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Congressman Davis speaks about the Kinship Caregiver Support Act:
In the words of novelist, P.D. James, "What a child doesn't receive he can seldom later give." Our children are entitled to stable, caring homes; if we deny them what they truly deserve, we can anticipate a colder, more uncertain future for our nation.
This week marks the tenth anniversary of subsidized guardianship in Illinois, an innovative program that allows foster children to exit the child welfare system into permanent families while using federal funds to provide caregivers with the level of resources provided to adoptive families of children in foster care. To recognize this milestone, my colleague Tim Johnson and I introduced H.R. 2188, the Kinship Caregiver Support Act.
Modeled after the adoption assistance program, innovative programs in Illinois, and recommendations from the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care, this bill provides kinship caregivers with the necessary resources to address their children’s needs. The bill addresses gaps in existing foster care laws that withhold important supports from children living with relative guardians.
By enacting the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 and the Adoption Assistance and Child Welfare Act of 1980, Congress recognized the need to align Federal incentives with the desired goal of providing abused and neglected children safe, permanent homes. Nearly half a million children make up our nation’s foster care population, with more than one in four of these vulnerable children living with a grandparent or other relative. Unfortunately, federal financial assistance currently is available only to foster and adoptive families, with only a few states receiving a waiver to provide subsidized guardianship. However, adoption is not a viable option for many children to exit foster care. For example, courts explicitly rule out this permanency option for approximately 20,000 children in relative care each year. Moreover, adoption is not equally availed by families of all races and ethnicities, especially those in African-American and Native-American communities. Thus, subsidized guardianship is an important path to permanency for many abused and neglected children.
The current Federal guidelines also create financial disincentives to guardianship. Almost 19% of kinship care providers live in poverty, and 30% to 40% of children in foster care have chronic medical problems. Subsidized guardianship, like the federal adoption assistance program, provides needed support to these kinship caregivers to afford appropriate care for these vulnerable children. Terminating support to families once guardianship is established presents overwhelming hardships for these children and families that discourage them from leaving foster care. The limited federal support for guardianship is a critical roadblock to permanency for thousands of children, resulting in their remaining in the foster care longer than necessary and possibly aging out of the system without a legal family of their own.
With 10 years of experience under our belts, Illinois shows that subsidized guardianship works. Unfortunately, the subsidized guardianship waiver program expired in 2006. This means that no new states can benefit from the program, and, when the existing waivers for 15 states – including Illinois - expire in the next few years, our children and thousands of children others will be denied this vital permanency option if new subsidized guardianship legislation is not passed.
So, the Kinship Caregiver Support Act allows states the option to provide guardianship assistance to relatives without a waiver. It also implements additional supports for kinship caregivers, such as establishing informational navigator programs to assist grandparents and relatives in accessing appropriate services and supports. Further, it allows states to establish separate licensing standards for relative foster parents and non-relative foster parents and requires state agencies to provide prompt notice to all adult relatives when children are removed from parental custody. The bill also extends innovative Illinois programs to the national level. For example, it expands eligibility for the Foster Care Independence Program so that education and training vouchers as well as independent living services are available to young people who exit foster care after age 14 to guardianship or adoption. It includes as eligible children who live in relative homes determined by the courts and State agency as meeting all applicable State safety standards other than licensure as well.
Subsidized guardianship is a bipartisan issue. Indeed, our bill is a companion bill to that introduced in the other chamber by Senators Hillary Clinton and Olympia Snowe. Further, as you may recall, the reconciliation bill from the Republican-controlled 109th Congress would have extended authority for these waivers and removed the limit on the number of states eligible, providing further testament to the bipartisan nature of this issue.
As Forest Witcraft said, "A hundred years from now it will not matter what my bank account was, the sort of house I lived in, or the kind of car I drove, but the world may be different because I was important in the life of a child...." As policy makers, we have the ability and responsibility to make a difference in the lives of foster children. We must use that ability to make sure the downtrodden and neglected of today are the achievers and leaders of tomorrow.
This page last updated: 05/10/2007
