The Agency's Responsibility

Whether or not child welfare agencies place a child with a relative, they have the responsibility of ensuring that the child is living in a safe, nurturing, and loving environment. They must explore with prospective foster parents or adopters their motivations for caring for the child and the realities of raising him. They must give them appropriate training and inform them about the range of services available to support them along the way.

Child welfare experts believe that more families would take in theirrelatives' children if they were aware of services available to them,whether or not they are working with a social service agency. Table 1 on the next page lists major public assistance programs and indicates some of the services for which families may be eligible.

Caregivers should contact their public assistance office to learn about programs for which they or their children qualify. Documents they should gather before applying for assistance include those listed in Table 2 on the next page.

Community organizations such as foster parent groups, adoptive parent groups, and community health associations can be helpful both as sources of support and providers of resource lists and referrals. Some can help children cope with the emotional and psychological issues they face.

Cauley says she was never told by anyone that so many services were available for her grandson. "It was nearly 2 years before I found out that he was eligible for social security," she said. "Even though the county had legal custody of him, it took a year and a half before we received a Medicaid card for him. In that time, we had to spend our life savings to get him the help he needed." She urges anyone considering care of a relative to ask questions. The local child welfare agency can help even if it is not involved in the placement.

Cathy Battle delivers the same message. When Patty and David came to live with her and her husband, they needed counseling, medical care, and dental work. Their mother was supposed to pay child support, but she never did. Battle learned about subsidies for the children, their eligibility for Medicaid, and other programs by talking with others she met in classes for relative caregivers that her county offered.

Table 1 - Public Assistance Programs
Program	Services
Aid to Families with Dependent Children (AFDC)	Provides monthly monetary amount based on family's income, or, in the case of a relative caregiver, the child's income. Amount and eligibility requirements determined by individual States. National program funded by States and Federal Government, commonly called "welfare."
Food stamps	Benefit based on the number of people in household and household income. National program administered by U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Medicaid	Provides medical care to people with low income, the blind or disabled, and dependent children of families that meet specific criteria. National program for which States set many of the requirements.
Supplemental Security Income (SSI)	Provides low-income senior citizens or blind or disabled people with monthly stipend. Children can qualify if they are blind, physically disabled, have a mental disorder, or are mentally retarded, provided the household meets the program's income requirements.

Table 2 - Documents Required for Public Assistance
Child's birth certificate
Caregiver's birth certificate
Social security numbers for everyone in the family
Proof of income for everyone in family (e.g., pay stubs, AFDC or Social Security award letter, child support letter)
Proof of family assets (e.g., bank statements, deed to house)
Proof of household expenses (e.g., rent, electric and medical bills, child care expenses)