Financial Issues and Guardianships

In her Note, Erin Duques discusses Support for Relative Caregivers: A Look at the Financial Disincentives to Pursuing Guardianship Through the Probate Courts, 19 Quinnipiac Prob. L.J. 87 (2005).

Here is the conclusion of her article:

Across the United States, the numbers of grandparents and relatives raising children related to them are growing. For these relatives, the process and structure of the probate courts offer an efficient and relatively easy way to pursue guardianship. Yet, despite the benefits of the probate courts, many relatives are forced to maneuver through the child welfare system, a process that requires that they relinquish custody to the state, provided they already have it, and undergo substantial state intrusion in order to obtain or regain custody from the state agency. Only then will these relatives be eligible to receive the maximum financial assistance available through the federal foster care system and many state subsidy programs. A growing belief that kinship caregivers may help to solve the problems of the country’s failing foster care system has in large part put pressure on federal legislators to propose changes to federal law that would allow states the flexibility to use federal foster care funds to support state guardianship subsidization programs. Until then, states like Connecticut, with existing state funded subsidy programs, should continue to search for ways to expand existing programs so at the very least, children raised by indigent court appointed guardians can receive amounts close to what those in the care of relative and non-relatives in the foster care system receive. If willing to expand the program, Connecticut’s probate courts and its child welfare agency could easily work together to implement a program that would result in cost savings to the state and better permanency options for Connecticut’s youth.