Grandfamilies: Subsidized Guardianship - New York (continued)

New York’s History with Relative Foster Care and Subsidized Guardianships

New York does not currently have a subsidized guardianship program and has not generally shown evidence of being a state that gives preference to relative placements. In fact, though the nationwide trend is toward placing more foster children in relative placements, the trend in New York has been a reduction in the number of relative placements – from nearly 38% in 1991 to only 19% in 2001. In 1996, when Congress passed an amendment to the Social Security Act offering states the option to apply for a waiver to test alternative approaches to service delivery for relative foster families under Title IV-E, New York was one of the states that did not submit an application. In 1997, when the Adoption and Safe Families Act (ASFA) made a distinction between relative and nonrelative foster families in matters of permanency planning, many states pursued subsidized guardianship as a permanency option for children in relative care.

Although New York did not pursue subsidized guardianship at that time, there are currently efforts underway in New York to pursue subsidized guardianship legislation. The Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies (FPWA), a national leader in the field of child welfare, is urging state officials to pass legislation that supports “subsidized kinship guardianship” as a viable permanency option for approved or certified relative caregivers.6 For more information about FPWA’s recommendations or on how to support their efforts, contact them at:

Federation of Protestant Welfare Agencies

281 Park Avenue South

New York, NY 10010

(212) 801-1310, jstevens@fpwa.org http://www.fpwa.org/advocacy/childwelfare.html

Other organizations involved in efforts to pass subsidized guardianship legislation in New York are:

AARP New York State Office

780 Third Avenue, 33rd Floor

New York, NY 10017

(866) 227-7442, nyaarp@aarp.org

http://www.aarp.org/states/ny

National Committee of Grandparents for Children’s Rights

School of Social Welfare

HSC, Level 2, Room 093

Stony Brook University

Stony Brook, NY 11794-8231

(866) 624-9900, bcastellano@grandparentsforchildren.org http://www.grandparentsforchildren.org

Despite New York’s history, the recent passage of new foster care legislation indicates that New York is moving in the direction of favoring relative placements. On June 20, 2005 legislation was unanimously passed by the New York State Legislature that will require social services personnel to conduct an expansive search for a child’s relatives and notify them of the opportunity to serve as foster parents. The legislation will help children’s relatives to become their foster parents by:

• Widening the search for a child’s relatives, including absent parents;
• Mandating social services to ask the children (as young as five years old) about relatives who play significant roles in their lives;
• Placing the child in the home of a relative while qualifying the relative as a foster parent; and
• Creating a new procedure to permit relatives to petition to become foster parents up to six months after the notification of the removal of the child.7

For more information on this legislation, contact the National Committee of Grandparents for Children’s Rights.

Conclusion

Efforts are underway at the state level to support relative placements and a subsidized guardianship program in New York, however, tight state budgets make it difficult to enact state funded subsidized guardianship programs and guarantee their long-term viability. Proposed federal legislation that would allow federal Title IV-E foster care funding to be used for subsidized guardianship programs would help ensure long-term stability of supportive resources for caregiver families and could free up some state funds to be used to serve additional children.

For more information about pending federal legislation affecting subsidized guardianships or about grandparents or other relatives raising children in general, visit Generations United’s website at www.gu.org.

This document was sponsored by a grant from The Pew Charitable Trusts. The opinions expressed in this document are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of The Pew Charitable Trusts.