About 7.8 million children live in grandfamilies.  Some grandfamilies are multigenerational households where families pool resources and grandparents provide care so parents can work.  In others, grandparents or other relatives have stepped in to keep children out of foster care when parents are unable to care for them. Sometimes grandparents have stepped in and a parent may still be present and living in the household, but not providing for most of the basic needs of a child, such as a teen parent. In other instances, grandparents receive a call in the middle of the night from child protective services and become full-time, sole caregivers to their grandchildren in a matter of hours. While grandparents are more often the relative that steps in, these scenarios also play out with aunts, uncles, older
siblings, and even close family friends.

This booklet covers expenses common to most adoptions, expenses unique to the various types of adoption, financial assistance for adoption and post-adoption expenses, and tax breaks available to
adoptive parents.

Children of color are disproportionately represented in the United States foster care system. In most states, there are higher proportions of African American/Black and Native American children in foster care than in the general child population. In some states, Hispanic/Latino children are disproportionately represented. Data also vary at the county level, with some counties experiencing more disproportionality than is evident statewide. This Technical Assistance Bulletin presents disproportionality rates for all 50 states.

Data can be an incredibly powerful tool for child welfare advocates, policymakers, and program administrators in their work to improve the lives of vulnerable children and families. From identifying target population characteristics and needs, to documenting program or service outcomes, to assessing a policy’s effect, using data to inform efforts to help children and families thrive is critical. Data can play an invaluable role in helping to highlight the need for a program, service, or policy, or to communicate about how a particular population is faring. They provide objective evidence to “make the case.”

The New Jersey Council for Young Children was established in January 2010 to ensure
collaboration and coordination among early childhood programs in the State of New Jersey.
The Birth-to-Eight Early Learning and Development Standards Committee of the Council
has responsibility for the development of a coherent set of early learning and development
and program standards that address all areas of development for ages birth through eight
that will lead to positive outcomes for infants, young children and their families.

Intercountry adoption continues to be an option for parents who choose to adopt. This fact sheet provides an overview of the intercountry adoption process. Depending on your State, your adoption services provider, and the country from which you adopt, the steps in this adoption process may vary and may change over time. For example, some families will first select an adoption services provider; their choice of country will then be limited to the countries with which that provider works or from which the parents are eligible to adopt. In every case you must meet the basic requirements of U.S. immigration law..

Several common school assignments can make foster and adoptive children feel left out, uncomfortable,
sad, and hurt. Projects like the ‘Family Tree’, ‘Bring-a-Baby Picture’ and ‘Trace Your Genetic Traits’ can
be particularly difficult for students adopted at older ages; however, children adopted as infants and
those living in foster care may also lack the information for some family-based assignments.

Written by Legal Services of New Jersey .

In recent decades, the significant percentage of births to unmarried parents1 has led to an increased focus on the fathers of these children. Referred to as alleged, presumed, reputed, or putative fathers, many of them seek recognition of their legal rights and expanded roles in raising their children.
Constitutional Rights
Historically, unmarried fathers have had fewer rights with regard to their children than either unwed mothers or married parents. Over the past several decades, unmarried fathers have challenged the termination of their parental rights under the Fourteenth Amendment in cases in which birth mothers relinquished their children for adoption. In a series of cases involving unmarried fathers, the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the constitutional protection of such a father’s parental rights when he has established a substantial relationship with his child. The court found that the existence of a biological link between a child and an unmarried father gives the father the opportunity to establish a substantial relationship, which it defined as the father’s commitment to the responsibilities of parenthood, as demonstrated by being involved or attempting to be involved in the child’s upbringing..

The state Division of Child Protection and Permanency (CP&P), formerly known as the Division of Youth and Family Services (DYFS), has placed a child in your home. You may be related to the child, a close friend of the family or perhaps the child has been in your home for a long time. Your CP&P case manager has explained that it is unlikely the child will return to their parents. CP&P is asking you to make a permanent commitment to raise this child. You have lots of questions. What are your options?  What financial supports will be available to you?

It is important for you to understand the different permanency options available to you and the child in your home. You should learn about all the options, the financial supports available with each, and how those supports may affect other benefits you receive before making your final decision. This guide gives you an overview of one permanency option – kinship legal guardianship (KLG) – as a first step toward making this all-important decision.

Please Note: This booklet is not intended to offer legal advice or legal guidance. You should consult the professionals involved in your child’s case, including the CP&P case manager, the child’s attorney (law guardian) and the attorney for CP&P (the Deputy Attorney General [DAG]). For more information or if you have questions not answered in this guide, contact Mary E. Coogan, Esq., vice president at Advocates for Children of New Jersey and director of the KidLaw Resource Center, at mcoogan@acnj.org.

The KidLaw Resource Center offers information, assistance and trainings about the rights of children. The Center provides free fact sheets, manuals and other resources. Staff is available to provide presentations and trainings on children’s legal rights. Visit www.acnj.org  for more information.