Child Welfare Policy Update
State Response to the Fostering Connections to Success Act of 2008
Kinship Guardianship Assistance Provision
The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (H.R. 6893/P.L. 110-351) was signed on Oct. 7, 2008. This law helps to: connect foster children with their relatives; better coordinate the health care and education of foster children; support permanent families through relative guardianship; and enhance adoption subsidies and supports to older youth in foster care. To view a summary of the act, click here.
What is Subsidized Guardianship?
State-subsidized guardianship programs provide financial assistance to relative caregivers who assume legal guardianship of a child in out-of-home care. The child is discharged from foster care, and the courts transfer legal custody of the child from the state to the relative guardian. When children cannot be safely reunited with their parents and adoption is not an appropriate option, legal guardianship can provide a child with security and the protec¬tion of a committed adult. The guardian has the right to physical custody of the child, to make decisions for the child, and to represent the child in legal actions. Unlike adoption, guardianship does not require termination of parental rights; parents can retain the right to visit, consent to adoption, and provide support when appropriate. The permanence of legal guardianship allows children to attach to the guardian and eliminates the continuous threat of separation that children in foster care often experience.
To help the family meet the needs of the children, the state provides a monthly stipend that is equal to or less than the monthly foster care payment. Some states provide additional services—including access to medical, mental health, and social services typically available to adoptive families—to support these families.
Why Relative Placement?
With more than 400,000 children in foster care, more than 100,000 waiting to be adopted and 20,000 exiting care to live with a relative, states are keenly interested and invested in relative placement. Research has consistently shown that chil¬dren benefit when they are cared for by relatives. Children in foster care who are placed with relatives, compared to children placed with non-relatives, have more stability (fewer changes in placements), have more positive percep¬tions of their placements, are more likely to be placed with their siblings, and demonstrate fewer behavioral prob¬lems. While relatives may be willing to take guardianship of a child or a set of siblings, they often are inhibited by financial constraints to plan for the long-term care of the child(ren). Kinship guardianship assistance can enable possible relative placements to become permanent options for foster youth who will not return home or be adopted.
Since passage of the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) of 1997 and prior to enactment of the Fostering Connections Act, 39 states and the District of Columbia developed subsidized guardianship programs to provide financial support to eligible relative caregivers of children. These programs were funded through a variety of sources that included Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF), the Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), and state and local funds. A handful of states received federal Title IV-E (a subpart of Title IV of the federal Social Security Act that provides federal reimbursement to states for the costs of children removed from their homes and placed in foster homes or other types of out-of-home care under a court order or voluntary placement agreement) reimbursement for relative caregivers through a federal waiver demonstration program.
Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008
Since passage of the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act in 2008, at least nine states and the District of Colombia have enacted provisions related to subsidized guardianship. The Fostering Connections Act now provides states the option to use federal Title IV-E funds for reimbursement for kinship guardianship assistance payments on behalf of eligible grandparents and other relatives who have assumed legal guardianships of children. The created legislation ranges from broad, statewide implementation of kinship guardianship assistance programs, to detailed provisions extending access to kinship guardianship assistance payments for those older than 18, or enumerating state requirements for relatives to become eligible for funding. In addition, several states continue to offer state-funded subsidized guardianship programs for those relative caregivers who may not qualify for the kinship guardianship assistance programs as authorized through the Fostering Connections Act.
Recent State Response to the Fostering Connections Act of 2008: Kinship Guardianship Assistance Payment Provision
This report provides a brief overview of state legislative response to the kinship guardianship assistance provisions of the federal Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008. Beginning with an overview of kinship guardianship assistance (known in most states as subsidized guardianship), the report focuses on the state implementation experiences of California, New York, Tennessee, and Texas. The report concludes with a discussion of the policy challenges faced by lawmakers and other child welfare system stakeholders and considerations for lawmakers in other states.
Click here to view the entire report by NCSL.
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KINSHIP GUARDIANSHIP ASSISTANCE PROVISION OF THE FOSTERING CONNECTIONS TO SUCCESS ACT OF 2008
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STATE & BILL
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SUMMARY (2012 | 2011 | 2010 | 2009)
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2012 |
Colorado
SB 66, Chapter 86 |
Expands persons eligible as guardians in the guardianship assistance program to include relatives, persons ascribed by the family as having a family-like relationship with the child or persons who have had a prior significant relationship with the child. |
Pennsylvania
HB 1261, Act 2012-80 |
Extends Foster Care to youth age 21. Except in situations of family or domestic violence, the county agency shall exercise due diligence to identify and notify all grandparents and other adult relatives to the fifth degree of consanguinity or affinity to the parent or stepparent of a dependent child within 30 days of the child's removal from the child's home. The Subsidized Permanent Legal Custodianship Program is established in the department. The department shall establish and develop criteria and promulgate necessary regulations for county agencies to implement the Subsidized Permanent Legal Custodianship Program in accordance with the provisions of this article. The criteria and regulations shall include, but not be limited to, identification of eligible children and eligible permanent legal custodians, procedures for implementing the program and reporting requirements by county agencies. |
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2011
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Arkansas
SB 710, Act 592
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States that a child is eligible for a guardianship subsidy if the Department of Human Services determines that adequate funding is available for the guardianship subsidy for a child who is not Title IV-E eligible if, while in the custody of the department, the child resided in the home of the prospective relative guardian for at least six consecutive months after the prospective guardian's home was opened as a foster home.
