Grandparents and Other Relatives Raising Children: Supplemental Services

Introduction

According to the U.S. Census 2000, more than six million children across the country are living in households headed by grandparents or other relatives1. The Census further found that nearly 5.8. million grandparents are living in households with one or more of their own grandchildren under the age of 18. More than 2.4 million of these grandparents are primarily responsible for meeting the basic needs of these children2. Factors such as parental substance abuse, incarceration, HIV/AIDS, death, and poverty are causing growing numbers of grandparents and other relatives to step forward and keep families together.

The National Family Caregiver Support Program (NFCSP), a new program administered by the Administration on Aging (AoA) of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, offers five categories of support services for grandparents and other relatives aged 60 and older who are relative caregivers of children, and family caregivers of individuals aged 60 and older. For more information about the NFCSP, please go to www.gu.org for a fact sheet and user guide about the program or to the AoA website at www.aoa.gov. The five categories of the NFCSP are written to be flexible and respond to the needs of the caregivers in the area being served. The fifth category, supplemental services, is particularly broad. It is not defined in the law and will not be further defined by the AoA. The intent is for this category to be extremely flexible, although it can only be used on a limited basis, not as an ongoing source of funding for a specific program. This fact sheet provides information about the NFCSP’s fifth category, supplemental services.

Program Examples

The following are types of assistance that are being provided under the category of supplemental services: legal services, transportation for support group meetings or for caregiver’s errands, meals and clothing, housekeeping services, home repairs and modifications, as well as supplies and athletic costs for children. Although many supplemental services may most logically be provided on the local level, statewide activities also should be considered. Several innovative state programs include:

California 

Grandparents Parenting Again is a multi-service program for grandparents raising grandchildren in Sonoma County. Using supplemental services funds, they collaborate with the Superior Court Probate Division to provide an innovative legal clinic. The clinic offers grandparents free guardianship training that teaches them how to complete and file guardianship paperwork themselves. Many grandparents find that after attending the clinic, they do not need to hire an attorney for uncontested guardianships. For more information, contact Anne Pierce at (707) 566-8676 or grnyanie@pacbell.net.

Illinois

Northwestern Illinois AAA is committed to providing legal assistance to the families through its current legal service provider, Prairie State Legal Services. The AAA offers legal assistance to kinship caregivers who need help accessing school enrollment and public benefits and obtaining guardianships or adopting the related children they are raising. The AAA has also held several legal assistance workshops for grandparents and other relatives raising children led by an attorney and a behavioral health specialist. The lawyers offer one-on-one “legal check-ups” for caregivers at the end of each workshop and offer individual recommendations.