The parent gap: taking in the grandkids

Grandparents love visits from the grandkids. They also love the peace and quiet when the kids are gone. Yet for 2.4 million Americans, raising grandchildren is a full-time responsibility. They have stepped in because their own children couldn't be there because of illness, drug addiction, imprisonment or death — or weren't mature enough to do the job. Without these grandparents, many children would wind up in foster care, or would be put up for adoption. By putting their own retirement on hold, grandparents keep families together and keep kids out of the child welfare system.

But parenting the second time around brings serious challenges, and not just keeping up with a 3-year-old or relating to a thong-wearing, tattooed adolescent. Grandparents often face problems enrolling children in school, getting health insurance, finding housing or making ends meet on fixed incomes. Almost one-fifth of grandparents raising children live in poverty. With counties under increasing pressure from state and federal governments to place abused or neglected children with relatives instead of in foster homes, we need better support for these aging caregivers.

Several states aid grandparents and other relatives who care for kids. California's Kin-GAP program provides subsidies to more than 13,000 children who were in foster care but are now being raised by grandparents or other relatives. Grandparents who adopt also get aid under a federal law. But most grandparents aren't eligible for Kin-GAP payments because they step in before the children enter foster care. They are reluctant to formally adopt, which would mean permanently stripping their own children of parental rights.

A bill introduced last month by Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton would provide $150 million in federal money over three years for Kin-GAP programs. While that money would be welcome in California, further help, such as a tax credit, is needed for grandparents who don't get subsidies but are draining their retirement savings to keep kids out of foster care.

Raising grandchildren can be a lonely job, but as Sylvia Scales writes on the Op-Ed page, there's help out there. The “Help for caregivers” box lists local agencies that offer a variety of services from health screenings and after-school tutoring to counseling and respite care.

California spends $1.5 million on these programs, but saves many times that in foster care costs, thanks to grandparents who've traded retirement for the baffling world of 21st century parenthood.

11 August 2004
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/opinion/9362027.htm

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