Date: 10-11-2017
U.S. Supreme Court rules in favor of grandparents, other relatives of foster children; state will pay $750 per mo.
In a sweeping victory for the growing number of Kentucky relatives providing free foster care for children, Kentucky must begin paying them — many, grandparents struggling with the costs — the same as they do licensed foster families.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to hear an appeal from the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services seeking to overturn a ruling earlier this year by the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals that the state must pay relatives who take in foster children.
“We have won, our clients have won and it’s a big deal!” said Lexington lawyer Richard Dawahare, who filed a lawsuit on behalf of a great-aunt who took in two young boys but was denied foster payments from the state. “Right now, the relatives are entitled and they need to make their claim.”
A cabinet spokesman didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
The news will be celebrated by many relatives across Kentucky caring for children but not eligible for daily payments even as licensed foster parents are paid a base rate of about $25 a day or $750 a month.
Among them is Kimberly Guffy of Russellville, Kentucky, who said she and her husband have been caring for two small grandchildren for more than three years with no foster care help from the cabinet.
“The days of the cabinet’s reliance on relatives to balance its budget are over,” she said.
Guffy said she didn’t hesitate to take in the children, one a newborn and the other a 16-month-old, but it has been a struggle, especially for the first year when child care costs reached $10,000.
The cabinet has since agreed to assist with child care costs but refused foster payments. Social workers at one point told her that if the family couldn’t afford to care for the children, they would be placed in a foster home.
Guffy said she and her husband rejected that option.
“We really want to provide for these children,” she said. “We want to keep them in the family.”
Terry Brooks, executive director of Kentucky Youth Advocates, hailed Tuesday’s Supreme Court order as a “great day for kids in Kentucky” and said he hopes the cabinet promptly begins to identify and pay relatives who are eligible.
“I think it’s really important that the cabinet communicates in a clear way who this affects and how to take advantage of it,” Brooks said.
Dawahare said the ruling applies to any relative approved by the state to provide foster services for a child until a case is closed through an adoption or permanent custody, a process that can take months or years.
It’s not clear what the cost will be to the state, already struggling with possible budget cuts. But Dawahare noted that the majority of foster care money is provided by the federal government with the state providing a portion.
Kentucky, he said, needs “to do the right thing” and follow the court’s directive.
Relatives have been without financial assistance since 2013 when budget cuts caused Kentucky to close to new applicants a program known as “Kinship Care.” That program paid relatives a monthly stipend of $300 per month per child to care for children removed from homes because of abuse or neglect.
A growing body of such families has been lobbying the legislature to restore the program, saying many older relatives on fixed incomes can ill afford the costs of taking in and raising children.
Norma Hatfield, an Elizabethtown grandmother who took in two young girls, has been leading the drive and has collected hundreds of testimonials of relatives who say they have depleted retirement funds, been forced to quit jobs to care for children and risked losing their homes.
Hatfield said Tuesday she is delighted with the outcome of the Supreme Court case she said will provide equal benefits for all foster children.
“I think it’s fantastic,” Hatfield said. “All children who are foster kids are the same.”
But Hatfield said she remains committed to fighting for Kinship Care because many relatives who adopt or gain permanent custody of children will still need financial help once foster payments stop.
“We’ve got to do something for these kids once the cases are closed,” she said.
Officials with state social services say the number of children removed from homes because of abuse or neglect has reached 8,500, an all-time high they blame in part on the heroin and prescription pill epidemic sweeping Kentucky.
Many are placed with relatives.
Dawahare said he hopes the state acts swiftly to carry out the court ruling for the sake of such families.
“Children didn’t ask to be brought into this world and they need help,” he said. “Family members that step up and are living on the margin, they need help, too.”
By Deborah Yetter
The Courier-Journal
