Across
the country, more than six million children -- approximately
1 in 12 children -- are living in households headed by grandparents
or other relatives. The District of Columbia has
more than 113,000 children living in households headed by grandparents
or other relatives. In many of these households, grandparents
and other relatives are the primary caregivers (“kinship caregivers”)
for children whose parents cannot or will not care for them
due to substance abuse, illness and death, abuse and neglect,
economic hardship, incarceration, divorce, domestic violence,
and other family and community crises.
A Look
at the Numbers: Kinship Care in Hawaii
The data below
show the numbers of grandparents who are living in households
with at least one grandchild under the age of 18, as well
as the numbers of grandparents who are the primary caregivers
for these grandchildren. These numbers were reported by the
2000 U.S. Census and are available for every place (as defined
by the U.S. Census Bureau) in the country, including cities,
towns, villages, and boroughs, on the U.S. Census website.*
| |
Grandparents
Living in Households with One or More Own Grandchildren
Under 18 |
Grandparents
Responsible for Meeting the Basic Needs of Grandchildren |
| Location |
# |
# |
| United
States |
5,771,671 |
2,426,730 |
| Hawaii |
49,237 |
14,029 |
| Honolulu
CDP |
12,564 |
3,260 |
| Hilo
CDP |
1,518 |
523 |
| Kailua
CDP |
1,605 |
451 |
*These
data are taken from the U.S. Census Bureau Table DP-2. Profile
Selected Social Characteristics: 2000. The U.S. Census website
is http://factfinder.census.gov/servlet/BasicFactsServlet.
Detailed instructions on how to access this data can be found
at http://www.casey.org/cnc/quick_facts/kinship_care_state_data.htm.
Kinship
Care Initiatives in Hawaii
In Hawaii,
public and private agencies and grassroots coalitions of grandparents
and other relative caregivers have begun working together
to expand the services available to kinship caregivers who
are caring for children outside of the foster care system.
Several of
the major kinship care programs and supports are listed below.
Additional support groups can be found through the AARP Grandparent
Information Center Database. Call 1-800-424-3410, e-mail information
requests to gic@aarp.org, or search AARP’s online kinship
care support group database at http://www.aarp.org/grandparents/searchsupport/
Grandparents
Organizing for Change: Na Tutu (“grandmothers”) is a coalition
of grandparents and other relative caregivers and several
state and community agencies serving kinship care families,
including Hawaii AARP, the Hawaii Cooperative Extension Service,
the Honolulu Elderly Affairs Division, and Parents and Children
Together. Started in 1999 in response to a video teleconference
on kinship care issues at the University of Hawaii’s College
of Tropical Agriculture and Human Resources Cooperative Extension
Service, the Coalition has been instrumental in bringing a
medical and educational consent law before Hawaii’s state
legislature and in bringing attention to other kinship care-related
policy and service initiatives. Na Tutu is an advocacy group
and does not provide direct services. Contact: Jacqueline
T. Chong, Chairperson, at (808) 239-8908 or chongj001@hawaii.rr.com.
Kinship
Care Services for Children of Hawaiian Descent: Operated
off the trust of the last reigning Hawaiian monarch, the Queen
Lili’uokalani Children’s Center’s (QLCC) mission is to serve
“orphaned and destitute” children of Hawaiian descent, including
those children who are living with kin because their parents
cannot care for them. With ten units throughout the
islands, QLCC engages in community-building activities with
kinship caregivers including providing support groups, referral
services, and grandparent training in a culturally sensitive
manner. Contact: Pat Urieff, Administrative Specialist,
at (808) 847-1302 or purieff@qlcc.org.
Legal Services
for Kinship Care Families: Na Keiki Law Center, a project
of Volunteer Legal Services of Hawaii, provides advice to
kinship caregivers on how to establish legal relationships
with the children they are raising through guardianship, adoption,
or agreement between family members reached through mediation
or family conferencing. Na Keiki Law Center offers direct
representation for caregivers, Guardian Ad Litem representation
of minors, and referrals for pro bono counsel. Contact:
Annabel Murray, Project Coordinator, at (808) 536-3413 or
annabel@vlsh.org.
Information
and Resources for Kinship Care Families: Tutu’s House
(Grandparent’s House) hosts a number of community-based programs
to support “health of body, mind and spirit.” Its lending
library includes books and audio and videotapes on a variety
of parenting topics. Also available is access to the internet
to research parenting sites, and to receive information on
other organizations which provide services to families. If
requested, a kinship care support group can be added to the
monthly program calendar. Contact: Dana Moody at (808) 885-6777
or tutus@softhome.net.
Respite
Care for Grandparent and Other Relative Caregivers: The
Ua Nani o Ke Anuenue Program (“the beautiful and sweet rain
of the rainbow”) is an intergenerational respite program designed
for parents and kinship caregivers of newborn to four-year-old
children. Working with local elementary schools, the
YMCA, and the Waipahu Church of Christ, the program offers
temporary child care, relationship building activities, emergency
respite and coordinated services for all caregivers, from
grandparents to teenaged parents in the community of Waipahu.
Contact: Kathy Enrique, Communities in Schools, at (808) 671-4900.
