RELEASE: June 15, 2000

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Guest Editorial: Michele K. Guhl, Commissioner

When parents cannot or will not take responsibility for nurturing their own children, an alarming number of people - particularly grandparents - are left to parent their young relatives.

The natural parents may be missing, addicted to drugs, incarcerated, or simply unable to provide a home where a child can thrive without the threat of abuse or neglect. Perhaps the parents face health problems that render them incapable of raising their children. Sometimes the children were orphaned.

In government, we call them "kinship caregivers." And it is difficult to say, with any certainty, how many of these families are out there.

Gov. Christie Whitman recently initiated the Kinship Navigator, a telephone service (1-877-816-3211) designed to help these caring family members to maneuver the maze of government programs that may be available to them.

Many of these kinship care arrangements are made privately, without the involvement of the Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS), the state agency responsible for protecting abused or neglected children. And many of these kinship providers do not want -- or need -- government involvement in their lives.

Yet, at the same time, many others do need our help, and we are looking for more ways to make their lives a little easier.

The Navigator service, which was launched in January, helps people identify and apply for programs such as Temporary Assistance to Needy Families, Food Stamps, Medicaid or New Jersey KidCare health insurance, and subsidized child care.

The navigator also can connect people to services -- for example, rental or utility assistance -- that are provided by other government agencies.

But our efforts will not stop there.

Governor Whitman has announced her intention to make $12 million available over two years, beginning this July, for kinship caregivers. This money could be used for everything from child care subsidies and respite care to one-time costs such as moving expenses or buying a crib.

Many critics have suggested that we simply make DYFS' foster care payments -- which range from $400 to $500 per month, based on the child's age -- available to all kinship providers. Currently, most kinship providers qualify for only $162 a month, per child, through the welfare system.

But this issue is not so simple.

DYFS does allow relatives to qualify for foster care payments if the agency placed the child in the relative's home, if the child is eligible for welfare, and if the kinship caregiver agrees to go through our training, criminal background checks and home evaluation. We will continue this policy.

The division also is researching a proposal for a subsidized guardianship program under which kinship caregivers would receive larger cash payments than under our welfare system but less than the monthly stipends paid to DYFS' foster parents

However, we are hesitant to support any proposal that would automatically extend foster care payments to all kinship providers.

Our objection is largely philosophical.

Foster parents are people who, through a sense of community responsibility that is deeper than many of us could fathom, agree to love and nurture strangers' children as their own.

In exchange, we pay their expenses. That is more than a fair trade.

However, children should, whenever possible, remain with members of their own families, and those families must help provide for the children.

As a fundamental value, I believe extended families should, whenever possible, care for their own. Clearly, these kin deserve support and we will provide that to make New Jersey a perfect place to live, work and raise a family for all kinds of families. But for government to simply pay people to raise their kin, as if it were a job, undermines the very foundation of family.