Conclusions

Assuming the responsibility of raising grandchildren so late in life is indeed a difficult undertaking, but research has shown that grandparents, perhaps, make better parents than they did the first time around. They are more mature, emotionally stable, and willing to sacrifice so much for the ones they love. "Unconditional love for children is the balm that enables them to take children from broken homes and mend them."

Expert: Jan Dennis-Cohen

Jan Cohen has directed programs serving families, children, and youth for almost 20 years. She became involved with grandparent headed families as an educator in the cooperative extension system. Jan is an author and consultant of two grandparenting curricula: 'Help for Grandparents Raising Children with Developmental Disabilities' and 'Parenting the Second Time Around'. She lives in Binghamton, New York, with her husband and two children.

Expert: Gerard Wallace

Gerry Wallace has been Director of the Grandparent Caregiver Law Center at the Brookdale Center on Aging at Hunter College for over three years. His area of expertise consists of the legal problems of grandparents who are full time caregivers of their grandchildren. Soon after he started working at the BCOA he wrote an amicus curiae brief in the United States Supreme Court grandparent visitation case, Troxel v. Granville, 1999. This brief was subsequently featured in the Congressional Digest's Supreme Court Debates, March 2000. Since then, Gerry has written many articles on the legal issues facing grandparents. He has been published in the New York State Elder Law Attorney, the Journal of Gerontological Social Work, West Law's Elder Adviser, the Albany Times Union, and the editorial pages of the New York Times and New York Newsday.

Gerry has helped legislatures in New York, Maryland, and North Carolina draft laws on grandparent legal issues, and has worked as an advisor to programs at Fordham University and the University of Utah. On an annual basis he speaks at local support groups for grandparents, organized by the New York City Department for the Aging and other community-based social service programs. Gerry currently lives with his family in Ulster County, New York.

Some thoughts grandparents acting as caregivers should keep in mind:

• CUSTODY AND GUARDIANSHIP
• Grandparents who are legal custodian or legal guardians have court orders that prove their grandchildren belong with them. Without court orders, medical care, education, and protecting children can face unwarranted obstacles.
• Legal Custody and legal guardianship may differ. Check for the authority to make medical decisions, to name a successor, and to include grandchildren on the grandparent's health insurance.
• SERVICES
• Grandchildren may qualify as dependents on their grandparents Social Security Benefits, if their parents are dead, disabled, or the grandparents have adopted them.
• All grandchildren are eligible for public assistance benefits based only on their income.
• CHILD WELFARE
• While child welfare laws prefer placing children with relatives, the law does not mandate such placements. Often, once children are placed with foster parents, grandparents cannot acquire custody.
• Most states have kinship foster care programs. Ask about this program before accepting a grandchild from child welfare personnel.