Grandparents are the rock
by Karen C. Buck, Michael Vogel and Blondell Reynolds Brown.

WE RECENTLY celebrated grandparents with a national day. We are pleased to see them receive an official day of recognition, especially since so many are now serving as parents, raising their grandchildren when their parents can't.

As we've seen in recent litigation and media coverage, the issue of grandparents caring for grandchildren dramatically affects families in our community.

It could happen to you. Imagine that your adult child faced cancer, AIDS or other chronic illness, had a substance-abuse problem, was incarcerated or had died young due to accident, or military service.

In Philadelphia alone, one in six children, more than 60,000, are being raised by a relative, often a grandparent. Statewide, over 80,000 grandparents, from their 40s to their 80s and 90s, are successfully raising and parenting grandchildren, while more than six million children are being raised in households headed by grandparents across the country. An estimated 2.5 million children are in households without any parent at all. This phenomenon of kinship care cuts across all racial, economic and geographic lines.

Shockingly, one in five of the 2.5 million children being raised by a grandparent lives below the poverty line and many of the caregivers live on fixed incomes. Yet only about 30 percent receive any public financial support and few receive the human support and legal services they need.

Under current federal law, the caregivers are likely to lose the financial assistance they got as foster parents if they become legal guardians and provide permanent homes. The Children's Defense Fund reports that, compared to those in foster care with non-relatives, children in relative foster care are as safe or safer, less likely to have multiple placements, more likely to stay connected with siblings and less likely to change schools.

We are proud to represent and serve the grandparents who are rising to the occasion to parent children when they should be retiring, enabling children to remain in caring and supportive homes of kin, and out of the foster care system. Their stories are compelling.

One example: A 75-year old grandmother in Northeast Philadelphia is raising three grandchildren (8, 15 and 16) and one great-grandchild of 6 months. All needed medical attention. The two oldest weren't going to school while living with their other grandmother. Without custody, this grandmom was told she could neither authorize medical care nor enroll them in school. (The mother is "on the street" and father is incarcerated.)

Grandparents need an advocate, not only to navigate the legal system but also to access health care, safe and affordable housing, education and financial support with the added challenges of children and all their needs.

You can help these grandparents who are making a difference by:

* Supporting legislation to provides housing, financial support and other critically needed services. This includes Senate Bill 167, introduced by Sen. Anthony Williams, that would create an intergenerational housing pilot program in Pennsylvania.

* Call your U.S. representative and senators to urge them to co-sponsor the bipartisan Kinship Caregiver Support Act, which helps access support services for grandparents and relatives helping to keep children out of foster care and those who are caring for children in foster care.

* Volunteer with or support an organization serving these families. SeniorLAW Center serves over 9,000 seniors each year with free legal services in areas that include legal custody and other support to give children a safe home, make medical decisions, enroll them in school.

Grandparents are making enormous contributions to our community and its children every day, contributions which affect us all as well as the security of future generations. That is truly worthy of celebration. *

Karen C. Buck is executive director of SeniorLAW Center (seniorlawcenter.org or 877-PA SR LAW). Michael Vogel is executive director of PSSC (pssc kids.org), a child-abuse prevention agency. Blondell Reynolds Brown is a city councilwoman.