Training
for Grandparents as Parents: The Kaneohe Family Center’s
Parents and Children Together Program has long recognized
the increasing number of grandparents and other relatives
parenting children, in most cases because the children’s parents
have substance abuse problems. The Parents and Children
Together Program specifically provides grandparent support
groups and specialized parenting training for kinship care
families in the Kaneohe area. Contact: Cynthia Okazaki, Site
Coordinator, at (808) 235-7747 or kcfc@pacthawaii.org.
Local Support
for Kinship Caregivers: The Waianae Coast Comprehensive
Health Center hosts the Na-Tutu (The Grandparent) kinship
caregiver support program. The program offers support
sessions, offers educational services, hosts local speakers,
and provides recreational activities for the kinship care
families in Waianae. The program also provides respite
care in cooperation with Timeout Services, and gives individual
counseling services to kinship caregivers. Contact:
Roseanna Evers at (808) 696-4944 or reverswmsw@aol.com.
Kinship
Care and Hawaii’s Foster Care System
Sometimes
children in the care of the states are placed in foster care
with grandparents or other relatives. In Hawaii, the
Department of Human Services, Child Welfare Services Branch
reports:
Number
of children in kinship foster placements: As of April
2002, 2,611 children were in out-of-home placements under
the Department’s supervision. Of these children, 1050 children
(40%) were placed with kin.
Preference
for kinship foster placements: State policy requires that
kin be considered first when an out-of-home placement is sought
for a child under the Department’s care.
Licensing
for kinship foster parents: Kin have to meet the same
licensing standards and receive the same foster care payment
rate as non-kin foster parents.
Permanency
Assistance Program: In addition to foster care payments
and other benefits available to kin raising children in foster
care, some states also have a subsidized guardianship program.
Hawaii has a state-funded subsidized guardianship program
which provides an ongoing permanency assistance payment to
kin and non-kin who become legal guardians of a child in the
foster care system for whom adoption or a return to the child’s
parents has been ruled out. The permanency assistance
payment is the same as the foster care payment. The family
may continue to obtain necessary post-permanency services
through a private agency after the guardianship is finalized
(HI Stat., Sec. 346-14 (1-23); Regs at HI Admin. Rules, DHS,
Title 17, Chapter 835). Contact: Cynthia Goss, Department
of Human Services, Child Welfare Services Branch, at (808)
586-5925 or cgoss@dhs.state.hi.us.
State foster
care contact: Questions about kinship foster placements
should be directed to Cynthia Goss, Department of Human Services,
Child Welfare Services Branch, at (808) 586-5925 or cgoss@dhs.state.hi.us.
Hawaii
Foster Parents Association: In response to the special
barriers facing kinship caregivers, Hawaii requires that special
training sessions be provided to kinship foster parents caring
for children in the state’s foster care system. Hawaii’s
Child Welfare Services Branch has contracted with Hawaii Foster
Parents Association, a private agency, to provide a specialized
training curriculum for kin. Contact: Sarah T. Casken, Executive
Director, at (808) 263-0920 or sarah@hawaiifosterparent.org.
EPIC ‘Ohana
Conferencing: EPIC ‘Ohana Conferencing is a non-profit
corporation that provides Family Decision Making services
for families and community agencies. EPIC started the
Family Group Conferencing Program in the State of Hawaii in
1996. Over the past six years, EPIC has provided conferencing
services for families, the Department of Human Services, Child
Welfare Services Branch, and other non-profit agencies such
as the Casey Family Program. ‘Ohana Conferencing is
available to assist families and Child Welfare Services in
collaborating to make decisions concerning their children
through all stages of a child welfare case, including pre-foster
care decisions, foster custody placements, and permanency
decisions such as guardianship or adoption.
‘Ohana Conferencing supports
kinship involvement by providing information concerning foster
home licensing of kinship caregivers, the availability of
financial and medical support for the child, and permanent
placement options within the family. EPIC also provides
free legal services for adoptions, guardianships and powers
of attorney to kinship caregivers and others in confirmed
child abuse and neglect cases that have not yet been adjudicated.
Contact: Arlynna Howell Livingston, Executive Director, at
(808) 838-1261 or alivingston@hawaii.rr.com.
Casey Family
Programs: Casey Family Programs provides case management
services to kinship and other guardianship families to support
permanency and prevent re-entry into the foster care system.
The program also provides training, support groups, advocacy
in special education, and transition services for youth and
social supports. Contact: Mary Chung at (808) 521-9531
or mchung@casey.org.
Other Supports
for Hawaii Kinship Care Families
Children raised
by kinship caregivers are often eligible for a range of state
and federal programs. In most cases, kinship caregivers may
apply for these programs on a child’s behalf even though they
are not the child’s parents or legal guardians. Some
examples of these programs include:
Cash assistance:
Cash assistance may be available to children and their grandparents
and other relative caregivers through Hawaii’s Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families (TANF) program. Kinship care families
may also be eligible for food stamps to help meet their children’s
food and nutrition needs. For more information about
these programs, call (808) 587-3521 or log on to http://www.state.hi.us/dhs/.
Health
insurance: Grandparents and other relative caregivers
may apply for free or low-cost health insurance on behalf
of the children they are raising through Hawaii’s Medicaid
and QUEST programs. In some cases, caregivers may also
be eligible for free coverage under Medicaid. For more information
about how to apply for these programs, call (808) 275-2000
(O’ahu) or 1-877-275-6569 or log on to http://www.coveringkids.com.
State Laws
and Policies
Hawaii currently
does not have any additional state laws in effect specifically
directed at kinship care families.
