[~*Max*~]

I know of three little ones removed from their mother's care to the great grandmother recently in Texas. Money is tight especially with three little ones who came so unexpectedly. What is she entitled to? I believe they have CASA workers in Texas, correct? Are they really helpful in advocating for the children? I know this woman will need both financial support and advocacy for the best interest of her great grandchildren. Please say she will be able to get both!

Thanks

[bethy724]

Originally Posted by ~*Max*~

I know of three little ones removed from their mother's care to the great grandmother recently in Texas. Money is tight especially with three little ones who came so unexpectedly. What is she entitled to? I believe they have CASA workers in Texas, correct? Are they really helpful in advocating for the children? I know this woman will need both financial support and advocacy for the best interest of her great grandchildren. Please say she will be able to get both!

Thanks

I think they only get medicaid but since they are siblings they may get more. I think a Casa is only assigned if it is a high profile case - they have a lawyer who chould make him/herself known at the 1st hearing-she should attend & start advocating for them-she has to be the one advocating -it doesn't seem that all the paid professionals involved do it. She'll be in my thoughts.

[CaddoRose]

You should contact the CASA office in the area were the GGma lives and inquire about a CASA for the children. They probably do have a CASA/GAL assigned,as this is the common practice in Texas. And yes, they do advocate for the child.

She should be receiving the monthly stipend provided by the state.This would be handled by CPS. If the children are young enough, she should apply for WIC and food stamps asap. They should be on Star Health(Texas Medicaid). They can get all of their medical/dentist paid for this way.

Find the local food bank. In my county we have a program that provides food and supplies to the needy and she sounds like she is in that group. Because the need has gone up lately, some can only provide food once a month, but it's better than nothing at all. Ours is supported by all of the local churches regardless of denomination. The food bank here can also help with utility bills and medicine for her.


You may have to help her find out how to get all of this, but it's definitely worth fighting for.

[~*Max*~]

Thanks CaddoRose! I think her daughter will be joining here pretty soon but wanted to hopefully have some answers started for her since there are many here who know "the system" intimately.

Thanks again,

Lisa

[BrandyHagz]

She should be receiving the monthly stipend provided by the state.This would be handled by CPS

This might actually depend on the state. I've heard that some states (and I'm not familiar with Texas) do not pay a stipend for kinship placements.

[bethy724]

In TX (3 years ago) I know a kinship placement that didn't receive a stipend - only medicaid & WIC. My son's 1/2 sibling was placed w/ "kinship" instead of me to save the state money. I didn't know about him until he was born & placed. Things may have changed - his 1/2 sibling qualified for other services after the adoption but during the initial placement family didn't receive any stipend - it's assumed family will take care of their own (not that I agree with it- I wanted my sons 1/2 sibling but wouldn't take him or fight for him from the only family he knew-I wasn't concerned about $$ & children are supposed to be placed w/ siblings first)

[hkolln]

Some states don't provide monthly stipends to "kinship" placements. That is why they push for kinship instead of foster care placements. And that is the reason we went foster care instead of relative caregiver placement. Plus after the adoption we also receive the adoption stipend til she's 18. There may be differences depending upon the state.

[EAGLE6]

I'm in NY, and still trying to get placement of my nephew into our home. We were told just the other day we'll get Medicaid, WIC, and a monthly stipend of $520. That includes a diaper allowance too.

[4cats2kids]

in Tennessee if you go to the path classes and get certified you get same benifets as foster parents. I have a granddaughter get full foster care benifets wic and medical.

[ALfostermom]

in AL Kinship placements don't get a monthly board check. THey do qualify for wic and medicaid though if they were already on it. If you go through the GPS training and foster parent requirements you can get the monthly board check however.

[jphollen]

Here if it's kinship, you have to take the first half of (six) pride classes and you get half of the traditional foster care stipend which would be about $200, but would also get medicaid, and all other services.

[ladycat]

Hello, I'm the daughter of the great grandmother the OP tells about. I intended to post much sooner but I got a really bad cold or virus or something and I've been really sick.

But here I am. Better late than never. I want to explain more of what's going on.

I don't know how to keep this short, but I'll try.

I'm going to use fake names here. I hope I don't confuse myself by using fake names! LOL

Let me start by explaining who's who (FAKE names!).

