They Call Me Momma:
Relatives Raising Children

Part 5

Aired October 8, 2001

For relatives raising children, navigating the legal and court systems can be a nightmare. A caregiver's legal relationship with a child often determines what services the caregiver can access for a child. In the next installment of "They Call Me Momma: Relatives Raising Children," we examine the legal maze of kinship care. As 90.3 WCPN®'s Renita Jablonski reports, Ohio lawmakers are proposing ways to ease what's often an expensive and emotionally draining process.

Renita Jablonski–Cleveland resident Rita Bell has been a caregiver to her granddaughter, who's 13, and her grandson, 10, since the day each was born.

Rita Bell–My daughter was out in the street. She was on drugs so therefore, the first child they were going to adopt away but I fought for her because it was the first grandchild. And she didn't straighten up then a couple of years later came Martez, which since I had the oldest child they just automatically called me from the hospital that she could not take the baby out of the hospital unless I was coming to bring the baby home with me.

RJ–The legal relationship between a kinship caregiver and the child he or she is raising is a key factor when it comes to what social services the caregiver can get for the child. Bell learned this after a visit from a county social worker soon after the birth of her granddaughter. She says without his help, she would not have known where to start.

RB–He took me through all the legal stuff then because I didn't know anything. He got the birth certificate, he made the court dates for me to get guardianship papers, and things like that. He was really nice.

RJ–Because Bell obtained legal guardianship for her grandchildren, she had no problem when it came time to enroll them in school or in getting them the medical services they needed. But for the most part, kinship caregivers do not have a personal guide to help them steer through the course of the legal system. In that way, Bell was lucky. Often grandparents and other relatives may take a child in suddenly due to the parent's incarceration or illness, gradually becoming the primary caregiver…and when the time comes that the child may need a particular service, the caregiver has no legal right to access it. Jane Fumich is Director of the Cuyahoga County Department of Senior and Adult Services. She says it's for that reason the county's "Grandparent and Other Kinship Caregiver Initiative" began to host a series of legal workshops.

Jane Fumich–We have a contract with the Cuyahoga County Bar Association and then they have a pool of 20 specially trained attorneys that have their specialty in the area of family law, and then they've been trained on caregiver issues.

RJ–Mary Malloy is Executive Director of the county's Juvenile Court Custody Mediation Project, the program responsible for coordinating the public meetings. She says while the workshops are designed to help caregivers understand their legal options, such as custody, guardianship and adoption. One of the concerns she hears most frequently is a fear of getting involved in those processes in the first place.

Mary Malloy–They're not only afraid of filing to make their children upset, they're also afraid that their children are going to come back and try to take the children from them. And the truth of the matter is, their children can come and take the children back at any time if they do not have legal custody or guardianship over those children.

RJ–Malloy says she stresses to grandparents that an actual court proceeding may not always be necessary. She says the vast majority of families filing for custody are sent to mediation first where they can settle without ever having to enter a courtroom. She says regardless of how it's obtained, a kinship caregiver with legal authority over a child also serves as a protective device.

MM–The only way you can protect these children against the bad behavior of their parents who may come at any time of the day or night, in any condition, intoxicated or high on drugs, the only way you can protect them or obtain the protection of the police is to have a legal document saying that you have custody and control of those children.

RJ–Some Ohio legislators have recognized that the actual court process can be both emotionally and financially draining and have proposed a Kinship Caregiver Power of Attorney and Authorization Affidavit. Linda Reidelbach is a state representative from Columbus and one of the bill's sponsors.

Linda Reidelbach–It's a consensual agreement by which a parent would transfer the care of their child to the relative and again, the power of attorney would allow the kinship caregiver to enroll the child in school and consent to medical treatment and it terminates after one year.

RJ–The other part of House Bill 211 would give a single person who is a caregiver of a child the ability to sign an affidavit saying he or she does not know where the child's parents are, basically giving the caregiver legal control through a sort of self-affirmation. As an attorney, Mary Malloy says this provision troubles her.

MM–As I read the bill it did not have a provision saying you could only do this once. So there nothing to keep from doing it in succession, one time after another, every year after another. With the differences that people have in deciding where a child should live, just in the cases of divorce and in cases where children are not living in an intact, what they call intact family, the possibility for all kinds of not necessarily fraud, but misinformation to be put out and utilized to exclude another parent, I think is, the possibility is quite high that it would be used that way.

RJ–Reidelbach says a sub-bill is being added to 211 to address various kinks in the legislation but she says she doesn't think issues raised by critics like Malloy are a problem.

LR–I personally have faith in people to make the best decisions for their families and I think the families can best decide what is best for the children and all the people involved more so than really a disinterested third party.

RJ–Ron Browder, Chief of the Bureau of Family Services for the Ohio Department of Jobs and Family Services says the proposed legislation isn't the only thing being looked at on a statewide level to help caregivers more successfully encounter the legal process. He says another example is a pro bono program for lawyers being developed in Franklin County.

Ron Browder–Governor Taft had asked the legal counsels from the various agencies in the state to come together and look at how there might be some sort of help provided to families who need legal services who might not be able to afford them so they are working right now to develop a protocol.

RJ–Rita Bell says after going through the process of obtaining legal guardianship of her grandchildren, she can understand why other grandparents or relative caregivers may be hesitant. She says along with the ability to make important decisions for the kids, came a responsibility that altered her life forever.

RB–They've always been with me. They've never made a home with their mom. She's clean right now but she's not maternally instinctive. I think the women when they're out there, they just lose all maternal instincts.

RJ–While custody agreements may vary depending on the degree a kinship caregiver wants to be involved in raising a child, it's imperative for caregivers to understand the legal and financial implications of these relationships. While tools like a kinship caregiver power of attorney or authorization affidavit may be available in the future, the only way to navigate the legal system for now is through education. In Cleveland, Renita Jablonski, 90.3 WCPN® News.