Grandfamilies: Subsidized Guardianship – Iowa
Subsidized Guardianship Overview
This option is available in some states to children whose caregivers have obtained legal guardianship or permanent custody through existing state laws and the use of state funds. A few states are able to provide subsidized guardianship programs as a result of a waiver from the federal government that allows them to use Title IV-E foster care funding for this purpose. At this time, unless a state has a waiver, there is no federal foster care funding for guardianship programs. Many states do not currently have subsidized guardianship programs. The states that have implemented subsidized guardianship programs recognize that in certain family situations, guardianship or permanent custody might be the best permanence option available when children cannot return home or be adopted. Subsidized guardianship arrangements are particularly important for children raised by grandparents or other relatives because they:
Iowa’s Subsidized Guardianship Program
Conclusion
This document was sponsored by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts. The opinions expressed in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Pew Charitable Trusts.
Iowa’s IV-E Waiver program is a significant step in the right direction to provide permanency for children in foster care when reunification and adoption are not viable options. With waivers, many states have demonstrated the value of policies such as subsidized guardianship to give children safe, permanent families. Waivers are an important way to use new approaches to child welfare, but they are limited to participating states, and many expire within 3 to 5 years.
The children who will receive permanence as a result of the waiver in Iowa represent only a fraction of the children who need this opportunity. Across the U.S. there are 20,000 children who have lived with relatives for a year or more in the foster care system, but they cannot leave the system because they do not have other options.6 Many of these children live in states that do not have subsidized guardianship programs through either a waiver or state funds. Allowing federal Title IV-E foster care funding to be used for subsidized guardianship programs would help these nearly 20,000 children exit foster care to safe permanent homes with relatives.
For information about pending legislation affecting subsidized guardianships, visit Generations United’s website at www.gu.org or call 202-289-3979. For information about supporting Iowa’s relative caregivers, foster families, and adoptive families, and about issues affecting them, visit the Iowa Foster and Adoptive Parents Association’s website at www.ifapa.org or call 888-366-0439.
Thirty-six percent of children in family foster care in Iowa are placed with a relative.3 Iowa has a significant number of children and older youth in foster care for whom neither family reunification nor adoption are viable. In FY 2003, nearly 300 youth aged out of the foster care system without achieving permanency, and they averaged three years in care before exiting. Also, more than 100 youth had long-term foster care as a goal, and their average length of stay was more than five years. Fewer than 50 children exited foster care to guardianship.4 For these reasons, The Iowa Department of Human Services (IDHS) applied for a five-year waiver from the federal government to allow the use of the Title IV-E foster care money to support subsidized guardianships in the state.
At the end of 2006, Iowa will implement Title IV-E Waiver forsubsidized guardianship. IDHS estimates that 949 children will be eligible for the waiver in the first year of implementation and that 112 will have court-appointed subsidized guardianship arrangements. In total, over the fiveyear waiver, IDHS projects that 322 children will be placed with guardians who receive subsidies – 60% with relatives and 40% with non-relatives.5
Guardianship will be considered if the following conditions are present:
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Reasonable efforts have been made with a determination that the options of reunification and adoption are not in the child’s best interest.
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The child has been in licensed foster care for at least six of the last 12 months.
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The child has resided with the potential guardian (if not a relative) for the past six months.
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If older than 12, the child consents to the guardianship.
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The guardianship does not require department supervision.
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If the proposed guardian is not a relative of the child, the child is either 12 years of age or older or, if under 12 years of age, is part of a sibling group with a child aged 12 or older.
Subsidized guardianship is an option that allows children to live permanently with guardians – often grandparents and other relatives – when they cannot live with their own parents and adoption is not a viable option. Although they vary from state to state, in general subsidized guardianship programs are intended either to help children exit the child welfare system into safe and permanent homes with relatives, or to keep children from unnecessarily entering the system in the first place when they are already living safely with grandparents or other relatives. Subsidized guardianship provides grandparents and other relative caregivers with the legal authority to make important decisions on behalf of the children in their care without government intervention while providing critical funds to help meet the basic needs of the children when they cannot return home. Subsidized guardianship payments may be equal to the state foster care rate, the TANF rate, or somewhere in between.1
Reprinted with the permission of Generations United. © 2008 Generations United.
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