Lorraine- my 21 yo niece
Holly- Lorraine's 8 yo daughter, a product of rape
Roy- the man Lorraine has been living with for several years.
Dylan and Lisa- 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 years old, Lorraine and Roy's children together.
Becky- Lorraine's mother
Jerry- my brother and Lorraine's daddy.

Let me start by explaining Becky is bipolar (yes she was dx'd), a meth addict and an alcoholic. You can imagine what kind of mother she was. She wasn't one! She and Jerry are separated and in the middle of the divorce process.

Now Lorraine is showing a pattern of bipolar like her mother, and we recently found out she's a heavy drug user. We also found out recently she has a boyfriend on the side, and may be sleeping with other men, too.

Lorraine has repeatedly stated in the past few months that she no longer wants her children.

Roy is a good man, hard worker, very dedicated to the children, and has treated Lorraine like a queen. My mother and Jerry have both stayed with Lorraine and Roy for a few days here and there (not at the same time), and both have observed that Lorraine neglects the children severely, and Roy is the one who takes care of them.

Roy considers Holly to be his daughter, and he's the only daddy she's ever known.

But everything has gone haywire in the last several weeks.

Roy was giving Lorraine the money to pay the bills, and somewhere along the way she stopped paying them. Roy had no idea until he got an eviction notice and utility cutoff notices.

Lorraine has been spending the money on drugs and on her boyfriend.

Lorraine revealed to Roy several weeks ago that she has a boyfriend. She began taking off with no notice for days at a time to be with her boyfriend.

Roy's heart is torn in pieces. He loves Lorraine but he wants to make a clean break from her. He wants to be the one to raise the children. He's been trying to figure out how to keep the kids with him.

A couple weeks ago Lorraine walked out and told Roy she was moving in with her boyfriend and that she wouldn't be coming back. Roy was already facing having to move because of the eviction and he lost his job, so now there he was with 3 kids and nowhere to go.

My mother found a cheap place he could move into in walking distance of where I'm sitting, and another relative said they'd be able to get him a job where he's working in the nearby small city. This sounded like a good plan.

So my mother and Roy started making all the arrangements to get him and the kids here, and we were going to help with the kids and get them into a stable situation.

The tricky part was Holly. She's not Roy's biological child. As soon as Roy arrived here with the kids, he and my mother were going to talk to a lawyer to find out what options are available. We don't want Holly in the foster care system! And we don't want Roy getting in trouble.

Now the story has taken a big twist.

On Tuesday, my mother and I had finished delivering Meals on Wheels (one of our volunteer activities), and were back at the senior citizen center eating lunch when my mother's cell rang. It was CPS in the town where Lorraine and Roy were living. Roy had found another job and was out of town making a delivery. I'm not sure what happned, but someone turned Lorraine into CPS, they responded, and when they called my mother, they had Lorraine and the kids in the CPS office. Lorraine had tested positive for meth. If my mother (the great grandmother of Lorraine's kids), couldn't go get the kids RIGHT THEN they would be going to foster care. It's about a 2 hour drive, but we dropped everything, my mother dropped me off at home and took off.

When she got there, at first they had planned on putting Lorraine into rehab there, but changed their mind and said they wanted my mother to bring Lorraine back with her and CPS there would call CPS here and get Lorraine in rehab here.

But CPS is dragging their butts, and now say that Lorraine has to go to parenting classes, and they aren't saying anything about rehab. (???). They made my mother sign all sorts of papers and she (my mother), is not allowed to leave Lorraine alone with the kids any length of time, not even 5 minutes! So now my mother is babysitting 3 kids AND Lorraine. This is hard on my mother. She's 74 years old, and she has diabetes and congestive heart failure.

And Holly is having fits. She wants to stay with her daddy. She most emphatically does NOT want to be with her mother.

But I'm getting just a little ahead of myself. Let me slow down. Actually, I need to take a short side trip, too.

Ok, back to Tuesday. When CPS called they wanted to know the address where my mother would have the kids. PANIC TIME. Here's the side trip --> We couldn't give THIS address (where my mother and I live), because if CPS made a visit, they'd take the kids again! Here's why: My mother and step father bought this house as a fixer upper 35 years ago this month. My stepfather did not have a good paying job, so my mother worked and bought all the things needed for fixing the house. Well, my step father was one of the cruelest and most controlling people you've ever heard of. My mother had everything ready to fix the house, and he refused. He told her she didn't deserve a nice house.