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California
AB 212, Chap. 459
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Establishes provisions authorizing certain Kin-GAP recipients to continue to receive Kin-GAP aid after 18 years of age, if they are attending high school or vocational or technical training, as specified. Kin-GAP provides aid on behalf of eligible children who are placed in the home of a relative caretaker.
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Nevada
AB 110, Chap. 121
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Requires the Department of Health and Human Services to establish and administer the Kinship Guardianship Assistance Program in accordance with the Federal law to provide assistance to a relative of a child who is seeking appointment as the legal guardian of the child under certain circumstances.
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2010
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Alabama
HB 617, Chap. 712
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Establishes a kinship guardianship subsidy program. Sets procedures for establishing kinship guardianships and legal authority of kinship guardians.
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District of Columbia
B 578, Chap. 136
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Amends the definition of case plan to include additional requirements for any child in foster care whose permanency plan is placement with a relative guardian and receipt of kinship guardianship assistance and to include a plan for ensuring the educational stability of a child in foster care.
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District of Columbia
B 1033, Chap. 586
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Amends the definition of case plan to include additional requirements for any child in foster care whose permanency plan is placement with a relative guardian and receipt of kinship guardianship assistance and to include a plan for ensuring the educational stability of a child in foster care.
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Michigan
2010 Mich. Pub. Acts, HB 4118, Act 265
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Stipulates that upon a child's removal from their home and placement into foster care, as part of a child's initial case service plan the supervising agency shall, within 30 days, identify, locate, notify, and consult with relatives to determine placement with a fit and appropriate relative who would meet the child's developmental, emotional, and physical needs. The notification must include certain items such as, explaining the options the relative has to participate in the care and placement of the child, including any option that may be lost by failing to respond to the notification and describe how the relative may subsequently enter into an agreement with the state child welfare department for guardianship assistance.
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New York
AB 9708
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Establishes a kinship guardianship assistance program and determines that a child is eligible for kinship guardianship assistance payments if the child has been in foster care for at least six consecutive months in the home of the prospective relative guardian and the child being returned home or adopted are not appropriate permanency options for the child.
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Vermont
HB 507, Chap. 97
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Proposes to modify the permanent guardianship law for children to comply with new federal provisions and enable guardians to access federal funds for guardianships.
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2009
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Arkansas
SB 351, Act 325
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Establishes that a child is eligible for a guardianship subsidy if the Department of Human Services determines that the child is eligible for Title IV-E foster care maintenance payments and that the child, while in the custody of the department, resided in home of the prospective relative guardian for at least six months and the prospective relative guardian was licensed or approved as meeting the licensure requirements as a foster family home.
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Arkansas
SRB 26
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Requests an interim study on grandparents raising grandchildren and the feasibility of providing a subsidy to grandparents raising grandchildren.
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Colorado
SB 245, Chap. 436
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Establishes a kinship guardianship assistance program in the department of human services.
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Michigan
SB 227, P.A. 15
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Creates the Guardianship Assistance Act to provide a negotiated, binding agreement for financial support for children who meet the qualifications for guardianship assistance. Sets eligibility of child and guardian. Specifies that only a relative who is a licensed foster parent caring for a child who is eligible to receive Title IV-E funded foster care payments for 6 consecutive months is eligible for federal funding under Title IV-E for guardianship assistance. States that a child not eligible for Title IV-E funding who is placed with a relative is eligible for state-funded guardianship-assistance.
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Michigan
SR 27
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Urges Congress to take certain actions with regard to the federal guardianship assistance program by revising the funding to allow the six-month residency requirement to begin to run prior to licensing of the home, provided that both the home is licensed and the residency requirement is met before federal funding begins.
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New York
AB 153, Chap. 53
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Makes appropriations for the support of government - Education, Labor and Family Assistance Budget, including appropriations for developing and implementation of a new subsidized kinship guardianship program consistent with the federal fostering connections to success and increasing adoptions act of 2008.
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Texas
HB 1151, Chap. 1118
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Develops the permanency care assistance program which will provide for the reimbursement of the nonrecurring expenses a kinship provider incurs in obtaining permanent managing conservatorship of a foster child; the program must conform to the requirements for federal assistance as required by the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008. Establishes that the department shall include training in trauma-informed programs and services in any training the department provides to foster parents, adoptive parents, kinship caregivers, and department caseworkers; the department shall pay for the training with gifts, donations, and grants and any federal money available through the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act of 2008. Extends foster care payments after a youth is age 18.
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