Click here to subscribe today or Login.
WILKES-BARRE — At a news conference in Harrisburg on Monday, state Rep. Eddie Day Pashinski requested the Senate move on his bill that would help benefit grandparents who are the sole caregivers of their grandchildren.
“The time for Pennsylvania to step up is now,” Pashinski said in an emailed release.
Pashinski, D-Wilkes-Barre, said there are more than 240,000 children in Pennsylvania who are being taken care of by family members. Of those children, 191,000 are being raised by 80,000 grandparents.
House Bill 662 — which has been in the Senate Public Health and Welfare Committee for more than a year — would create a Kinship Navigator Pilot Program to determine the needs of kinship caregivers, focusing on grandparents raising grandchildren, and assess the feasibility of establishing a statewide Kinship Navigator Program.
“These grandparents face many challenges raising their grandchildren, including no support network, no access to legal service or direction to service organizations, and no information on relief funds and rehabilitation services for grandparents and grandchildren,” he said.
Pashinski said that on average, it costs $27 a day to keep a child in foster care in Pennsylvania, which adds up to nearly $2 billion a year.
“The grandparents who are raising their grandchildren are saving the taxpayers serious money, so these grandparents deserve some reasonable assistance,” Pashinski said.
Pashinski said he has provided a resource on his legislative web page (www.pahouse.com/Pashinski) that provides links to resources and information on topics that could be beneficial to grandparents who are raising their grandchildren.
“While this web page is available and is similar to the pilot program in my legislation, we need to move H.B. 662 forward in order to have more discussions on the best way to provide these resources to these grandparents,” Pashinski said.
He said Kinship Navigator Programs have proven beneficial and successful in many states, including Ohio, Delaware, New Jersey and New York.
On his website, Pashinski said “there is no doubt” that grandparents love their grandchildren and will do everything they can to help their grandchildren live full and successful lives.
“But there are times when all of us need some help to achieve our goals,” he said.
Pashinski said Pennsylvania strives to keep families together when tragedy strikes, and grandparents are often willing to step up to the plate to care for their grandchildren when the parents cannot.
“They do so without hesitation and with little support,” he said.