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M AY / J U N E 2 0 1 5
Kincare: Raising Children
Not Your Own
Support is available for grandparents,
others
by Martha Evans Sparks,
Staff Writer
Kincare is the term used to describe having full parental responsibility for children that are not
your own. In Kentucky, according to the 2010 census, almost
108,000 children under the age of
18 live in homes headed by grandparents or other relatives. This is
10.6 percent of the children in
the state. Nationally, the numbers swell to 7.8 million children
being raised by relatives, almost
65 percent of them grandparents.
Aunts, uncles and assorted other
relatives fill out the number.
Kincare providers have grandchildren or other minor children
with them 24/7 and must make
all the decisions for the children’s
care in a parent’s absence. While
some of the missing parents are in
jail, mentally ill or have died, the
overwhelming majority of them,
possibly as high as 90 percent,
have alcohol and/or drug addiction, rendering them unable to
raise their children. Many hospitals now routinely perform blood
tests checking for illegal drug use
on all women delivering babies.
If the new mother tests positive
for a banned drug, the hospital
will not release her newborn baby
to her. Instead, officials will call
the grandparents with a startling
question: Will you take the baby
home from the hospital or shall
we send it to a foster home today?
That is sometimes all the notice
people get that they have another
child to raise.
Another way grandparents end
up raising their children’s children
is abuse and/or neglect by the
biological parents. The situation
comes to the attention of local
authorities. They remove the
children from the parents. The
preference is always to place such
children with a family member,
often the grandparents.
The top problem for most
grandparents, now parents again,
is money. More than 70 percent
of kincare grandparents are under
age 60, and 25 percent of them
live at the poverty level. At this
time in life, these people may have
enough money to maintain their
current lifestyle after retirement,
but they do not have sufficient income to feed, clothe and educate
one or more young children.
The Commonwealth of Kentucky’s Department for Aging and
Independent Living (DAIL) has
two primary programs to assist
grandparents raising grandchildren. One is the Kentucky Caregiver Support Program, which
provides a wide range of services,
including matching grandparent
caregivers with support groups
and providing information about
resources, assistance in accessing
services, counseling an