and other relatives without either parent present.
Autumn Grooms, May 23, 2006, La Crosse Tribune (Wisconsin)
After his single mother dies of brain cancer, a boy named Joshua moved in with his grandma Jackie. Jackie describes some of the new challenges—such as ADHD and PTSD—of becoming a "grandmama."
State
Leads in Rate of Children Raised by Nonparental Relatives
April 4, 2006, Associated Press
In Wyoming, the state with the highest rate of kinship care placements in the country, several sets of grandparents caring for grandchildren describe some of the unique challenges they face. Says one grandmother, "It's a hard balancing act. Our roles as grandparents are redefined as we become parents again."
Relatives
Open Hearts, Homes to Foster-Care Children
Wendy Koch, March 19, 2006, USA Today
"I'm temporarily putting my life on hold for them," says one California-based kinship caregiver profiled in this article, which illustrates many of the emotional, as well as financial, implications of kinship caregiving.
Court
Settlement Clears Way for Foster Care Payments to Relatives
Barbara White Stack, March 15, 2006, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
In 2000, the ACLU and the Juvenile Law Center of Philadelphia filed suit on behalf of 12 relatives caring for children placed in their homes by child welfare agencies who were not receiving federal foster care payments because the children in their care were kin. In 2005, the Department of Public Welfare settled the suit without any acknowledgment of wrongdoing, but will make back payments to the plaintiffs.
