TRIB TOTAL MEDIA SATURDAY, AUGUST 25, 2018 · 5
RAISING CHILDREN: TAKE 2
Legislation to help grandparents
find important resources, services
“We want to let people know there are re-sources
to help,” said L’Tesha Gamble-Pet-tis,
the vice president for child and family
services at A Second Chance Inc., or ASCI.
“They don’t have to walk this road
alone.”
Grandchildren can end up living with
grandparents for a number of reasons,
including abuse, the death of a parent, the
incarceration of a parent and/or having a
parent or parents struggling with drug ad-diction.
Gamble-Pettis said the opioid crisis has
“definitely” contributed to the number of
cases they see.
Currently ASCI is serving approximately
900 children in about 600 homes in Al-legheny
County.
About 70 percent of those children are
with maternal relatives and 30 percent are
with paternal relatives.
The organization also works in Philadel-phia
and totals about 1,800 children in all
their locations, plus those children’s care-givers
and birth parents.
ASCI estimates there are many other
“grandfamilies” and others in kinship care
arrangements that aren’t going through
formal channels.
For any grandparent tasked with the
responsibility of raising grandchildren,
either formally or informally, the concerns
can be plenty.
There’s often little, if any, time to prepare
for welcoming children into a home that
most likely isn’t childproof, for starters.
There are clothes, beds, linens, furniture,
school supplies and possibly much more
to buy, depending on the age of the child.
In addition to having more mouths to
feed, meals likely will change, and grand-parents
will need to stock up with kid-friendly
foods.
There are extracurriculars to pay for and
transportation to consider. All these can be
worrisome for seniors on a fixed income.
One way in which the Area Agency on
Aging can help is through financial sup-port.
“It’s a reimbursement program for
grandparents to get reimbursed for some
of the expenses of raising someone else’s
children,” said Brenda Slagle, the agency’s
caregiver support coordinator.
In July, President Donald Trump
signed into law the Supporting Grand-parents
Raising Grandchildren Act,
which was first introduced by Sen. Bob
Casey (D-Pa.) and Sen. Susan Collins
(R-Maine) in May 2017.
The legislation will establish a federal
advisory council led by the U.S. Dept.
of Health and Human Services that will
help gather and provide information
about where grandparents can get re-sources
and services.
The House and Senate passed the bill
earlier this year.
A number of prominent senior and
children’s advocacy groups have backed
the legislation, including Generations
United, the American Academy of Pedi-atrics
and AARP.
According to AARP, there are ap-proximately
2.6 million children being
raised by grandparents or another fam-ily
member nationwide, with that num-ber
expected to increase as the opioid
crisis continues.
Once assembled, the council —
which will include grandparents and
caregivers, according to Casey — will
have one year to put together a reposi-tory
of information that will be found
on a website, a one-stop-shop of sorts
where grandparents can go to find
what’s available to help them in their
situation.
Casey, ranking member of the U.S.
Senate Committee on Aging, hosted a
roundtable discussion about the legisla-tion
at A Second Chance Inc., in Pitts-burgh,
earlier this year.
According to his office there are more
than 100,000 children in Pennsylvania
being raised by grandparents.
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