PCANY Calls on NYS Legislature to Pass Legislation Supporting Kinship Caregivers
According to U.S. Census reports, more than 400,000 New York children are being raised by their grandparents and other relatives. As these children’s parents wrestle with challenges such as substance abuse, incarceration, poverty, domestic violence, and mental health problems, their kinship caregivers must navigate a complicated maze of information about support services, benefits, and legal rights and responsibilities, while also providing a safe home and nurturing environment to kids often coping with pain, trauma and loss.
Prevent Child Abuse New York strongly supports two bills that would go a long way in supporting relative caregivers.
S.4838a/A.8358a, (Kruger/Bradley) would declare that the powers of both court appointed legal guardians and legal custodians extend equally to all necessary matters of care and control of children, unless otherwise limited by the court.
S.4838a/A.8358a addresses recommendations made in the AARP NY’s and Kincare Coalition’s 2005 and 2008 reports. Both reports describe the statutory omissions of legal custody that has caused this confusion and recommend that the Legislature address this void. Since non-parent caregivers, in many instances grandparents, frequently seek court orders regarding the care and control of children and most family courts commonly prefer custody procedures, courts and kincaregivers will now have certainty regarding the extent of awarded legal authority to legal custodians, and will no longer face potential challenges by health and school officials to their decision making.
The proposed legislation addresses two problems related to custody and guardianship of children: the lack of clarity regarding the authority of legal custodians and the need for a permanent legal arrangement as an alternative to adoption.
S.4838a/A.8358a also creates a new legal arrangement, “permanent guardianship.” This new legal arrangement is needed by kinship families as an alternative to adoption because many kinship families seek to avoid the stigma that children endure in schools and in their community caused by public knowledge that the children’s parental rights were terminated. In addition the bill creates the necessar legal arrangement for any future “subsidized guardianship.” Subsidized guardianship is already available in thirty-nine states. Both the 2005 and 2008 reports recommend that New York create subsidized guardianship.
We know from research that a lack of permanency in the lives of children can only exacerbate the trauma of separation from the child’s biological parents. Ensuring that the courts are able to act in the best interest of the child, which sometimes means the child is best placed in another’s care, is paramount to helping that child’s positive development.
This legislation is necessary to ensure that kinship families have the necessary authority to ensure that children achieve permanency in their living arrangements.
S.7447/A.10808 (Kruger/Scarborough) creates clear guidelines for courts and social services agencies to ensure that kin have a full range of opportunities and protections upon assuming care and control of children.
New York and Federal laws prefer placement with kin. However, recent case law has caused a divergence in practices. When, how, and with what protections, courts can award custody pursuant to Article Six of the Family Court Act, which governs private custody, and pursuant to Article Ten of the Family Court Act, which governs “direct” custody and foster care placements, are in need of rules that can achieve both clarity and uniformity of implementation.
S.7447/A.10808 will strengthen the use of kin as a resource. It mandates that all notified kin receive a “writing” explaining the legal options available to them. It creates clear safeguards for kinship families who choose “direct” placement, and it also enables judges to consolidate proceedings if a private custodial arrangement is deemed most appropriate.
We know that children often fare best when placed with safe, healthy and nurturing guardians, and particularly well when those guardians are known to the child as kin. This legislation closes the gap between notification of family members and the immediate placement of children into non-relative foster care after experiencing the trauma of separation from their biological parent(s).
S.7447/A.10808 also follows the recommendations that were contained in AARP NY’s and the Kincare Coalition’s 2005 and 2008 report that New York do more to ensure that Article Ten placements fully utilize kinship families.
PDFs of PCANY's memos in support of these bills:
Download MOS-S4838a-A8358a.pdf
Download MOS-S.7447-A.10808.pdf
