Ohio Department of Aging Aging Connection - April 2008

Director's Notebook

Supporting Grandparents Who Raise Their Grandchildren

Experts agree that kinship care represents the most desirable out-of-home placement option for children who cannot live with their parents. In kinship care situations, family members, usually grandparents, take in and raise children who can no longer live with their parents for a variety of reasons, including substance abuse, domestic violence, poverty and teenage pregnancy.

According to a 2005 U.S. census estimate, 88,000 Ohio grandparents are the primary caregivers to their grandchildren - accounting for an estimated 10 percent of all households with children. The national average is six percent.

The average age of a grandparent raising a grandchild is 55, though nearly one in six is 65 or older. Half of these grandparents provide care for more than one grandchild. More than half of the children cared for by grandparents are age six or younger.

Kinship care reduces the child's pain of not being able to live with his or her parents, and allows him or her to maintain a sense of belonging. Being cared for by a grandparent helps to preserve the child's sense of family and enhance the child's ability to identify with family culture and traditions.

However, grandparents can face formidable challenges as they raise their grandchildren due to modest retirement incomes and lack of access to public assistance. A report to the Ohio General Assembly found that while grandparents express some concern about their own health and finances, the overwhelming majority are far more concerned with the health and overall well-being of their grandchildren.

Assistance, both financial and supportive, for kinship caregivers does exist.

Kinship Navigator programs are state initiatives that help caregivers find their way through state and local support systems. They provide information, referral and follow-up services to grandparents raising grandchildren to link them to the benefits and services that they or the children need, such as low-cost child care, respite care, training related to caring for special needs children and legal services.

For more information about the Kinship Navigator Program, contact your County Department of Job and Family Services office.

More than half (51 percent) of Ohio grandparents providing care live in households with incomes less than $30,000. The Kinship Permanency Incentive Program, implemented January 1, 2006, provides financial support for minor children in the custody of grandparents or other kinship caregivers. To qualify, the family's monthly gross income may not exceed 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines (currently $2,933 for a family of three). Families who have had custody or guardianship since July 1, 2005 receive an initial payment of $1,000 per child, followed by a maximum of five $500 payments per child over three years.

For more information, contact your local public children services agency or call 1-866-886-3537.