Grandparents Show Up-Will We?

By Donna Butts, Executive Director, Generations United

As the debate about protecting unborn babies rages and divides our country, one constant stands — grandparents and the role they play in raising our country’s children whose parents can’t care for them. Throughout time grandparents have taken responsibility for children whose parents are unable to parent. Whether because of substance use, incarceration, military deployment, mental health or death, grandparents have stepped up.

And they usually do it on their own with very little or no help from systems and services that are supposed to be there to strengthen a family’s ability to care for its children.

A new US Census Bureau report on co-resident grandparents and grandchildren highlights several living arrangements, including those in which a grandparent rents or owns the home and reports they are “responsible” for the grandchildren living there. While the data is self-reported and doesn’t include great grands, aunts, uncles or other relatives, some of the characteristics or trends in these households are clear when compared to the last report the bureau issued based on 2012 data.

• More of these grandparents are aged 60 and over than before — 59.5% of grandparents were aged 60 and over in 2021, an increase from 47% in 2012. According to the Census Bureau, “This shift towards older grandparents responsible for grandchildren continues a previously established trend.”
• Nationally, 18.3 percent of grandparents responsible for their grandchildren lived in poverty. In the South, grandparents responsible for grandchildren were more likely to live below the poverty line than in other regions of the country.
• About 76.1 percent of all grandchildren under the age of 18 living in their grandparents’ homes received public assistance, most commonly through the school lunch program for children.
• American Indian and Alaska Native and Black or African American grandparents were the most likely to be responsible for their grandchildren, with 39.2 and 38.2 percent of grandparents responsible for their grandchildren, respectively. This reflects the long-standing cultural strength of family caring for family in the face of adversity.

The new data has policy implications ranging from the reauthorization of the Older American’s Act (OAA) to Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF). There are three things Congress can do now to improve supports for these families:

• Reauthorize the OAA including supports for grandparents raising grandchildren.
• Strengthen TANF for grandfamilies
• Provide stable funding for Kinship Navigator Programs

Grandparents are resourceful and resilient as they become masters at tackling complex systems that intersect with the different ages and needs of their families.

However, considering many grandparents step into their caregiving role unexpectedly, they need help understanding and accessing essential services and assistance programs to ensure the children thrive. For example, although the majority of all minor grandchildren living in their grandparents’ homes received some public assistance, only 7.5% of these households accessed TANF. A missed opportunity given it is often the only source of financial support available to help them provide for the children.

We can make it easier for them to meet their families’ basic human needs and invest in children that will keep our diverse country strong. Kinship Navigator Programs play a crucial role in informing and connecting grandfamilies to critical services and support like TANF. Federal support is essential to keep Kinship Navigator Programs operating effectively and make them available across the country.

While the grandparents’ stories vary there are common threads. As Adrian, a grandmother from suburban Chicago explained after taking in her grandson Joey, “My friends would tell me about their cruises to faraway places and I thought I cruise too. I cruise to school, to doctor’s appointments, to sporting events. Joey is my cruise and I wouldn’t have it any other way.”

Grandparents show up. Now it’s up to us.