Hundreds of children live with grandparents who may be struggling

ZANESVILLE - The last seven years of Frieda Hardy's life have been spent in a second round of motherhood.

Now with grown children of her own and 17 total grandchildren, the Zanesville woman and her husband have taken three new kin into her home to raise as their own — her three granddaughters Kaiden, Isabella and Teagan.

But it meant leaving her Zane State bachelor's program just a few credits from her degree, and forfeiting a late-life career in social work.

Faced with an opportunity to take in two of the girls years back, she didn't think twice about becoming a kinship caregiver. Itis a similar concept to foster parenting but provides very little financial aid.

"We're the hidden group, the forgotten ones," she said. "Morally, it's my responsibility. Financially, it's a hardship."

There are some non-governmental entities that aim to compensate for what little funds kinship caregiver are provided from the state, but it's nominal to what a certified foster parent receives.

Just before the end of the year, Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine signed an executive order that will guarantee direct payments to non-foster parent families who take in children under children's services supervision beginning June 1.

Far too often Hardy said she's seen dedicated family member who are desperate to take in their loved ones, only to realize finances are the only major barrier to keep a child out of the foster system.

While there are other financial aid options, a dedicated, guaranteed payment has been a long time coming. It's still not clear how much financial compensation there will be.

And in a county where officials say there are enough child involved in Child Protective Services to fill an entire school, it'll be just another small tool in a kinship caregiver's toolkit — but it's something.

"When you can hardly afford to put bread and butter on the table yourself, you're reluctant to take in your loved ones, because you can't," Hardy said. Her hope is that this will be the extra push for a child's loved one to make that decision.

Muskingum County kinship is common

Hardy's family is just one of hundreds in Muskingum County. She and her husband Randall now have custody of the girls, but it took a lot of time, energy and money to make sure the girls could stay in their home permanently.

A kinship caregiver is similar to a foster parent, but don't have to meet the same requirements to get a certification. A child who is not able to live at home with birth parents may have their case referred to child protective services.

According to Patrick Donavan, who supervises Muskingum County's Kinship Navigator Program, one of the caseworker's first steps is to contact close relatives outside of the child's household to bypass foster care with a stranger.

"Sometimes they're an IT person as they're helping the kiddo get school assignments turned in. They end up being public transportation for the kids, a teacher, a counselor a friend," he said. "They wear a lot more hats than people realize."

There are currently 619 Muskingum County children whose grandparents are caring for them on a long-term basis — 464 families. Most of those adults have legal custody of their kin. 

Southeast Ohio is hit particularly as the opioid epidemic expands. And addiction was part of what brought the girls to their doorstep, Hardy said.

She said parents or parental figures in both households struggled with substance abuse.

Now 13, when Kaiden moved in with her grandparents seven years ago she said it felt different. Her sister Isabella was 4 years old when she came to live with her grandparents and remembers crying after leaving visits.

"Because here it just felt like 'home' home. Back with my parents, it just felt like none," she said.

When they took Teagan in, Hardy said she had just celebrated her first birthday with a bruise on her cheek from an earlier abuse by a non-relative.

It was important to Hardy that the children later had the chance to maintain contact with their parents and other siblings, which is another reason why she said they went the kinship route. Foster care doesn't typically allow that.

It's also why one of a caseworker's first steps is to contact close relatives outside of the child's home. Donovan said the goal is typically to resolve temporary issues at home so the child can go back, but it's not always possible.

"There are a lot of hurdles (foster parents) have to jump through to get certified," he added. "With kinship providers, it's not as cut and dry." But because of that, they don't qualify for the same, or sometimes any, financial benefits.

Why families need financial help

When Hardy learned her grandchildren needed a new place, like most grandparents, she dropped everything to take them in. Donovan said it's something he sees all the time.

"If Grandma gets that call, she's thinking, oh my gosh, children's services is going to take my babies," he said. "That’s the reaction. They’re not thinking about the financial piece of it."

That could be one child, two or upwards of six or seven, depending on the size of the family, Donavan said.

Couple that with the dedicated grandparents who are on a fixed or limited income — disability, Social Security income — and financial outlook becomes that much bleaker.

Hardy said her family was fortunate enough to take in the girls while they were figuring things out, but she had to sacrifice a career to take care of them.

Transportation to doctors appointments, school, and any other activities for the girls takes time, and money.

All of a sudden, they needed to buy three beds and their grocery bill skyrocketed.

Hardy said she was one of the lucky ones — she knows some who had to sacrifice their health, whether it be more nutritious, marginally more expensive food for a diabetic diet, or even medication.

"Even as something so simple as a loaf of bread," she said. "It's little things like that, and people don't realize that."

She knows it's not a normal upbringing for the girls. As a kinship veteran, she advocates in the community for families like hers and to build a stronger community when they started their nonprofit Rally Up.

With the understanding that kinship and foster children experience challenging childhoods, Hardy wonders why it took so long for the state to fully address the financial need.

But for her, it was never a question of how she could take care of Kaiden, Isabella and Teagan. It was a question of how soon they could start.

"It's all for the kids — if we're struggling as adults, the kids suffer. It trickles down," she said. "The more I can advocate for them, the more I can think we'll get more support.

ecouch@gannett.com

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Twitter: @erinccouch