Subsidized Guardianship: A National Perspective Jennifer Miller, Cornerstone Consulting

1. Subsidized Guardianship: A National PerspectiveJennifer Miller, Cornerstone Consulting Teleconference for the National Resource Center for Family-Centered Practice and Permanency Planning January 25, 2005

2. Growing Momentum for Subsidized Guardianship • Recognition of Subsidized Guardianship in ASFA • Increasing Use of Kinship Care • Funding through waivers and TANF flexibility • Pew Commission Recommendations • Federal Legislation • Positive Evaluation Findings

3. Improving Outcomes for Children through Subsidized Guardianship • Reducing the use of long term foster care for children who can not return home or be adopted • Achieving permanency for older youth • Responding to the unique needs of kinship caregivers and their children

4. Improving Outcomes (continued) • Reducing the overrepresentation of minority youth • Providing choices and opportunities for families to raise children without government intervention • Providing opportunities for states to improve permanency outcomes and address CFSR and PIP goals

5. Key Facts About Subsidized Guardianship • 35 States and DC have some form of subsidized guardianship • Subsidy levels vary considerably (TANF rate, foster care rate or somewhere in between) • States use a variety of funding sources – TANF (12), waivers (7), state $$ (17), SSBG(1) • Eligibility requirements for caregivers and children differ

6. Best Practices Related to Subsidized Guardianship • Fully integrated and valued in the permanency continuum • Benefits that are consistent with adoption assistance – subsidy, legal fees, post permanency supports, subsidized guardianship agreement • Rule out return home and adoption • Educate caseworkers, attorneys and courts

7. Best Practices (continued) • Ensure that families are fully involved in decision making • Provide comparisons of permanency options and implications of each – financial, legal, and emotional • Specify visitation issues and requirements

8. Federal Legislation • The Kinship Caregiver Support Act (Clinton/Snowe) • The Child Protective Services Improvement Act (Cardin) • Act to Leave No Child Behind

9. Helpful Publications • Mary Bissell and Jennifer Miller, eds., Using Subsidized Guardianship to Improve Outcomes for Children: Key Questions to Consider, (Washington, DC: Cornerstone Consulting and Children’s Defense Fund, 2004). • www.childrensdefense.org • Children’s Defense Fund, States’ Subsidized Guardianship Laws at a Glance, (Washington, D.C.: Children’s Defense Fund, 2004). • www.childrensdefense.org • Cornerstone Consulting and Children’s Defense Fund, Expanding Permanency Options for Children: A Guide to Subsidized Guardianship Programs, (Washington, D.C.: Cornerstone Consulting and Children’s Defense Fund, 2003). • www.cornerstone.to or www.childrensdefense.org • Cornerstone Consulting, Guardianship: Another Place Called Home (Houston, TX: Cornerstone Consulting Group, 2001) • www.cornerstone.to • Mark Testa, Nancy Salyers, Michael Shaver and Jennifer Miller, Family Ties: Supporting Permanence for Children in Safe and Stable Foster Care with Relatives and Other Caregivers. (Champaign-Urbana, IL: Fostering Results, 2004). • www.fosteringresults.org • Mark Testa, “When Children Cannot Return Home: Adoption and Guardianship,” in The Future of Children, Volume 14, No. 1 (Los Altos, CA: The David and Lucile Packard Foundation, Winter 2004) • www.futureofchildren.org

10. Questions or Comments Jennifer Miller, Cornerstone Consulting National Collaboration to Promote Permanency through Subsidized Guardianship (401)884-1546 jmiller@cornerstone.to