According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 6.2 million grandparents live with grandchildren younger than 18 years. Of these grandparents, 2.5 million provide for their grandchildren's basic needs, such as food, clothing and shelter. Frequently grandparents in these situations have not established any legal rights regarding their grandchildren. If you are a grandparent raising grandchildren, and foster care or adoption are not the best options for your family, you might want to consider guardianship.
Features
In guardianship of a minor child, a court grants an adult caregiver, often a grandparent or other relative, the right and responsibility to make major decisions concerning the child's life, including decisions about the child's place of residence, upbringing, education, and medical and dental care. This contrasts with foster care, an arrangement in which authorized representatives of the state, such as child protective caseworkers or judges, make these decisions for the child. Guardianship differs from adoption because it permits the child's birth parents to keep rather than terminate their parental rights.
Types
Some states offer specialized forms of guardianship. Before seriously ill parents die or become too incapacitated, standby guardianship allows them to name their children's future caregivers. If you are concerned about grandchildren in or about to enter foster care, subsidized guardianship can keep your grandchildren out of the child welfare system, while offering financial, medical and social supports like those available to foster children.
Benefits
Grandparents often care for grandchildren when parents face personal difficulties like illness, substance abuse, economic hardship, or imprisonment. Families may intend for the children to return to the parents if and when their situations improve. In the meantime, legal guardianship helps grandparents to maintain physical custody of grandchildren, enroll them in school, and arrange for their health care. Grandparent guardianship can ease the way for qualifying families to access government benefits such as Social Security; Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, also called TANF or "welfare"; the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or "food stamps"; the Women Infants Children program, or WIC; and health plans like Medicaid and the State Children's Health Insurance Program, or S-CHIP.
Barriers
Some grandparents are unaware of legal guardianship as an option. Legal and bureaucratic mazes discourage other grandparents from following through. Although many guardianship cases are straightforward, others are complex and prolonged, especially when grandparents and parents dispute over custody, or parents cannot be located. Nearly half a million U.S. grandparents caring for grandchildren have incomes below federal poverty level. They may face financial barriers to legal representation in their guardianship cases.
Process
Laws about guardianship and its establishment vary by state. Usually, however, the grandparent or other caregiver files a petition in family court asking to be named the child's guardian. Some states have prepared guides to guardianship. If you have a low-income household, the American Bar Association or the federal government's Legal Services Corporation can help you find free or reduced-cost legal assistance.
References
- AARP Wyoming: You Are Not Alone
- Children's Defense Fund: Kinship Care Resource Kit
- Children's Defense Fund: States' Subsidized Guardianship Laws at a Glance
- Iowa Department of Human Services: Making the ddecision to Become a Child's Permanent Family
- US Census Bureau: Newsroom: Facts for Features: Grandparents Day 2009