So over the years all those materials rotted away or disappeared (my step father probably gave a lot of it away and/or hauled it to the dump). So now this house has a roof slowly caving in, some rooms have unfinished walls, the wiring is old, and so on and so on. It's a SHACK.

So on Tuesday, my mother told the case worker she would call back with the address. I called my brother (my other brother, not Jerry), who owns a small house nobody is currently living in. He wasn't happy about it, but he gave me the address for that and my mother passed it on to the case worker.

So now that's where my mother, the kids, and Lorraine are. In a teensy weeny little 3 room house. 3 LITTLE rooms.

There's nothing much I can do to relieve her. I have health issues (especially Rheumatoid Arthritis), and I have a vision problem that keeps me from getting a driver's license, so I have no car. Which means my mother is stuck babysitting.

Lorraine is rude, pushy, and takes advantage every kind of way she can. Her kids are learning these same behaviors from her.

My mother is NOT able to hold up to this physically, and she's getting emotionally battered. I'm here in her house feeling helpless because there's not much I can do to help. This situation is supposed to go on until February.

Jerry came this past weekend and relieved my mother from Saturday afternoon to Sunday afternoon.

If it was close enough to walk, I could go there part of the time, but it's not. And someone has to stay here - farm animals to take care of, plus this place is a burglar magnet when nobody is here plus I have online work that I do (my sole and only measly little income), and there's no phone over there so I wouldn't be able to get online.

So this is one messed up situation! If anyone has any helpful suggestions, I'm all ears!

[Boulderbabe]

Hi----Here's one idea. First of all, Jerry has every right to have custody of his own (biological) kids. If he's stable and sane, and it sounds like he is, he is the preferred placement in CPS' eyes. So he needs to get in touch with the caseworker handling this, tell them he wants the kids, and then make arrangements to get them. The caseworker will want to see where he lives and interview him, but it should be okay. If he needs resources to help him care for them, like a daycare voucher, CPS may be able to help.

Now the issue is Holly. Roy is her de facto parent. So he should qualify for kinship care status. He'll have to be licensed as a foster parent, and put up with CPS visiting, but he should be able to be qualified as Holly's kinship care giver through the foster care system. An added bonus to this is that he may get a financial stipend to help care for Holly, and he can use that for rent, food, and so on.

So, in short, my advice is to have Roy talk to the caseworker who is dealing with Lorraine ASAP. Then, once he has the kids, your mom can give Lorraine the boot and focus her attention on taking care of herself and supporting Roy as she's able.

I hope this is of some help!

[jllambert]

Oh Bless, what a mess! What about Roy? why can't the kids go with Roy? At least the two that are his? Seems like he should have some rights to the kids?

Please please don't take this the wrong way, but maybe the kids would be better off in foster care until Roy can get on his feet and get CPS to place all 3 kids with him (they try to keep siblings together and if they see that he wants Holly and she wants to be with him they are likely to agree to him having all 3 of them). There are lots of great foster homes that really love and care for their foster kids! It is not right to put this stress on your mother at her age and with her health concerns. The kids going into foster care could be just the kick in the pants Lorriane needs to get her life together and start doing right by them!
I am in Texas and from what I hear and know Kin does not get the monthy check that foster families get! It is not right and should be changed! She can apply for foodstamps, & WIC.

Good Luck and God Bless your family!

[greenrobin]

I live in Texas.

Just a note about the original question of kinship placement:

3 years ago I served as the kinship placement for a former student. Everything was on us. She had no cw, no GAL, no stipend, no clothing allowance. She did get Medicaid, but she had that before coming to my home. We were told that the common practice here is to sort of step out after the first month if the placement appears to be working.

Our agency has also told us that stipends for family members are unusual. Parents may continue to work a plan to get the kids back, but since family is involved, the state pays no money. They may still be eligible for WIC (our fd wasn't--she was 14), but that's not even guaranteed.

I do know of one case locally where the family had several little ones and it was becoming a huge financial issue. The kids were formalized into care and only then did the family get a stipend.

Sorry to be such a downer.