Policy update: Federal and state legislation to support granfamilies
Date
2014
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Publisher
GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy
Abstract
Building on the progress of the last 20 years, helpful federal and state legislation continues to be pursued on behalf of grandfamilies. This update summarizes policy
efforts during the last year and looks ahead to what is on the horizon. At the federal level, legislative efforts are focused on grandfamilies who are involved with the child
welfare system. States are responding to federal activity by enacting policies to place more children with relatives and better serve grandfamilies who come into contact with the system, including “family finding” laws and including fictive kin as “relatives.” State policymakers are also striving to support the vast majority of grandfamilies who
are outside the formal foster care system. States are increasingly collaborating across agencies to support grandfamilies with help from the federal Temporary
Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, and are creating more educational and health care consent laws. These budget neutral laws respond to the needs of the
families by allowing children in the care of their relatives to access public school tuition-free, as well as the array of necessary health care.
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Keywords
legislation, grandfamilies, federal, state, child welfare
Citation
Beltran, A. (2014). Policy Update: Federal and State Legislation to Support Grandfamilies. GrandFamilies: The Contemporary Journal of Research, Practice and Policy, 1 (1).