Children and Family

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Children and Family
Research Center
Family TiesSupporting Permanence for Children
in Safe and Stable Foster Care with Relatives and
Other Caregivers
Mark Testa Leslie Cohen January 2005
School of Social Work
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
TM
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In U.S. Foster Care, 2002
In Care gt 17 of 22 mos.
In Relative Foster Care
In Current Placement gt 12 mos.
Without a goal of reunification or adoption
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Advantages of Guardianship

• Unlike adoption, guardianship does not recast
  kinship relations into the nuclear family mold of
  parent and child.
• Guardians retain their extended family identities
  as grandparents, aunts, and uncles. It does not
  require the termination of parental rights, which
  legally estranges children not only from their
  birth parents but also from their unadopted
  siblings. Under guardianship, children may also
  retain rights of sibling visitation.
• Birth parents may still exercise a limited role
  in their childrens upbringing.
• They hold on to certain residual rights and
  obligations, such the rights to visit and consent
  to adoption as well as the obligation for child
  support. If circumstances change, parents may
  petition the court to vacate the guardianship and
  return the children to their custody, unlike
  adoption that is consummated only after the birth
  parents rights to regain custody are permanently
  extinguished.
• Guardianship limits the financial liability of
  guardians for the upkeep of their wards, unlike
  adoption that reassigns these financial
  obligations fully to the adoptive parents.

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Guardianship and other permanency initiatives in
Illinois shortened length of care and diminished
the backlog of children in long-term foster care
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In July 2000, Illinois children in state
assisted adoption guardianship surpassed
children in substitute care
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Ingredients of Success

• Eligibility limited to children in foster care
• Equal subsidy levels
• Rule-out requirement
• Safety checks
• Strong attachment

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SG Increases Legal Permanence
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But No Differences in Stability

• Proportion still living in the same home in which
  they resided at the time of original assignment
  in the three research sites was 67 in the cost
  neutrality group and 69 in the demonstration
  group.
• The lack of an intervention effect suggests that
  the degree of placement stability may be
  determined by factors that are independent of the
  legal relationship between the child and
  caregiver, e.g. familiarity, norms of kinship.

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Displacement is rare

• As of March 30, 2002, 3.0 had experienced a
  displacement from permanence.
• Of displacements, one-half were due to guardian
  death or incapacitation
• Three-fourths of death and incapacitations
  involved reassignment of a new private guardian.

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But Post-Permanency Servicesare Essential

• To prevent displacement and dissolution of
  guardianship adoption.
• 34 of both private wards adopted children
  identified with special needs.
• 13 of adoptive parents and guardians over age 65.

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Conclusion

• Extrapolating from the Illinois experience
  suggests that kinship care is a vast and largely
  untapped resource for securing legally permanent
  homes for foster children.
• Making subsidized guardianship a provision of the
  Social Security Act in addition to subsidized
  adoption would greatly expand the options for
  ensuring permanence for all children.

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Further Information

• CONTACT
• Mark Testa or Leslie Cohen
• Children and Family Research Center
• 2 North LaSalle, Suite 1700
• Chicago, Illinois 60602
• Tel [phone]
• http//cfrcwww.social.uiuc.edu/