THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1997, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, January 6, 1997 TAG: 9701060072
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 67 lines
Legislation is still alive in Congress that would provide more help to grandparents and other relatives who find themselves taking care of someone else's children.
But this legislation has languished before, and it isn't entirely supported even by some of the people who would benefit from it.
A new version of the Kinship Care Act of 1995 is expected to be reintroduced in both the Senate and the House this month. The legislation would encourage states to find more ways to make grandparents and other relatives preferred caregivers. States would get chunks of a $3 million fund over a three-year period for pilot projects.
Sponsored by Sen. Dan Coats of Indiana and House Budget Chairman John Kasich of Ohio, the act aims to encourage more foster and adoptive parenting by grandparents and other relatives.
The original bill, stalled in a Senate committee since the fall of 1995, died when Congress adjourned in October. Coats will ``work diligently to see it passed'' during this session of Congress, said Erik Hotmire, spokesman for the senator.
Child advocates nationwide are pushing for passage of the bill, but grandparents' groups remain cautious.
Some grandparents have expressed fears that passage of the act would result in increased pressure to take on the burden of raising grandchildren, and many grandparents object to having the state take custody first - a prerequisite to determining final custody - afraid that their grandchildren could end up in the care of strangers, said Mary Fron, president of R.O.C.K.I.N.G., a Michigan-based non-profit advocacy group for custodial grandparents.
Some non-relative foster caregivers also take issue with the proposal, saying they expect it would result in a ``relaxation of rules'' for relative foster parents, Fron said.
Still, her organization is prepared to ``support anything that helps children and perpetuates their relationship with grandparents,'' she said. That includes more access by grandparents to children in non-relative foster homes, something that is increasingly a problem, judging by the large number of calls she has received, Fron said.
But, she added, ``There has to be a balance.'' While many grandparents today are relatively young, others are not. ``It's a whole different ball game'' in light of the welfare reforms now being implemented.
``Welfare reform will change things a lot,'' Fron said.
As far as R.O.C.K.I.N.G.'s support of the pending bill goes, ``a lot depends on what gets attached to it,'' she said.
Whether South Hampton Roads' congressmen would support the legislation is unknown.
A spokesman for Rep. Owen Pickett, D-2nd District, said the congressman never takes a position on a bill until it comes to the floor, and no one was available to speak about the soon-to-be-introduced legislation in the offices of Rep. Norman Sisisky, D-4th, and Sens. Charles Robb, a Democrat, and John Warner, a Republican.
Marian Davis-Johnson, human services coordinator for the Virginia Department of Social Services, said: ``Virginia already has procedures. Agencies do attempt to place children with relatives in foster care cases. If they're in the foster care system, grandparents do have preference.''
But Fron points out that ``the criteria is removal (of a child or children) by court order, so many grandparents are not eligible - those who have informal arrangements or got custody through the courts themselves. They don't want the state to have custody.'' MEMO: [For a related story, see page B1 of The Virginian-Pilot for this
date.]
KEYWORDS: CAREGIVERS CUSTODY GRANDPARENTS