Helping Out Those Offering Kinship Care:
An Interview with Barbara Boyd

Aired June 22, 1999

David C. Barnett–And joining us on the phone is Barbara Boyd, who represents District 9 in the Ohio House of Representatives. Representative Boyd has been working on a piece of legislation that has to do directly with kinship care, as we just heard, and she's going to tell us a little bit about how that came to be. Good morning, Representative Boyd.

Barbara Boyd–Good morning. Can you hear me?

DCB–I can hear you fine.

BB–Thank you.

DCB–You're on your way to the office to do this good work?

BB–Let's put it this way, I'm here because of the kinship care issue. I got a call yesterday that said that the provisions that are in the bill, that are in the budget bill, stands in jeopardy as of this morning.

DCB–How so?

BB–Well, because for whatever reason, it seems that the individuals who are involved in this whole issue, they feel that you're going to have so many people coming out to get this kinship care allocation that will go broke, and I say to them, first of all, the children we're talking about are in trouble. The family situation is unstable. We want these children to be in a stable environment, to place children in foster care because there is no other place for them is something that I cannot fathom.. When family members might be willing to do so, but of course many of them perhaps are grandparents or those who have other children, have children of their own, and they need a support system. I said, understanding that the children we're talking about are children that are in or coming out of an environment where it hasn't been the best nurturing environment, and therefore these children need some nurturing and some stability. Everyone that I've talked to on this issue has said the sooner we move the children out of this unstable and lack of nurture environment, the better child's chances of doing well in school, and being able to work with other children.

DCB–And that's a natural response because people always think, "well, you've got to have them with the family," but is that always the best solution, are there not certain foster situations that are perfectly fine?

BB–There are, you are absolutely correct, there are, but the fact of the matter is if you cannot-we know right now that there are not a lot of foster care, I mean, foster care has been perhaps on the way, and especially when we're talking about older children. If they're infants and toddlers, that's fine. But if they're children that are older, foster care, a foster care home is not always there for the children.

DCB–Well, let's step back a second and find out exactly what are the provisions that are in your piece of legislation?

BB–Well, the provisions that are in the piece of legislation that is now before the Finance Committee, it's a conference committee. What we will do is they will get the cash assistance per child with no strings attached, the health card, but also the issue of child care comes into play. For people who are working, and many of our grandparents work, and some of the grandparents, perhaps, are of an age where they're on Social Security, or they're retired, that expense of child care is always one that has been a problem for working parents, and you can expect that someone who is retired or someone who is working at a job, they need the help for the child care, because, remember, these are individuals who perhaps had not thought of starting a new family, because many of these grandparents, they have raised their children, and the other issue that we're talking about is respite. As with any situation, respite is one when the grandparents, if they take on a responsibility, or a kinship, they take on a responsibility, and they need that respite that is necessary because usually it's not this one child that we're talking about, we're talking children, two or more.

DCB–Another thing is this kind of psychological impact, OK, we're going to free the monetary impact, but to what extent-some would argue that people are just dumping the kids on the grandparents.

IV–You know, I think the grandparents want to keep the family together. We have been-every time you turn on the radio, television, everybody's worried about the family. If you can find a relative, family member, kin, who are willing to say, "OK, I will take legal custody, I will take legal guardianship, because if I don't do it, the children will be sent somewhere, perhaps," and they'd be split up as a family. So you want to keep the family together, that's what the whole purpose of the legislation, as far as the children and families are concerned, is to keep the family together, and if there are family members who would do it with support in place, then I say fine, because let me tell you though, I'm sure that Crystal Allen and Gail Chang both will tell you that foster care is not as available as many people think, and there are all kinds of standards and so forth that should be met. By foster care, right now there's a bill now that deals with making and changing rules and raising standards as far as training for quality care and kinship can be a part of it if necessary, but again, we're talking about family members stepping in and saying "I don't want to see the children split up."

DCB–Representative Boyd, thank you very much.

BB–Thank you.

DCB–Barbara Boyd represents District 9 in the Ohio House of Representatives.