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Jan. 31, 2006 Legal Guardianship -- A Way Out of Foster Care
By Miriam Aroni Krinsky We all ponder, on occasion, the possibilities of the road not taken. How would our lives be different today if, years ago, we had attended a different school, pursued another profession, or even chosen someone else as a mate? Abused and neglected youth are too often plagued by this inquiry as they embark on a path that, in most cases, they would never have anticipated when the courts determine they cannot safely remain in their own homes and they enter the foster care system. Many divergent roads lie before them. Children in foster care depend on the court and child welfare agencies to act in their best interest, and to choose the route that will place them expeditiously in safe, permanent families. Government regulations - the Adoption and Safe Families Act of 1997 chief among them - promote the road of permanence through reunification and adoption. For those children for whom reunification or adoption are not possible, however, the law encourages the path of placing children with a legal guardian, who can provide a safe, permanent home for a child who may otherwise languish in foster care for years, drifting from placement to placement. One pathway our state has legislatively committed itself to and our courts seek to follow is to place children who are in foster care with kin. California has the nation's highest number of children in foster care - 84,500. More than 34 percent of California's foster children (29,061 children) are living in the homes of grandparents and other relatives. There are good reasons that we seek to put many of our foster youth who cannot safely return home on this path. Research demonstrates that foster children who are able to live with relative caregivers are more likely to stay close to their original home, enabling them to maintain school stability and remain more closely connected to friends, family and their cultural heritage. They have greater contact with their birth families and are more likely to be placed with siblings. Even when children are in stable foster care placements with relatives, however, when the relatives are not legal guardians to the children, significant decisions about their care remain in the hands of the courts and the child welfare system. A report issued last year by Fostering Results, a national project designed to raise awareness of the need for foster care reform, points out that relatives raising children in foster care are subject to regulations that limit the privacy other families take for granted. Routine undertakings including immunizations, school pictures and out-of-state trips can become a bureaucratic nightmare, requiring prior government approval. To receive continued child welfare support that flows from dependency jurisdiction, families must appear in court on a regular basis and experience monthly home visits by social workers. Legal guardianship can be a road that leads children out of foster care and into a safe, permanent family. The national, nonpartisan Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care proposed changes in current laws to enable children to exit foster care for a permanent family by subsidizing legal guardianships when reunification or adoption are not an option. The commission observed, "When guardians are also relatives, guardianship can promote healthy ties to a child's extended family, home community and culture." The Pew Commission pointed out that federal Title IV-E foster care funding regulations often place financial roadblocks in the path of relatives and others who have a close tie with the children in their care and wish to assume legal guardianship over them. This lack of guardianship support is a critical impediment for potential guardians who may be reluctant to usurp family relationships to assume a parental role, but who are nonetheless prepared to provide a permanent, safe home for the children in their care. Fostering Results estimates that more than 19,250 children in long-term relative foster care in the United States are in a kind of "permanency limbo" - where a court has determined that they cannot be safely returned to their parents nor is adoption an option. According to the report, many of these children adrift in foster care could find safety, permanence and security with grandparents and other caregivers under subsidized guardianship as an alternative to remaining in foster care. California has established its own form of subsidized guardianship for children exiting foster care through the Kin-GAP program. Data from the University of California, Berkeley Child Welfare Research Center reveal that Kin-GAP recipients are more likely to include siblings, less likely to return the child to foster care and have a very low rate of child welfare referrals. Since the inception of Kin-GAP more than 14,000 children and families, approximately 8,500 in Los Angeles County alone, have benefited from the program. "I like not going to court every three months, and the kids like not seeing a social worker each month," reported one grandparent who attained legal guardianship under Kin-GAP. "Four years of court [appearances] and social workers puts a toll on you." Kin-GAP, however, presents an inadequate Band-Aid on a larger federal problem. The California Kin-GAP program is limited because federal foster care dollars, which constitute half of total financial support for California's child welfare system, cannot be used for subsidized guardianship programs. Ultimately, a federal program is the only path that will ensure all states can provide financial support to family members who serve as legal guardians for children exiting foster care. Kin-GAP also has no provision for the emerging requirements of children. A guardianship under Kin-GAP established when the child is age two cannot foresee special needs that may become apparent during the school years and adolescence. Moreover, because the program does not cross state lines, foster care relative caregivers living outside California or who move from California to another state cannot be supported under the program. California has led the way in working to meet the needs of our most vulnerable children. Through strong and committed leadership, we are continuing to make strides in improving our foster care system and ensuring that more children are able to leave foster care for safe, permanent homes through reunification, adoption or legal guardianship. The newly formed California Select Committee on Foster Care headed by Assemblymember Karen Bass, D-Baldwin Vista, has committed to taking a broader look at our foster care system and to addressing the critical challenges and issues impacting the state's at-risk children. The committee held its first hearing last month in Los Angeles - home to California's largest foster care population. The committee has scheduled the second in its round of public hearings next month. That hearing will focus on ways to develop new approaches to assisting relatives who provide care for foster youth. Similarly, the recently launched Court Blue Ribbon Commission on Children in Foster Care evidences the longstanding commitment of the leadership of our court to turning a corner on behalf of foster youth. Without the support and engagement of our court system - the inherent gatekeeper of the progress of children in foster care - meaningful change will be hard to achieve. The Pew Commission recommendations, the California Select Committee on Foster Care, and the Court Blue Ribbon Commission on Foster Care all propel us to move in the same direction. Abused and neglected youth in our state should have what we want for our own children: a stable, secure and supportive home. Subsidizing guardianships for children who cannot reunite with their families or be adopted can enable children to leave foster care for permanent, loving families. Although it may be a road less traveled, we can all agree that it is the preferred road for these children to pursue. Miriam Aroni Krinsky is executive director of the nonprofit Children's Law Center, which represents abused and neglected children in the Los Angeles dependency court system, and of Home At Last, which encourages action on the recommendations of the Pew Commission on Children in Foster Care
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