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- The Grandfamilies State Law and Policy Resource Center State Law and Legislation Database
- Report: More Than 1 in 4 Latino Foster Children Lives With a Grandparent or Relative
- 2008 Kinship Care Legislation. What’s going on in the States?
Once again, we would like to welcome you to the NCSL Kinship Care Legislative Policy Network-your source for the latest news and information on kinship care policy across the nation.
THE GRANDFAMILIES STATE LAW AND POLICY RESOURCE CENTER STATE LAW AND LEGISLATION DATABASE
This is a new legislative database of laws and current session pending legislation on subsidized guardianship, medical consent, school enrollment, licensing, kinship navigator, foster care payments, standby-guardianship, de facto custody and more. Click here to link to Grandfamilies State Law & Policy Resource Center State Law and Legislation Database.
REPORT: MORE THAN 1 IN 4 LATINO FOSTER CHILDREN LIVES WITH A GRANDPARENT OR RELATIVE
A Generations United report promoting subsidized guardianship includes new data on Latino foster children. The report highlights state child welfare systems' high reliance on relatives to provide placements for Latino foster children and includes data on Latino children in foster care, numbers of Latino foster children living with relatives, types of foster care settings in which Latino children are placed, and state by state percentages of Latino children in foster care living with relatives. Click here to view the report.
2008 KINSHIP CARE LEGISLATION: WHAT'S GOING ON IN THE STATES?
Here are highlights of 2008 session kinship care legislation. Please contact us if you would like a copy of the legislation:
CA Chapter 565 (AB 298): Enacted. Requires that a relative caregiver be given
information regarding the options of legal guardianship and adoption, including the long-term benefits and consequences of each option, prior to establishing legal guardianship or pursuing adoption.
CA Chapter 583 (SB 703): Enacted. Requires the department to make available to an out-of-state agency, for purposes of approving a prospective foster or adoptive parent or relative caregiver for placement of a child, information regarding a known or suspected child abuser maintained in the index concerning the prospective foster or adoptive parent or relative caregiver, and any other adult living in the home of the prospective parent or relative caregiver.
CT House Bill 5102: Pending. Provides a monthly subsidy from the Commissioner of Social Services to any relative caregiver receiving a guardianship subsidy from the Commissioner of Children and Families.
IL House Bill 4212: Pending. Creates the Lou Jones Grandparent Childcare Program to assist elderly caregivers of children previously in the department's custody to plan for the future care and custody of children upon their death or incapacitation. Explains that most of the children in the care of their grandparents or other relatives have no legal plan for the child's future care and custody in the event of the caregiver's death or incapacity and that grandparents and other relative caregivers lack appropriate information about future care and custody planning for children in their care. They also lack access to resources that may assist them in developing future legal care and custody plans for children in their legal custody. Requires the department to establish a program of information, social work services and legal services for any person age 60 or over and any other person who may be in need of a future legal care and custody plan who adopt, have adopted, or take guardianship of children previously in the department's custody. Requires the program to assist families of deceased adoptive parents and guardians as well. Requires the department to:
- develop a protocol for identifying eligible caregivers
- provide outreach to caregivers before and after adoption and guardianship regarding Illinois legal options for future care and custody of children
- provide training for department and private agency staff on methods of assisting caregivers who wish to make future care and custody plans for children who have been, are or will be wards of the department
- ensure that all eligible caregivers have documented specifically designated future caregivers for children in their care
- ensure that any designated future caregiver has information on the financial needs of the child and future resources that may be available to support the child
Requires the social work services and legal services to include providing information on standby guardianship, guardianship, standby adoption and adoption and court-ordered future care and custody plans that may include standby guardianship, successor guardianship, standby adoption, and successor. Requires the program to study ways in which to provide timely and cost-effective legal services to older and ill caregivers, and to families of deceased caregivers in order to ensure permanency for children in their care.
MD Senate Bill 77: Eligible for Governor and cross-filed with House Bill 169. Requires a superintendent of schools of a county to allow a child to attend a public school in a school attendance area other than the school in the school attendance area where the child is domiciled with the child's parent or legal guardian if the child lives with a relative in the school attendance area in an informal kinship care relationship due to a serious family hardship.
NJ Assembly Bill 945: Pending. Requires Department or Human Services to provide information about federal and State benefits to persons providing kinship care.
NJ Assembly Bill 944: Pending. This bill requires that the New Jersey Housing and Mortgage Finance Agency (HMFA) grant priority under its Urban Home Ownership Recovery Program (UHORP) or any other similar program to those eligible projects which promote housing for low and moderate income kinship caregiver households. The bill also amends the "Fair Housing Act" to provide that funding may be provided from the Neighborhood Preservation Non-lapsing Revolving Fund in order to expand the Home Ownership for Permanency Project demonstration program to include not only low and moderate income families who are adopting children, but also families who care for foster children.
Please let us know if you would like your state’s kinship care initiatives highlighted here or if you would like more info on a particular state or program email Kyle.ramirez@ncsl.org or nina.mbengue@ncsl.org .
If you would like to unsubscribe from this network or refer someone else to the network, please contact Kyle Ramirez-Fry at 303/856-1507 or kyle.ramirez@ncsl.org. If you have comments or questions about the network, please contact Nina Williams-Mbengue at 303/856-1559 or nina.mbengue@ncsl.org. Again, we look forward to communicating with you on this issue.
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