HARRISBURG, Pa. — Pennsylvania has two new laws that will help keep children in kinship care and out of the foster care system.

Due primarily to parental substance abuse, there are now 76,000 grandparents caring for some 84,000 children in the Keystone State. HB 1539, establishing temporary guardianship for kinship caregivers, and HB 2133, establishing a kinship Caregiver Navigator Program, were signed into law late last week.

According to Joan Benso, president and CEO of Pennsylvania Partnerships for Children, research shows kids do best when they live with someone they know.

"So we've decided to create a system of supports for kinship caregivers who are informally stepping up and caring for kids who are in their lives whose parents are unable to care for them for any of a variety of reasons,” Benso said.

The Pennsylvania Department of Human Services has announced that more the $475,000 of federal funds are available to jump-start the kinship care navigator program.

Benso said the navigator program will set up a website and toll-free hotline to give grandparents and other kinship caregivers guidance and information that will help them raise the children in their care.

"This will help the family member who's stepped up to care for the child understand what their rights are to make legal decisions for children,” she said. “And it will direct them to other services they might be eligible for so they can best meet these children's needs."

The program will also save money. Each placement in foster care costs the state almost $25,000 a year.

Benso added that giving kinship caregivers temporary guardianship ensures they can respond quickly and legally to health care and educational needs of the child while preserving parents' custodial rights.

"Our goal here, and these caregivers' goals, is that parents will recover from the challenges that they're experiencing and children will be able to successfully reunite with their birth parents and never be placed in the foster care system,” Benso said.

DHS has already put out a Request for Applications for an agency to begin the navigator program.


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Children in Missouri are facing unprecedented levels of anxiety and depression - that's according to the 2022 Kids Count Data Book, released today by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.

The report finds mental health is a concern across the country, as kids felt the pressures from COVID-19. Nationally, nearly 12% of children had anxiety or depression, while in Missouri it was about 11%.

Tracy Greever-Rice is with Missouri Family and Community Trust, part of the Kids Count network. She said it's crucial that kids have access to mental-health care.

"In metropolitan areas we have clusters of mental and behavioral health professionals," said Greever-Rice. "But in more rural areas access becomes more of a challenge and becomes impacted by non-clinical things like transportation."

She added that affordable health-coverage options, either through private insurance or Medicaid, also is key to ensuring access to care. About 6% of Missouri kids lack health insurance, according to the report.

Missouri showed improvement in all of the report's economic indicators, including a lower child poverty rate than the national average.

Leslie Boissiere - vice president for external affairs with the Casey Foundation - said the federal government has offered supports, such as additional food assistance during the pandemic, but notes that help is likely to expire soon.

"It's incredibly important that decisionmakers seize the opportunity and the lessons learned during the COVID-19 period," said Boissiere, "when more resources were provided to families. So that we can make sure that every child has their basic needs met and that the overall well-being of children increases."

Sore spots for Missouri in the Kids Count data include fourth-grade reading proficiency and eighth-grade math proficiency, as well as the percentage of low-birth weight babies, and youths who are overweight or obese.

Greever-Rice said these are areas where good short-term and long-term policies can make a big difference in kids' lives as they mature into adulthood.

"Attentiveness to these issues will make a big difference and prevention is not just good for individuals," said Greever-Rice, "but also more efficient and a less expensive of a way to do public policy. "

Missouri ranks 27th overall for child well-being.

Despite numerous challenges, eastern Kentucky schools and advocacy groups are working to make the upcoming school year as normal as possible and get kids back into the classroom.

Alissa Taylor, Kentucky state director for Save the Children, said school districts in the region have delayed the start of the academic year, and are working to approve a new start date. She explained schools are the focal point of many counties in eastern Kentucky, and with some buildings destroyed, community hubs have disappeared, too.

She pointed out her staff is working to ensure teachers have supplies.

"And not only the structural rebuilds of schools and classrooms," Taylor stressed. "But all of the materials that have accumulated over the years and teachers have poured their hard-earned money into to make a fun and engaging environment for kids."

The flooding has killed at least 37 people. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden are expected to visit communities in the region today, along with Gov. Andy Beshear.

Greta Wetzel, team leader of the Eastern Kentucky flood response for Save the Children, noted disasters can erode children's sense of security, and negatively affect their behavioral health and ability to learn.

"We know that this is going to have an emotional impact on children," Wetzel emphasized. "We want to ensure that we are there to help support them. With all of their mental-health needs, as they are rebuilding and returning to learning."

Taylor added given the lack of basic infrastructure in some regions, local school districts will coordinate to place children in nearby schools.

"The water infrastructure and power grid, those are going to take a very long time to repair," Taylor acknowledged. "We're looking at families going months possibly without a water source at their home, roads being rebuilt, it's just going to take a very long time to get these communities back on track. "

Save the Children has set up the Eastern Kentucky Flood Crisis Fund for donations to help deliver water, hygiene kits, diapers and other essential supplies to residents.

Children's advocacy groups are sounding the alarm about the well-being of Ohio's kids.

The 2022 Kids Count Data Book released today highlights some troubling trends in how Ohio children are faring in their lives, including a 45% increase in chronic absenteeism between 2019 and 2021. And nationally, more than one-in-nine children experienced anxiety, depression or both.

Research Manager with the Children's Defense Fund-Ohio Kim Eckhart said absenteeism and mental health challenges are interconnected.

"If a young person is having symptoms of anxiety and depression, it's much more difficult for them to participate in academic activities," said Eckhart. "And other basic needs really have to be met in order for children to succeed. That's very clear when we see chronic absenteeism so high."

The report ranks Ohio 28th for education, with an increase in three- and four-year-old children not in preschool, and nearly one-in-five high schoolers not graduating on time.

However, Ohio showed improvement in all four economic indicators, including a slight drop in the number of kids living in poverty and those whose parents lack secure employment.

Leslie Boissiere - vice president for external affairs with the Casey Foundation - explained that kids who grow up in poverty or without having their basic needs met experience more stress.

"There's a direct correlation between trauma and stress and poverty," said Boissiere. "We know that the financial hardships that families experience - lack of access to basic needs, like nutrition and health care - has a direct impact on the well-being of kids."

Eckhart said the findings underscore the crucial need to expand access to mental health services for children. She explained that Ohio still has nearly $2 billion in unallocated federal COVID relief funds, and the state's revenue surplus is about 11% higher than initial estimates.

"There's money and resources available at the state level to provide things like school-based health centers," said Eckhart, "where you can have the types of student-to-counselor ratios needed so that all children have access to those types of services."

The report ranks Ohio 31st overall among states for child well-being.