Washington, D.C. -  Congressmen Timothy V. Johnson, (R-IL) and Danny K. Davis (D-IL) introduced legislation this week extending to the national level innovative programs in Illinois that support grandparents raising their grandchildren.

   “I am honored to join Congressman Timothy Johnson in leading the federal effort to provide kinship caregivers with the resources to address their children’s needs,” said Rep. Davis. “This legislation provides the over 124,000 foster children living with grandparents and other kin with equal opportunity to live in safe and permanent homes.” 

   Mr. Johnson added that the Kinship Caregiver Assistance Act serves not only the aims of family cohesiveness but long-range savings in tax dollars as well.

   “We are now in effect penalizing grandparents who have the heart and compassion to raise their own but not always adequate means,” Rep. Johnson said. “We can achieve family unity and all the blessings that confers along with saving resources over the long-term. This is a common-sense, bipartisan proposal that deserves to become law.”

   Illinois has been a leader in developing and demonstrating the effectiveness of pioneering child welfare reforms.  Research clearly shows that kinship foster care families are safer, more stable placements that are more likely to keep children connected with their siblings and communities than non-relative placements.  Further, these placements are cost effective.  In Illinois, cost studies found a projected savings of approximately $48 million over ten years compared to a matched control group that did not have this option.

   This week marks the tenth anniversary of subsidized guardianship in Illinois, an innovative program that allows foster children to exit the child welfare system into permanent families while using federal funds to provide caregivers with the level of resources provided to adoptive families of children in foster care.  Federal financial assistance currently is available to foster and adoptive families, with only a few states receiving a waiver to provide such aid.  However, adoption is not a viable option for many children in foster care.

    Said Rep. Davis, “For example, courts explicitly rule out this permanency option for approximately 20,000 children in relative care each year.  Moreover, adoption is not equally availed by families of all races and ethnicities, especially those in African-American and Native-American communities.  Thus, subsidized guardianship is an important path to permanency.  Withholding financial support from family providers greatly ignores the needs of these children and families.  Almost 19% of kinship care providers live in poverty, and 30% to 40% of children in foster care have chronic medical problems.  Subsidized guardianship, like the federal adoption assistance program, provides needed support to these kinship caregivers to afford appropriate care for these vulnerable children.”

   Rep. Johnson said the limited federal support for guardianship is a critical roadblock to permanency for thousands of children, resulting in their remaining in the foster care longer than necessary and possibly aging out of the system without a legal family of their own.  The urgency for action is even greater given that federal waiver expired in 2006.  This means that no new states can benefit from the program, and, when the existing waivers for 15 states – including Illinois - expire in the next few years, our children and thousands of children others will be denied this vital permanency option if new subsidized guardianship legislation is not passed.

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