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Subsidized Guardianship
Subsidized guardianships provide financial assistance to caregivers who assume legal guardianship of a child in out-of-home care. A number of States are exploring subsidized guardianship as a means to achieving permanency for children and youth who are not being adopted or reunited with family. Resources include State and local examples.
Summary of Subsidized Guardianship Waiver Demonstrations
Children's Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2010)
Provides information on 11 State programs that financially support legal guardians of children formerly in foster care and looks at key outcomes in permanency rates, maltreatment recurrence, stability, placement disruptions and foster care reentry, and child well-being.
Synthesis of Findings From the State Assisted Guardianship Title IV-E Waiver Demonstration Projects
Children's Bureau, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (2005)
Reviews evaluation reports submitted by States that received Title IV-E waivers to implement assisted guardianship demonstration projects in Delaware, Illinois, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, North Carolina, and Oregon.
Every Child Deserves a Permanent Family: Subsidized Guardianship as a Common Sense Solution for Children in Long-Term Relative Foster Care (PDF - 1319 KB)
Generations United (2007)
Presents recent data to highlight the need for subsidized guardianship as a permanency option for children who cannot be reunified safely with their parents. The data emphasizes the number of Latino children in foster care and in relative care.
Fostering Connections Kinship Toolkit
Fostering Connections Resource Center
Provides tools to help States apply for guardianship assistance program funding and make the case for the investment.
Grandfamilies: Subsidized Guardianship Programs (PDF - 461 KB)
Generations United (2006)
Explains subsidized guardianship and funding strategies, and provides a chart showing subsidized guardianship programs that includes the major criterion for each program, State by State.
Guarding Adoption While Subsidizing Guardianship
Atwood & Zappala
Adoption Advocate, 5, 2008
Discusses how federally subsidized guardianship can be a positive reform to the foster care financing system and can be achieved without undermining children's interests in adoption. The article includes four criteria for considering the use of subsidized guardianship instead of adoption.
"Preventive" Subsidized Guardianship Programs: An Emerging Option for Permanent Kinship Care (PDF - 318 KB)
ChildFocus (2006)
Examines strategies in several innovative programs that provide assistance to children who are living with permanent guardians and may otherwise be in a formal foster care setting.
Racial Equity and Subsidized Guardianship: Critical Issues in Child Welfare Policy and Practice (PDF - 375 KB)
Annie E. Casey Foundation (2006)
Summarizes issues raised at a December 2005 national conference to explore how subsidized guardianship policies and practices could help to reduce racial and ethnic disproportionality and disparities in the child welfare system while supporting a broad range of permanency options.
Subsidized Guardianship (PDF - 123 KB)
Iowa Policy Research Organization (2009)
Describes subsidized guardianship programs in the States that administer them and summarizes the differences in their requirements.
State and local examples
DCFS Family Matters Pilot Program: Permanency and Stability for Children in the Care of Elderly/Frail Adoptive Parents and Subsidized Guardians (PDF - 825 KB)
Corman & Coon (2007)
Discusses the activities and outcomes of a federally funded program for the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services to help families develop plans for children who no longer have a living parent or legal guardian, or backup plans for children in the care of older, fragile, or ill caregivers. The report notes that guardianship is the preferred backup plan for relatives who have adopted children from foster care.
Subsidized Custody: A Permanency Option for Youth in Virginia's Foster Care System: Decision Brief in Response to the Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act (H.R. 6893) (PDF - 108 KB)
Subsidized Custody Work Group, Division of Family Services, Virginia Department of Social Services (2009)
Review Federal and State legislation and recent research on kinship guardianship and presents recommendations regarding the feasibility of kinship guardianship assistance payments for children in foster care in Virginia.
Subsidized Guardianship: Collaborating to Identify New Policy Opportunities: A Report of a Symposium Held December 12, 2006, in Boston, Massachusetts (PDF - 439 KB)
Annie E. Casey Foundation & Casey Family Services (2007)
Shares research findings on the effectiveness of subsidized guardianship in Illinois; considers the implications of racial and ethnic equity for guardian and relative care; highlights results from subsidized guardianship programs in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, and additional States; and more.